NEWS: WING OR KITE FOILING IN ULTRA LIGHT WIND CONDITIONS?

News
Kite
Wing

29 september 2023 1

Is the match between wing and kite foiling in light wind conditions slowly shifting in favor of the wing foilers?

Long considered the most effective way to sail in super light winds, kite foiling is now facing serious competition due to recent developments in wing foiling equipment! Already favored on spots with windshadows or lacking space to launch a kite, wing foiling is now also the choice many consider in light and steady winds.

This debate is not only one about pure performance but also one about expectations on the water. A major player in the development of equipment allowing you to have fun in super light wind conditions, Patrice Guénolé, Boss & Shaper GONG, shares his opinion on social media:

“I personally find that below 8 knots we experience exactly the same differences between kite and wing foiling as above 8 knots.

First of all, a kite obviously needs wind to fly, which is not the case for a wing. Others and myself demonstrated that you can fly without wind in wing foiling with very specific gear.

But let’s define “flying”: I can fly in wing foiling in the absence of wind provided I pump or use an additional force like a wave for example. This allows me to fly for a handful of minutes without wind. A good swell even allows me to fly for over half an hour still without any real wind. Exactly as I would in a SUP foiling session (except that pumping a wing is more natural for me giving me windsurfer years).

But is this really “flying” a wing foil kit?

We could say that flying is what I have just described because I do indeed fly.
We could consider ourselves to be flying from the moment when pumping in flight is no longer obligatory. You then need 5/6 knots of wind.
We could finally say that flying means not needing to pump at all.

And we find exactly the same thing in kite foiling:

You can fly without any wind at the ground level with 100m lines like I did on video a few years ago. As you gain 1 knot of wind for every 10m of altitude, so you first need to run to get the kite to fly and once it is 100m high in the air, it finds real wind. It was great, but ultra elitist and complex to put into action.
You can fly as soon as the kite holds in 3 or 4 knots by down-looping the kite and pumping the foil.
And you can fly without pumping or relaunching your kite in 5 or 6 knots of wind.

In my opinion, all this is due to physical limits and questions of proportionality between the real wind, the apparent wind, the thrust of the kite or the wing and our drags. It is also a very good way to enhance the gift that nature gives us by giving us wind: fly without wind and you will immediately feel deep in your being how precious this wind is.

So, in my opinion, we find the same differences: 1/ Making it all come together in kite foiling is less simple. 2/ Kite foiling requires a greater commitment than winging.

On performance, that’s debatable.

Yes, to this day a foil kite works better than a wing. But how many kiters have one in their quiver? Very few. So if we compare the comparable, today a classic strut kite does not work better than a wing on most of the criteria: takeoff, heading, reaching, etc… And this is all the more true since the development of our wings with a leading edge profiled by a double profile. We’re really close there.

Much like a water skier, a kite foiler has the possibility of traveling further than the boat, therefore creating more apparent wind. But a wing will always have the possibility of being pumped energetically. One point each.

In conclusion, a wing is great for the freedom it allows in all aspects of navigation. But kiting remains the best way to experience zero gravity. So are you more into tricks or jumps in the lightest conditions?”

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1 comment

Sent by par Freierider April 19, 2024

Effectivement cet été jai fais de grand bord avec une.hipe pro et une front wing xpras dans 15/20 nds en 5m . Je suivait le rythme de mes potes en kite foil et ailes a boudins 7m sur des bords de plus de 10km il était surpris.