Winging It with Andy Brandt

The blame primarily belongs with Christian.

 

Watching people wingfoil never hooked me.  Conversations with the great instructors Dasher and Andy Brandt didn't move me past trying it once a couple years ago.   That friends were picking it up was fine with me, but I wasn't drawn in.

 

Then Christian called last week and layed it on thick.   He said something like "You really need to do this".  He's British, so there's the automatic understatement boost.   And while he's saying this I am aware that Sally will be out of town the following weekend, and who will be in town instead is the aforementioned guru Andy B.  Why was he coming to town?  To give a winging clinic.

 

What was I to do?  I signed up.

 

Christian had told me that one of the thrills of Learning to Wing was going through the beginner stages like we all did in windsurfing ages ago.    That's poetic, but on Day One of the clinic I felt less like a beginner and more like someone who would not get the hang of it.  Best I did was shlog without falling for 15 seconds, on Port.  Starboard don't ask.

 

But by the end of the day I was being told by guru and attendant winging friends that I was doing well.  I remembered telling newbie windsurfers who were down on themselves that they were doing well...they were!...but still suspected everyone was lying to me.   I felt all wrong on the water.   But I was interested.

 

Spoke with Missus that night.  Was I hooked, she asked?  I said "no but I'm intrigued."

 

Then I slept on it, and woke up believing guru and friends.

 

On Day 2 I felt worse.  But then I found myself flying on the foil for three or four seconds.  And then crashed.  I came up from underwater with a clenched fist in the air.  I had Wingfoiled for a few seconds!

 

As my reward I got tangled in the leashes, drifted downwind a hundred yards, and did a short Walk through the water to receive coaching from Andy.    And rest (I don't know if it looks like a workout, but it is.  My accomplished winging friends...Lili and Wilson and Dana and Andy...make it look easy.)

 

I would get up again for a second or two (this time on starboard...kiss my ***) before a leg cramp knocked me off the water for the day.

 

Christian texted me to ask how it was going.   I told him he had created a real problem.

 

I'm still intrigued.  Now with barbs.

 

(Andy Brandt brings his ABK foiling clinics to Atlantic City next week, and returns to Long Island shortly after.  Check it out!)

 

 

Comments

[Christian]

You're hooked! I can read between the blog lines!

[michael jamieson]

Big congrats Michael, it does kind of suck you in.

[Brook]

Totally relate. When I first saw the wing, I thought it looked silly. I was wind-foiling then and preferred that. Then, one day, I discovered downwinders on a wing. That was the game changer. Dropping the wing and carving on big rolling swell is amazing. I'm hooked. You can't do this on a windsurfer, kite foil, or wind foil. You don't need perfect waves and wind to have fun anymore.

[Christian]

Not to mention carving turns in 10 knots of breze! Sometimes it reminds me a of snowboarding powder - The way you can carve out slow flowing turns.
It'll never replace windsurfing in 25-30 knots but it's something to get hooked on while you wait for 25-30K! Bring on the afternoon ocean breezes...