Ice is just about gone in Stockholm, so I figured I’d give dock starts a shot for those not-so-windy days. I ride Armstrong for winging and tow boogie and have an HA1080 that I rarely use. Bought it for light-wind winging, but the HA980 is so good that it’s been collecting dust.
Will trying to learn dock starts on the HA1080 set me up for a world of pain?
I’m planning to pick up a Gong Kluber and considering just going all-in with a complete dock start kit from Gong, likely with the Sirius XXL V3 as the front wing. That said, I have no religious devotion to Gong—open to other beginner-friendly options as long as they’re reasonably priced.
I got going on my first session with Omen operator 1050 which rides small for its size. So definitely worth a shot. Hard to pump long distance though so depends what you’re trying to do
If you can get a nice low stable dock with a good overhang you’ll maybe be fine, otherwise almost definitely not possible. Even then, I’d bet against it not knowing much more
Probably not a good call for learning. the smaller the wing, the smaller the margin for error. also, dock set up matters. for drop starts probably need a larger wing span.
if you can find a used axis 1300, that is pretty good. standard fuse, 460 tail. cheap and great. Takoon also has some nice affordable set ups
Considering you live in Stockholm I imagine that you’ll get a lot of potential use out of a dedicated dock start kit. The Sirus 136 is a good wing to learn on and still turns okay (I’m assuming as I’ve only ridden the 156 and 186).
Living in a non-wave city myself I’ve found dockstarting to be a total game changer. So awesome to be able to go whenever I want, after work sessions 'till 10 PM, early morning sessions before the family is up, etc. Also the comradery you get in dockstarting is so much better than winging or surfing.
As for your question about the HA1080, it’s probably doable depending on your weight. I’m 75 kg and learned on a 1260 mid aspect foil. It will be much more challenging though, and you will have to run fast to start it.
The main thing is that you probably wont have much fun pumping it anyway in Stockholm unless you are in a spot with very close to the dock wakes to thieve. If your focus for dockstarting isn’t based on thieving wakes then you might want to consider an Ultra Trail instead. It will be harder to learn on for sure, but probably not too bad (depends on your pumping ability and skill). The feeling of gliding around in flat water is very rewarding. You’ll also have to decide 19 mm or 16 mm mast for Gong, I’d just go with the 19 mm myself as I’d want a 162 or 175 Ultra Trail but if you think the Sirus 136 is as big as you’ll go you can get away with the 16 mm. I would choose the 70 cm HM mast unless you’ll be using a higher dock to warrant the 77 cm.
Thought I’d report back. I ended up with a Gong Sirus XXL, the 16 mm mast, and a Kluber 80. A tad wobbly, so I definitely wouldn’t go with a wider foil on that mast. (I’m 75 kg—if you’re a bigger guy, I’d recommend the 19 mm mast.) It felt like an easy setup to learn on. Took only a couple of sessions before I could jump on and get going. I hit the one-minute mark after 10 sessions, and by then my success rate was over 80%. I’m not super talented or an extreme athlete in any way, but I credit the quick progress to a couple of years of wing foiling under my belt and the ease of use of the Gong setup. I was also practicing pretty regularly—about once every third day—which I think is an important and often overlooked point.
After ~20 sessions I switched to the Sirus L front wing. Took a session or two to get used to, and then I pretty much immediately switched to my Armstrong wing foil setup with the HA1180. This worked surprisingly well, and I hit the one-minute mark on the first session. The main reason is probably that I’ve been winging on that foil a lot and already knew how to pump it.
So, was it a good decision to start with a dedicated pump foil setup as a beginner? I think so. Getting up on the HA1180 is much harder, and even after a few sessions I still get the feeling it’s just pure luck when I manage to jump on the board and start pumping. It’s like the muscle memory hasn’t quite settled yet, whereas with the Sirus XXL, jumping on and pumping feels more like hopping up a stair—natural and repeatable.
