The Surf & Action Company has been offering windsurfing holidays since 1995. In the following years, a portal specifically for kiters was added with kitereisen.com. Since the end of 2022, special trips for wingsurfers have also been available at Wingreisen.com. We asked Managing Director Oliver Hilf what offers are available there.
Oliver, Wingreisen.com has been a travel and event portal especially for wingsurfers since autumn. How do the offers there differ from those on your other travel portals?
To be honest, we smiled a little at wingsurfing in 2020 when it all started. Nevertheless, it quickly became clear that it would become a new trend. By the time I started doing it myself at the latest, I had also caught the spark. That's when I blocked all free website addresses related to wingsurfing and travelling. It was always important to us to be able to make customised offers for each sport and not to mix everything up. This also includes having our own website.
We already held our first wing events in 2021. Due to the coronavirus, these were all events in Europe, such as Rhodes Trianda and Rhodes Theologos. All events were fully booked. By then it was clear that we had to launch our own portal - it became Wingreisen.com.
Your concept is to co-operate with partner stations, isn't it?
In the beginning, of course, it was easy for us, as we already had many partner centres with whom we have been developing joint offers for our travel portals Surf-action.com and kitereisen.com for a long time. The complete infrastructure was in place. However, we only included water sports centres on Wingreisen.com that also offer a complete structure for wingsurfers. This includes courses and the hire of the latest equipment.
How do you choose your partner stations?
We check all the destinations we include in our offers ourselves. We take a look at the setup on site: What are the spot and conditions like? What is the standard of the centre and the courses on offer? Are there accommodation options and transfers close to the spot? We have a binding guideline. Only if everything is of a very high standard will we include it in our offer. If we didn't do this, we would probably not only have 64 destinations on offer, but well over 100.
Whereby 64 is also an official number...
(Laughs) That's right, but we've been doing this for 28 years.
A week's wing course is enough to drive back and forth."
You have offers for three sports - windsurfing, kitesurfing and wingsurfing. Do many people switch from kitesurfing or windsurfing to wingsurfing? Or does it remain constant there too?
We are seeing that windsurfing and kitesurfing are stable, but wingsurfing is on the rise. So new people are joining in. Wingsurfing simply has the advantage of being easy to learn. A week's wingsurfing course is enough to go back and forth. One more week and you can make your first jibes. If you have experience of kitesurfing or windsurfing, you will learn even faster. The learning curve is steeper than with other water sports, which is what makes the sport so attractive.
In addition to travelling, you also offer events. What is planned in the wingsurfing sector?
We have been organising windsurfing events with Surf & Action since 1999 and are the largest event organiser in Europe. We want to transfer this to wingsurfing. There are already eight different wing events in 2023. These include events that are ideal for beginners, such as AlaÇati (Turkey) or Abu Soma Bay in Egypt. There's flat water and ideal conditions for an easy start. Events like the one in Tenerife are particularly interesting for advanced riders, where you can also learn how to ride small swells or jumps. We always try to organise the events at the perfect spots for the target group.
The quality of the lessons depends largely on the people who organise and accompany the event on site. Do you work with a permanent team? Or do the local partner centres do it with their own staff?
We have our own trainers with VDWS licences who regularly do this for us. They are not only good wingfoilers, but above all great teachers.
How long do the events normally last and what does everyday life look like there?
We usually organise events over six days, plus travel to and from the event. Normally, there are three to four hours of instruction on site every day, and we also incorporate video training from time to time. If you still have energy left, you can get even more input on the water if you wish. There is also an appropriate supporting programme, such as BBQs on the beach. We have an extremely high number of repeaters - people who take part again and again, which has led to the formation of real cliques. That's the best feedback for us.
You can find more information and the provider's offers here HERE .
