Has Foiling Hit a Plateau?

[GregH]

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.

[Dontsink]

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.

[mikepedigo]

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.

[ICSurf]

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.

[ericsfbay]

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.

[Matt]

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

[Velocicraptor]

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.

[Hdip]

@Matt

5 intermediate to advanced foilers in a one peak surf lineup is probably the maximum

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.