cglazier wrote:I kite and wing regularly at Locarno beach. The wind is typically light and most days you need a hydrofoil.. for either kiting or winging. With a hydrofoil you can be kiting (with a 10 or 12m kite) in about 9 knots of wind. For winging you will need a bit more wind. Another low wind option is windfoiling (windsurfer with a hydrofoil). If you only kite with a twin tip or surfboard you certainly need significantly more wind and you will miss out on many days here in the city. There is now a designated launching area for kites at the foot of Tolmie Street. Wingers can also launch there or just west of the Jericho pier where windsurfers often launch. Outside of lifeguard season you can launch anywhere.
The hydrofoil has greatly expanded our days on the water here in the city and saves us the drive to Squamish. There is an active group of kiters and wingers and windfoilers (all on hydrofoils) here in the city.
You will find assistance for launching and landing on most windy days. Note that self launching and self landing are both easy.. watch videos on it and people here will help you on your first time.
CG
Adam wrote:As somebody who has kitefoiled, windfoiled and wingfoiled extensively at Jericho here are my thoughts. I mention windfoiling as you stated you have windsurfing experience, and it could be an excellent option, it's super fun too:
- Nobody gets up on foil in lighter winds than a decent kitefoiler, even with an LEI and not a foil kite. The main drawback as I see it at Jericho are the oblivious crowds in the launch area during the summer and winds that like to shut off quickly resulting in swims. By far the hardest of the three sports in my opinion.
- Next up are the windfoilers. They get going a couple knots after the kitefoilers using sails in the 6.5 to 8.5 range (these sails aren't as bad as they sound!). When the wind tanks it's a leisurely float home on a big board. Light wind windfoiling is way more fun than light-wind slalom or formula windsurfing imho. Downwind swell riding on a windfoil with the sail luffed out is hard to beat.
- Wingfoiling - While the industry touts it as a lightwind sport it really doesn't come close to the other two in marginal winds. That's starting to change with wings like the F-One CWC 8.0, but it will likely never compete with the other two despite what people say. When it's really windy winging is hard to beat and has tons of potential for downwinding and flagged out swell riding at Jericho. It makes the windiest Jericho conditions feel mellow. Don't worry about lessons, like windfoiling you can teach yourself with YouTube vids, especially if you taught yourself to kite . Wingfoiling in addition to either kitefoiling or windfoiling gives you lots of options, I started winging on my windfoiling board a couple years ago and it's been great.
Whichever sport you choose really depends largely on the wind you see yourself chasing. If you go purely with wingfoiling you will be going weeks on end without getting on the water in the summer, but will be having the most fun when a strong front comes through. If you windfoil you'll get plenty of mid-afternoon sessions, some will be amazing, others will be disappointing. Go with kitefoling and you can get the most breezy days, launch and landing on busy high tide beaches being your biggest concerns. I found with kitefoiling I was chasing such ridiculously low winds, that I was probably getting skunked just as much with windfoiling.
Any sport on a foil is absolute magic, once you've foiled you will likely never look back! Good luck.
Adam wrote:For either winging with a 6m wing or 12m kite & TT or skimboard I would want to see a 13kt average on the Jericho wind meter. Tide currents can + or - a couple knots and mean the difference between a good or bad session, as can sea state for winging as well as gusts. Others may do fine with lighter winds I don't claim to be super-efficient.
Slappy wrote:I can't speak to windfoil or wingfoil but your background makes windfoil sound promissing. There are 2 guys that go out in windfoil race gear (one all yellow one all red) and they rip around pretty good in 9 knots.
Personally I like to take my foil board and my skim board (if the tide is low) to the beach. If it's 10 knots I'll ride the skimboard with a 17m kite. If it's less or the tide is high I'll ride my foil board with either my 6m or 5m Peak 4 kites.
When it comes to lowest wind I can have fun in it's:
8 knots with 17m + skim
8 knots with 6m + foil, I can go in slightly less but it's not fun.
The Peak is not a water relaunchable kite though and I've had a few big swims and one legit rescue where I needed to be rescued.
Pretty much any day the sun is shining we get at least 8 knots at Jericho, but that thermal will hardly get over 10 knots either.
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