5'4"/95L vs. 5'8"/125L as first wingfoil board (both Fanatic Sky)

Winging
1

Context:

  • Location: Cape Hatteras, NC—lots of flat water to learning winging and plenty of 15kt+ days
  • Weight: 140lbs—but will be likely be in a hooded 4/3 with boots and gloves mid-December through mid-March. So that is a factor in terms of weight.
  • Experience: minimal foiling experience. I started prone over the summer but it’s been difficult to get days in the water since early Fall. For a beginner, the surf’s been just big most days for learning to prone foil locally. If there is surf—I currently surf 3-4 times a week. I have no wind sport experience.
    • Prone setup: Unifoil V150 with FFB 4"10" @ 39L board.
  • I want to start winging to get more time in the water on days when the surf is bad, but it’s to big to prone foil for my skill. Conditions we have a fair amount of during the winter.

Question:

Locally, there are two listings for a Fanatic Sky wingfoil board. One which is 5’4" and 95L and the other is the 5’8" version which is 125L. From what I’ve read, target liter-age for a beginner wingfoil board should be $your-weight in Kilos+20-40L. That would put the top end of the liter range for my weight at around 103L. So the shorter option stated above works in theory, but 5’4" sounds like a short board to start with. My concern with going with the larger one is getting something too oversized that becomes frustrating once I get taxying down and start to jibe.

2

At 150lbs, I had no problem learning on the Fanatic Skywing 95L.

Whichever you go with, make sure you spend a good amount of time learning to fly the wing on the beach both before and after your session. It makes all the difference if you’re comfortable controlling the wing before you add in the other pieces.

3

I’d suggest looking at other brands of boards. The skywings are really fragile, chip easily & ding easily around the rails. They also like to nosedive a lot. I found my 95l one to be the worst board I owned & basically had to give it away after a season as noone wanted one. There are a lot better boards out there now. If you’re learning go bigger & cheaper & upgrade after the first season or once you’re on foil constantly.

4

Appreciate the ride report. Definitely plan on taking time to figure out the wing prior to getting on the whater.

Thanks for the ride report and recommendation. At this point I’m just trying to find the cheapest options to get into winging, and these used listings seem to be it.