Ways to lower heart rate while winging

Winging
1

Something I’ve been thinking about is lowering my HR during wing sessions. I am usually somewhere between 130-160 bpm. But would like to push that lower so that I can have longer sessions with less exhaustion and less recovery requirements after the session.

Things I’ve found that affect HR so far

  • pumping the wing especially when trying to get up in conditions lighter than ideal for your gear. Trying hard to get up and failing then trying again seems to be the killer
  • pumping the board getting through lulls
  • small gear (boards, wings, foils) as they require more of above two bullet points
  • zone 1/ zone 2 training - swim/bike seems to have some cross over, but I need more time training (I imagine 3-12 months) to see what affect this has. Would be great to get HR down enough to be able to wing in these zones.

What am I missing? Has anyone else tried to do similar and found other places to look to lower HR while winging? Thanks.

Winging is real.

2

Hook in harness as much as possible.
Hold the wing with 2 fingers and let the harness do the work.
There’s no shame in riding a bigger board and bigger foil, it’s how you ride it not what you ride
RELAX & enjoy the flying while foiling along, sing a song.

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Find the easiest upwind angle, meaning further upwind angle takes more energy.

Don’t go too fast and not too slow, your foil has a sweet spot of efficiency.

While it takes more effort to get flying, very HA wing will take less energy from you once flying because drag is lower. So AR above 9.5, flat foil…

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Second the high aspect foil. That extra efficiency means you need less power from the wing and can get push from swell much better once up. Also, reading the swell and staying high on the mast can really let you glide a lot even with small wind chop and gives you a chance to fully relax.
Using your core muscles helps a lot with general/arm fatigue, think about keeping arms relatively straight and twisting your torso/shoulders to trim the wing.
And yeah, wait for a good gust to get going so you don’t wear out too much getting on foil!

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5

Agree with what folks are saying above.

HA foil: When I moved to a higher aspect foil, the takeoffs were initially hard but the payoff in efficiently while riding and in maneuvers was great.

Harness: The harness is also a great way to rest your arms. If you hang from the wing a bit, it lightens the load on your board and foil so that you are trimming more than you’re turning if that makes sense.

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