Has Foiling Hit a Plateau?

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On a world level, I think more people will continue to learn wing foiling compared to any other discipline. But it will fall in line with all other watersports shortly in growth, such as kiteboarding.

Obstacles are always the same.

Cost
Time

I tell anyone interested for any of these sports, if you cannot commit time for consecutive weeks early on, you will only become frustrated and give up.

Money, as mentioned even used setups are pricy and not always ideal for each person. Especially in places with small communities. May not even have a ton of used gear.

In our local area on east coast USA, there is a surf community and maybe a 30 person kite community and perhaps 10 wing foilers. I am the only prone foiler, but one other is giving it a go. I don’t see the foiling community growing that much more, maybe 10 more at most.

Maybe I don’t make it look fun enough prone or winging, but atleast I know I am having a blast.

I feel like the gear is pretty outstanding right now as far as foils. I am sure it will progress, but for what I want to do, these foils accomplish it. I can also continue to grow on these foils and don’t feel I will progress past their limits.

Certainly foil drive is awesome and will progress, but at current costs I am not too interested in it. Again cost is a barrier.

Instagram and podcasts, my honeymoon phase with them is pretty much over and I just check in once in a while to see if anything is new and exciting.

I am completely addicted to foiling and happy to share with anyone interested. Love sharing and hearing origin stories. But I am not actively convincing others to jump on the ship, specifically kite and surf crews. If they are that interested they will ask and I will tell them all the same thing. Time and money. I basically gave up surfing and kiting to learn to foil. Haven’t looked back. Love how I can get on foil any day of the week. Not limited by wind and swell like surf and kiting.

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I also think that this “grow or else”,“promote the sport” ,“push the limits” attitude is fine if you want to make a living from this…but for the rest of us?.
As long as there is a reasonable customer base to get gear made and sold i am fine.
Being selfish i would be happy if our numbers just froze at whatever they are.

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I Have definitely done my fair share of chasing on the latest and greatest faster foils in the past. I think my foil selection has a lot to do with our conditions in Florida and the type of session Im after. I usually want to catch a lot of waves, stay up on foil for a good bit and still be able to do some decent turns. So I land on a 140 or 170 sized foil alot for those reasons. I tend to like the forgiveness in the lower speed range that those sized foils offer. I used to spend alot of time on even bigger foils so after a while you just adjust to being able to make them move the way you want. Thats where the offset stance comes into play. I Do use my 125 quite a bit if theres some decent energy though. That foil is deceptively efficient and easy to pump so its a bit of an outlier in comparison to alot of other similar sized wings. I tend to drop down a wing size when I think there is a good possibility that I will be over foiled on the sets. I do think theres an argument for getting on a well rounded wing and just sticking with it for a while. In some ways its harder to find progression when your constantly switching gear up and having to relearn the nuances of each new wing.

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No it hasn’t plateaued. However companies are getting it wrong with how they are marketing products. The demographic of buyers are older than their audience. I only ever really look at it when I’m trying to work out how to do something specific and as someone already mentioned they’ve normally edited it out.

My local which is a big kitesurfing community there are still new wingers popping up every couple of months and kiters mowing the lawn in twin tips are always asking questions. But the growth in prone is very slow in the UK. I think people miss a trick by looking at the headline cost of Gen 2 Foil drive. I’ve had Gen 1 for 18 months+ and surf unsurfable waves mostly by myself. Used Gen 1 is the cost of a HM mast and big HA pump wing - nether of which are going get you to surf 80 waves in unsurfable conditions. I literally giggle in the water sometimes when I’m by myself!!. Imho, people spend the money in wrong places. HM carbon mast ££££, (I have aluminium) Quiver of 5+ front foils (I have a large and small), DW and light wind board ( I have a prone board and a do it all 60L wing board with 5m and 4m hand wing). I could have DW board and an expensive paddle and I could have a light wind wing board. I use FD+ on light wind days to surf and use either board to downwind.

Total up money saved is probably Gen 2 money!!!

This was a session the other day, me and a solitary seal watching me arse around having a ball in really crap surf. 1 hr 7miles of foiling and a ridiculous amount of waves.

The stoke gets bigger everyday for me.

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Great pov on finding the best foiling ROI! There are lots of companies making products that allow you to tap into the joy of foiling without breaking the bank (e.g. Gong). Plus there’s a ton of used gear. Having said that, the allure of the new, shiny stuff is strong for me so I periodically indulge.

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Two visitors at my local pushed the number of prone foilers from 3 to 5, and it made it pretty clear to me that 5 intermediate to advanced foilers in a one peak surf lineup is probably the maximum, and the carrying capacity for foilers in existing surf spots is probably already reached.

And this is the UK which has crap surf and not many intermediate surfers.

So my take would be that prone foiling is probably at or near a peak, and I don’t imagine much surf-zone growth, in fact I hope it doesn’t grow much further, as that just leads to hassle.

Offshore, lots of space, but people need to learn to foil in the surf I think, otherwise behind boat, or with the wing.

Interesting topic

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I think we need to broaden the definition of foiling from prone foiling to all aspects of foiling. When you look at it that way, I would say the sport is still progressing rapidly and has room to run. My local spot used to be dominated by kiters, and now there are just as many wingers (some days more wingers than kiters), and the skill level is rapidly rising. I see the same thing in other locations as well (Gorge, La Ventana, etc…).

Downwind foiling barely existed two years ago. Now downwind is growing rapidly and people who may have plateaued in other areas of foiling are starting to learn downwind (myself included). I’m sure new applications for the foil will pop up over time, and the sport will continue to evolve.

It is interesting that prone foiling hasn’t grown more in my locale. The waves are pretty decent for it (and are barely decent for traditional surfing), yet there are only a handful (generously) of people prone foiling and scores of people “surfing”. I think its because its usually a pretty intermediate spot and a lot of the participants are fine being casual and recreational and not really dedicating themselves to surfing enough to really care to progress.

So while certain subgenres may not be growing as fast, foiling as a whole is still evolving and growing rapidly in my opinion.

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I agree somewhat. 5 capable foilers makes it feel very crowded. But if there are lots of waves AND people ride the wave they catch, it’s not too bad. It’s only a problem when guys pump around for 5 minute runs. If you’re pumping back out, get off the peak, you don’t get to come through the main peak where someone else can take off. You get unbroken swell lines or the shoulder.

Ride a smaller foil and surf the actual wave if you want to be on the peak. I rarely prone surf foil anymore though because it’s too crowded with surf schools at the only good foil wave near me. SUP surf foil on a large foil let’s me take off way outside and ride way on the shoulder away from people. I’d rather wing at this point though. Even more space to be away from people.

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Hmm, interesting subset!

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The other day I ran into a surfer, who was surfing, but had been putting time into prone for a good while. He said he hadn’t in a few months. It could be because of winter, but it did make me realize I’ve not seen anyone else in a long time, none since the first couple of years maybe.

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My personal foiling journey has definitely not hit a plateau. From the very beginning a number of years ago with a kite and a Carafino foil, I am still progressing and learning every day. I try to get out every day on a foil using whatever I have for the conditions on offer. I have various tools to make sure I can get out regardless of conditions. That being said, I do agree that social media content is not as exciting as it once was. Takes a bit to get my attention. I still use foiling media as a teaching tool, and gravitate to content that I feel can help me progress. Some of the longer, documentary content can often be interesting. Since I NEVER see another foiler in my area, I do rely on media content as a teaching tool.

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There is a lot of innovation currently happening in downwind (how to upwind efficiently with sth that disappears going downwind) and electric assistance. Foils are not changing as much as before but if you zoom out, the rate of change is still drastic.
Foil drive has done a great job as a first gen and once you try it, you understand the potential. If you are skeptical, think of the time you were skeptical of foiling. There is a bunch of foil assists coming up with battery backpack, smaller motor diameter for reduced drag, etc. Tow boogie is also a great tool with ongoing iterations.
The future is very exciting, foiling bumps/waves is only half of the time, the other half is bringing you back up to the starting point!

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All the excitement night now is in DW and Assist.

Like it or not the Assists are going to take off as the tech gets smaller lighter cheaper and more brands come to market.

I’m no marketer but surely there’s a time when you just need to stand back and let the product speak for itself? FD is everywhere in all the vids and with the pros. Shut up already. And I’m a FD user!

I don’t want to see Josh Ku or Jeremy Willmott trying their hardest to charge on a FD. And what’s with all the FD team riders taking out the Assist division in the comps??? That’s just pure ego.

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Yep…which has me feeling a bit alienated…no real interest in motors or parawings at the moment…and they seem to be quite a distraction from the ongoing development of what I’d call “core” elements of foils, boards, and (for me, at least) wings.

Still lots of good stuff going on across the board, just too many shiny objects for me to take an interest in, which has me pulling back and enjoying what I’ve got…

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I just did some very basic keyword research to unearth global search volumes for various general foiling terms… Wingfoil, Prone Foil, Sup Foil, Downwind Foil, Parawing etc

The YOY change is flat for all disciplines other than DW and Parawing with the exception of “learn to, lessons, how to start” etc. associated with other disciplines.

Google Ad bid levels for products are on the increase.

My takeaway is that those who already foil are passionate, likely intensive researchers and really we are just converted full stop.

There is a large volume of “inquisitive searching” from the uninitiated that some brands are fielding better than others (both in terms of web content and products)

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What does it say about foiling that so many influencers are offering coaching? Initially it was just the older OG foil dogs, which made sense, but now the young guns too.

Does it say more about the modern way people buy products.

I guess there isn’t money in a paid sponsorship like there was back in the day

Back in the day, young groms where being flown to Mentawais to do boat trip videos. Army still doing that, but I guess the economics have changed?

It’s a whole new world, direct to consumer, prosumer, etc.

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That’s interesting. I don’t know of a single committed surfer who tried prone foiling and wasn’t entirely hooked.

I think the target market is split across the following:

A - Surfers yet to try: people who are committed surfers, but held back on foiling due to stigma/cost/aesthetics, but now that JJF etc have shifted the Overton window on foiling quite a bit, are now suddenly interested. I think this is a big market, but if even 10% of surfers start foiling, it will be problematic? I guess if you live in LA you would know.

B - Non surfers: people who are not committed surfers, but are interested in something easy/cool/fun. They will try and bounce on foiling as it’s too hard. I feel like this is the bulk of foilers at any given time. I think E-foils change this

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finally at my local there is a second foiler!
I started seeing him cranking around on a lift efoil way outside the lineup, super away from people and having a great time.
Now I’m seeing him figuring out foildrive, again way away from people. Not yet having a great time, mostly failing, but I’m sure it will come.
But its been at least 6 months watching him and he still not foiling well.
We forget the learning curve is ridiculously difficult for a casual entrant - we are probably the non-representative cross section of people that actually put in the time to get good enough to have a ton of fun. So many people just don’t have the patience

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Have you gone over to see what his foils on? It could be more difficult for him than it needs to be.

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Try his gear and adjust for him.
Beginners have no clue how to obviously

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