This first step is critical to exploring the sport and determining if it’s for you. Our goal is for you to get a solid feel for what it takes to wingboard in a safe and successful manner. These classes will provide the skills necessary to do basic wing handling, teach safety, and get you your first rides on the water. The skills you learn here will help you succeed when you combine both the foil and wing down the road. The goal is to make you an independent wingboarder so that you can achieve faster progression.  This class is conducted with wings and an inflatable paddle board/windsurfer. 
 
Intro to Wing Boarding Class
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First Session - 3 hours
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Land based class 30 mins - 1 hour

• Basic Sailing and winging concepts, i.e. wind, terminology, slang, equipment, safety. 

• Walkthroughs on how to hold wing, fly wing, how to go upwind, downwind, jibe, flipping wing over in water, self rescue, stance.

• Prerequisite: How to Wing Foil: Introduction (from wing handling to first flights)

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On Water - 2 hours  

• Getting up on board, windsurf/inflatable type board, knee riding or taxiing

• Standing up on the board, going across the wind, practice staying upwind

• Changing direction kneeling and standing, how to keep wing out of water

• If appropriate, we will move you on to a foil board. 

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You will put into practice the land drills we just learned. The goal is to be able to go out and back a 100 meters to the place you launched from. If you can sail upwind, you will be more efficient and spend less time doing the walk of shame. 
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During these sessions, I will be following you along the beach and if you can’t stay upwind, I will shuttle the board back to an upwind starting point for you to try again. 
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We will be using a large inflatable SUP or windsurf board to learn these techniques. The reason for this is to build up a familiarity with wing handling and understanding critical concepts of sailing. 
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Stay up wind! This is a theme that applies at all points of the learning process, whether you are standing, kneeling, on foil, or taxiing. Stay upwind. For people that have never sailed, this can be a huge problem. They get moving, think it’s progress, end up going downwind with a long walk ahead of them. You will start off with short distances (reach) across the wind of about 100 meters…staying upwind!. At that point you will try to turn the board in the opposite direction (jibe) and sail back to the place you started from, again, staying upwind 
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Once you’ve mastered the ability to stay upwind. You will try to drive the board faster to simulate the speed and power necessary to foil. At this point, it’s just practice and becoming confident about staying upwind, jibing, and getting back to the beach. 
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Progression Level 2-3 
 
Second Session - 3 hours
 
Once you’ve mastered the winging on a SUP or windsurfer, we can put you on a board with a foil and you can practice taxiing while kneeling and standing, and get your initial pop ups on foil. Again, the object is to stay upwind and do the exercises. The time it takes to master these skills takes anywhere from 2 - 3 sessions. 
 

• Carrying board to water and managing the wing

• Exiting the water and carrying board and wing properly

• Stance, foot placement

• Falling safely, avoiding the foil, jackknifes etc.

• Equipment set up.

• Taxiing - going slowly on a foil board, staying up wind

• Jibe while taxiing 

• Standing up and taxiing, Jibe while standing

Getting on foil

• Generating speed 

• Porpoising the foil

• Sustained rides on foil

• Staying up wind on foil

• Touch down Jibes

My teaching approach in the second session is to put people on a beginner foil rig. I’ve taught many people how to foil without a tow/efoil classes and would prefer to skip this. Sometimes it can be a struggle. Foiling is nuanced skill and some people get it rapidly, while others need more time.  Usually at the end of the second session, I can assess whether a tow or efoil class is beneficial to the learning process. If one is required, I can recommend several outfits that offer this. 
 
At the end of this class you should be able to taxi and comfortably stay upwind and be independent.  Additionally, you should be able to porpoise the foil board and have had some brief initial foiling rides. 
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Now that you’re able to practice without ending up downwind, you can practice for hours getting on foil. Success will depend on a number of factors, i.e. desire to learn, amount of time on water, athleticism, prior watersports experience. 
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Lessons are just one part of the learning process. I highly encourage viewing the following videos to understand the concepts of wing foiling and progressing. 
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How to Wing Foil: Introduction (from wing handling to first flights)
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