I arrived at Ramsgate on Friday after a 7 hour drive down from the north east and met up with the race crew and few who were down there early, before calling it a night.
Saturday was non-eventful from a wind perspective and the day was spent catching up with the competitors, inspecting their kit and watching the light wind activities which were put on by the organisers - a pump foiling competition to see who could travel the furthest unassisted. There were some very impressive attempts, but was ultimately won by a very impressive 3 laps of the course!
A curry and social was organised in the evening, and some partied on until the wee hours, as can be customary!

The Sunday forecast was for cross offshore moderate winds, which would be made all the more erratic after traveling over the town and harbour.
The first event was decided to be a wingathon - starting on the beach, running to pick up our wingfoil kit to enter the water; navigate around 2 buoys and the winner was first back to the start.
The mixed fleet of competitors lined up and the horn was blown to start the event. I got to my kit pretty quickly, but took longer than the others to get my leashes on. I'd opted to use the AK 6'0 Phazer and Shinn Superhydro 1650 , with an Airush 8m freewing which was a bit larger than the others who had opted for 5,6 and 7m wings.

This resulted in me being almost last onto the water, and everyone ahead was paddling their board to the first mark; I opted for a different tactic - trying to sail my board almost directly downwind with the wing. This method was less tiring but no faster than the others, and I made it to the first buoy in about 3rd place as a few of the others had gone a bit wide. A couple of the fone boys were at the second mark already before I got up foiling, but was able to catch up with them a little in a gust.
The race back to the 3rd mark was a matter of trying to find a gust to get up foiling, whilst doing your best to try to keep making ground when not. I was still in a solid 3rd place, but didn't feel like I'd made much ground up by the time I'd reached it.

The last part of the race was quite puzzling to me, as I didn't see much of it due to the fleet being situated behind my back as I was furthest downwind. I opted to sail the board in on the surface of the water into the shore, but was convinced one of the other two would do so well before me; but I couldn't see what was happening with them.
Before long I'd reached the shore, secured my board and wing, and proceeded to sprint the 200m to the finish. As I got half way to the finish line, I ran past the cafe, and people were cheering me on, with Lewis on commentary saying I was in first place. I didn't understand how I'd managed to get there sooner than them; perhaps they elected to foil in, but were taken away from shore by the wind direction - I'm not at all sure!

Lewis Crathern interviewed me over the PA, but I was in no fit state to do so after a 200m sprint through the sand; I could only muster a few words before needing to recatch my breath - sorry Lewis!
After a bit of a break, it was announced another wingfoil race was about to commence, this time with a reduced fleet of 4, which pretty much worked out as a straight battle between myself and Jimmy, Matt and Giacomo all on fone kit with wings of 6 & 7m. I opted again for the 8m freewing v2.

​The previous day was a real eye-opener into how difficult the transition to a sinker really was, so I made sure to scour the internet for any guides which could help me in my waterstarting quest.
I found that there were a lot of guides for very low volume sinkers, but a real lack of content for the more marginal sinkers, so my research was a little underwhelming; still I'd done everything I could and was keen to try again.
The forecast was a little stronger today; gusty as usual on the lake, but a bit more wind to make it a little easier.

My initial attempts were trying to duplicate what i'd seen on the internet, and had little success; I tried mounting the board from the rear, which was easy and stable, but making progress from there took me back to square one.
After several attempts of trying different things, I returned to what I had success with previously.
The technique was basically having the board and wing downwind of me, reaching over the board to the wing carry handle and then to the nearest strut handle under the water, and using this to pull me onto the board in a sideways kneeling position.
From here I progressed to move my both hands onto the strut handles, pulling them down into the water to give stability. From here, with a bit of luck and and balance I could pull the wing out of the waterand get it airborne, and once the board started moving stability was resumed.

The knees positioned sideways didnt work well once the was moving so I progressively rotated them to face along the length of the board, from here with power in the wing, standing up on the board and foiling was trivial.
The big difference from the previous day, was once I was up I stayed there, performing several runs across the wind with gybes in between before it was bathtime again.
My longer runs on the board meant I didnt get to practice waterstarting as much, but I felt I was progressing a little with every try.

After a few more attempts, with some of my attempts seeming easier than others I wondered if there was a simpler solution again, after a bit of experimentation, I altered my technique, so that instead of reaching over the board and pulling the wing into the water; I lifted the wing up with the front hand to get wind under it and pulling it down into the water with the rear for stability.
This stability allowed me to get my knees onto the board, but this time the wing was already half-flying, and all that was needed to get it fully airborne was to raise the front hand and to balance the board with my knees.
This technique proved to be super effective; with a reasonable with i could be on the board anf flying in less than a minute (if all went well).
This meant I comfortably ride the 65L provided the wind was reasonable and was a real breakthrough; I spent the rest of the day foiling and practicing my new waterstart technique.

I'll hopefully put together a video brining detail on how to do this, as its a method I've not seen described before :)

I felt it was time to try and take my winging up a level, to drop down to a lower volume board and got hold of a lovely 5'4" AK Phazer at 65 Litres.
My previous board was 110L so would comfortably float at all times, so a drop of 45 litres was pretty sizeable.
I had casually watched a few guides on waterstarting sinkers, but failed to really understand how significant a leap it was before hitting the water.
I weigh a little over 80Kg, so there is probably a 20-25L bouyancy defecit once the weight of the board, wetsuit and accessories are included.

I was super keen to try my new board out, so aimed for flatwater at a local lake, at the expense of pretty gusty winds.
Wind was probably varying between 5 and 15 knots, so opted for my Shinn 6m wing, and 2000 AK surf foil.

When I first took to the water, I made the rookie mistake of not going deep enough, as the wind was onshore; after going out a little deeper I started trying to waterstart in earnest.
I tried a load of things, but actually balancing on the board was incredibly difficult - it would tip one way, and I counter that, but this would result in it going further the other, and before long I was deposited into the drink.
I tried this and variations over and over but couldnt get stable in any way. I then started to make use of the wing to aid stability, and pushing it down into the water was a real help. 
I was also struggling a fair bit due to my front strap being precisely where I wanted to put my front knee; so I had to put it further forward than I would have liked.
Pushing the wing down allowed me to get to a stable position, but the next phase totally undid that - trying to pick the wing up lost my stability immediately and it was bathtime over and over again.

My next strategy was to try to pull the wing down into the water from underneath; and this actually showed real promise - I could gain the stability of pushing teh wing down, but my hands were also in a much better place to pick the wing up afterwards.
Its fair to say it was still a real struggle to get balance on the board, and I was becoming tired pretty quickly, but from having both hands on the handles under the wing, pulling it down gave me the stability to allow me to move my rear hand to a further handle, and then to attempt to get the wing airborne.
AFter a couple of failed attempts, I finally managed to get the board moving and to reach some stability on my knees; at this point the rest was easy, just raise to my feet and pump onto the foil - which was a piece of cake from here, as its something I'd done many times before.
Once up and foiling everything became easy again; it was great to be cranking along on a small board which has a surprising difference to the overall feel. When it came time to gybe, unfortunately I fluffed it, which meant starting the whole process again. 
The wind had really dropped too and I could hardly get the wing out of the water, I had to concede that the marginal gusty conditions were far from ideal for trying this, so I swapped back to the 110L and had some fun for an hour or so, before I had to leave the water.

I've found myself thinking about wingfoiling a lot over the past few weeks, and where it fits compared to other windsports. As mentioned at the start I've done and enjoy them all, and its been interesting to consider when I'd pick wing foiling in preference to the others.

Firstly I think wing foiling very closely matches the bottom end of regular kitesurfing and windsurf foiling, Kite foiling is probably viable in the lightest of winds, where anything above 6 knots is doable with the right kit and technique. 
Kitefoiling does suffer from being very annoying when the wind is very low, as once that kite falls out the sky, it could be a long old swim if it doesn't relaunch.
I suspect wingfoiling is doable above 8 knots with the right kit so brings it very close to using a kite; It does have one very significant benefit that its of little consequence if the wind drops for a while - its possible to make progress back to shore provided there's a bit of wind, and that's a nice safety net when risking light conditions.
Windfoiling takes a bit more wind again, requiring 10 knots or so, but again benefits from being able to get home easily if its a fair bit less than that.

Wingfoiling like windfoiling also benefits from being doable with little launching room - such as at high tides with no beach or in lakes and reservoirs - opening up many locations where you couldn't kite.

Wingfoiling is also supposed to be very satisfying for wave riding, where you can fully depower the wing and ride using wave power alone, yet have the wing at hand for whenever its needed - I've played a little in the waves and seems like it could be a lot of fun when I improve some more.

As the wind picks up beyond these minimums I think it all comes down to personal preference. I really like the very connected feeling that wingfoiling gives - you're totally in control of the board and wing, and you have freedom to move them wherever you like without constraint - it just feels really pure in that respect, and perhaps that's why its so satisfying compared to using a kite or windsurfer.

These next two sessions were fairly short compared to my previous outings, the first of which was in a big northerly swell and was quite challenging to get over the waves without overfoiling, and the second was an offshore day with butter flat water, but expectedly gusty winds.

I focussed quite heavily on trying a different method to nail the gybes more frequently - basically flipping the foil much earlier in the turn so that I was much more balanced when the hand change occurs. This seemed pretty promising as my first few attempts were significantly closer than before. I'm still not sure if this is the correct technique, but before long I'd got the board fully round whilst still foiling, and got the foot change in without dropping off either - result!
I hoped I'd get many more in that session, but my technique clearly isn't there yet - good to have something to practice on.

I also tried doing a non-foiling tack, and managed it first time in an incredibly wobbly fashion! It feels quite a strange movement, turning through the wind whilst taking the wing over your head from one side to the other. It could be a real challenge to do this foiling, but I guess the high apparent wind will give a nice powered wing to pull against to steady yourself.

My fourth day was on the back of a 5 hour session the previous day, so it's fair to say I was a fair bit less than 100%  with my arms feeling like they were weighed down with lead :)
It was another pretty windy day, and was up and foiling on every tack without any bother. I spent a lot of time trying to nail foiling gybes, only to fail at pretty much every attempt! It felt great all the way round until I flipped the wing, which I was balancing against - the drop in power gave me a dunking every time. I knew what was wrong but didn't know quite how to keep the power on to stop it - perhaps I need to expect it or perhaps I was doing it completely wrong.

I toyed around with pumping technique a lot too, I've read that it should be short sharp pumps of the rear hand, but when its light with a 6m wing I found fuller pumps of the whole wing seemed to work better. Perhaps its due to fact i was using a 6m wing, and the wind being insufficient to re-power it when you push it back away with fast pumps; but whatever the reason, fuller pumps seemed to work better for me.

Another thing I learned was how important pumping with your legs are - moreso than your arms I think; or at least using your arms allows you to use your legs more effectively, by lightening your weight on the board and allowing it to gain speed quickly.
I remember riding along, with the wing feeling somewhat powered, but my speed being literally about 2mph and it just seemed like at that point I'd need 3x the amount of wind to get foiling; but yet with a bit of effort pumping the wing with some work from my legs I was foiling comfortably in no time - it seems totally intangible, but yet it works; I cant quite fathom the physics of it, but time and time again it happens - its crazy. When someone tells you wingfoils get going in seriously light winds, with a bit of technique they really do!
Looking back to my first sessions where I failed to get up and riding, there was probably plenty of wind to do so, but my inexperience simply let me down; I'm as cynical as the next man when I get told that you can foil in super light winds, but the freedom of positioning the wing to your maximum advantage bears more fruit than I could have imagined.

Day 3 had a moderate forecast which turned up a fair bit lighter than predicted - it seemed like my fortunes weren't changing much in the wind department! The wind initially was so light the kiters tried and soon gave up, I was able to at least ride reasonably and make the most of the gusts as they came through.
The wind was ever so slowly picking up, and before long I was able to get up and foil most tacks with my left foot forward. Right foot forward was a whole other ballpark as there was some swell to make matters more complex, and I think in general its my weaker side, with my weaker arm and leg on the rear of the board and wing.

After another 30mins I committed to really go for it on my weaker side, and before long I was flying - definitely not as easily to get it out of the water, but once up on the foil it was really comfortable and pretty easy.

Having done a lot of foiling in multiple disciplines, I was really impressed with how easy it was once you're up; the AK 1600 foil is so predictable, and barely ever stalls unless you're going crazy slow or pitch the board up way more than you should at slow speeds - as a first foil its incredible - so easy to use and forgiving, I've not ridden a foil quite like it before - it seems so forgiving with your front/back balance and never feels like you need to force it down.

As the day drew on, the wind picked up and up, to probably 20mph gusting a fair bit stronger; by this time i was foiling on every tack and getting probably beyond the top end of the 6m Shinn wing. Despite that, I was still pretty comfortable; I just had to sheet out a bit more and all was good. The wind was coming off the land a little and varying up and down, and despite the strong wind, it was good to have a 6 in my hands for the lulls - it was never a problem.

I spent probably 5 hours on the water, it was the first properly windy day, and felt I'd got it properly nailed - foiling with ease in both directions, and gybing with the board on the water every time. I tried some foiling gybes, they felt good but its fair to say they didn't work out ;-)  

With my arms telling me I'd totally overdone it, I called it a day - I felt like it was now a sport I could 'do' in comfort, but was eager to crack on again on the next session!

(Pics by Michael Fawcus)

My second outing was probably no windier than the first, but I returned fresh after a good nights sleep with everything I learned from the first session. It was probably again only 2-10mph, but I was at a different location and there was some 1ft swell coming in to make things a bit more challenging.

To my surprise, the lumpy water made little real difference, the board in combination with considerable stability offered by the foil underwater made getting to my feet pretty easy, and I was soon riding up and down slowly and practicing gybes on the surface of the water. I felt like I could ride back and forth like this with ease with little prospect of getting a dunking

The wind was varying up and down a bit, and in the stronger periods I tried again to get the board foiling. By vigorously pumping I could pick up a bit of speed, but it ended up being pretty short lived most of the time. On a couple of occasions it felt like I got pretty close, only to lose speed or my balance again.
On one occasion however, whether it be through luck or judgement I did get the board fully out of the water and a got fully foiling across the bay; this was pretty short lived as I soon ran out of water, but it felt really very stable and it gave me a real taste of sessions to come.

I had another few short lived foils before I called it a day, I'm not sure whether it was light wind or poor technique on my part but it felt like the foiling wasn't really sustainable once I'd got up in the amount of wind I had.

I felt pretty pleased with my second session, definite progress made, and in conditions well well under what is recommended for beginners.

I've tried most watersports from kiting to to kite foiling to windsurfing and windfoiling, and also SUP and SUP foil, so I've got plenty of bases for comparison, but also a wide pool of experience to draw from in terms of learning to ropes of wingfoiling. I was pretty keen to try something new and give wingfoiling a go, so just wanted to get out there despite the poor forecast.

For my first session, the wind was incredibly light - probably varying between 2-10mph. The location I was at, coupled with the light winds gave very flat water, and despite being well under what is generally recommended for your first session wing foiling I wanted to get used to the kit and get to understand it a bit better.

My kit was as follows: A Sup board which a friend had sawn the nose and tail off, inserted a foil box and liberally patched up with carbon fibre, a 1600cm^2 AK surf foil, and a 6m Shinn Resurector wing.
Putting the kite together was easy enough; I carried it separately to the waters edge and then attached both leashes and struggled somewhat to get it all into the water at the same time. It took a bit of a while to get the technique for this right, but provided the wing is downwind of the board and the mast is vertical out of the water until you get deep enough it works out pretty easy when you have the knack of it.