Riding technique: Pumping when wingfoiling - take off early, keep flying for a long time

Everyone knows it - you're standing leaden on the board waiting for enough wind to finally take off while other wingfoilers ride relaxed circles around you. "Probably better material"sometimes you can use this excuse to make the world look better. But when you take a closer look and realise that the belly of other water sports enthusiasts is bigger at best, but not the wing and foil, you quickly come to the realisation that taking off early and flying on for a long time in wind holes must have a lot to do with technique after all.

Pumps - make your own wind!

Obviously, you can push the lower wind limit by a few knots by pumping and, once you are in the air, you can continue flying without pumping. One reason why this works is that - once lifted off - the frictional resistance of the board on the water is eliminated. Another factor is the self-made wind, which works as follows: Whether windsurfing, kitesurfing or even wingsurfing, the wind that is actually blowing is not used ("atmospheric wind") but a mixture of wind actually blowing and airstream - this mixed wind is called "Relative wind" called. This means that more airstream automatically leads to a stronger relative wind - and this can be utilised.

Ultimately, the aim is to get into the air once by applying additional energy in the form of pumping movements - and then to continue flying in a relaxed manner.

To pump efficiently, you need to synchronise the pumping of the wing and foil. In the following clip, which you can watch like many other videos on our YouTube channel we will explain in detail what you should pay attention to and how you can even use this technique when wingsurfing in the wave.