Reunion of sailing’s purest vanguards

If you watched the Paris 2024 Olympics, it would not be unfair to say how boardsailing has a speed addition. The new equipment for Windsurf and Kite events have foils, and go blistering fast. So, it is with some curiosity how the fastest growing segment for board events – wingfoiling – has slowed down.

Trading complexity for convenience, sailors may still be on foiling boards, but in their hands is a wing sail. “In other sailing disciplines there is usually a sail and a mast connected to a boat, but we are physically holding our wings in the air,” noted Makani Andrews, Windsurfing Bronze Medalist at 2024 Youth Sailing World Championships.

While not as speedy as windsurf or kite rigs, wingfoil interest is spawning an increase in competition which included the inaugural U.S. WingFoil Championship. Phil Muller, US Sailing’s Youth Performance Manager, shares his experience from the event:

“Welcome to Wing Ding” regatta chairman Geoff Headington heralded to a room full of former windsurfers, kiters, dinghy sailors, paddlers and surfers who assembled at St. Francis Yacht Club recently for three days of wing foil racing that included slalom, course and a long-distance race from Crissy Field to Berkeley Pier and back.

After logging 150 miles of WingFoil racing, I now find myself at San Francisco airport on Sunday night, in a state of euphoria and exhaustion that might make me look like I’ve spent too much time on Haight-Ashbury. But the truth is, I just attended an almost spiritual reunion of sailing’s purest vanguards.

This event attracted WingFoilers from all corners – California, Washington, Hawaii, Mexico, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Florida, Puerto Rico. Boys and girls, men and women, from ages 12 to 68 years spent the weekend chasing one of St Francis’ favorite sons, Johnny Heineken, around the city front.

When I first came to San Francisco in 1998 for the U.S. Windsurfing Nationals, I was immediately blown away by the level of sailing, harshness of condition, and camaraderie in the parking lot of Crissy Field. Twenty-six years later not much has changed. The sailing zeitgeist continues, and the Bay remains a crucible for innovation, having birthed kite racing, kite foiling, windsurf foiling, and now WingFoiling.

My host and longtime windsurfing campaigner and friend, Steve Bodner, commented that if it weren’t for the yachts ripping across the City Front during the 34th America’s Cup, we wouldn’t have the WingFoil races we did today. Who’s to say exactly which factors led us to this moment, but the fact remains that San Francisco has always been the heart of innovation in our sport.

Everything we believe sport can do for us as humans; uniting young and old, pushing ourselves beyond our current capabilities, testing the mind and body, the joy and hardship of processing your own performance—these things and more were felt by all competitors this weekend.

What strikes me as particularly satisfying about the 2024 Wing Ding is how it brought together people from all different age groups and various parts of our extended sailing family, for example:

Legendary designer Pete Melvin and his son James; Windsurfing Hall of Famer Nevin Sayre and his son Rasmus; regatta host Geoff Headington and his son Morgan; 4x SUP World Champion Fiona Wylde brought a crew of water-women from Hood River; former Stanford Sailing Captain, Yuri Namikawa, and husband Cole Hatton both competed; F4 founder Al Meril and son Kai; WindClub Hawaii showed up with van full of gear and a posse of under 19 foilers that lit up the water; and the list goes on.

I’ve been to hundreds of awards ceremonies and St. Francis continues to deliver great food, raucous laughter, and an environment for building strong friendships. Many thanks to the club members and leaders who continue to support our slice of the sailing community.

As the sailing world tackles issues of participation, representation, and enjoyment the phrase “back in my day” reveals a growing divide between generations. My own catalog of sepia-toned memories from yesteryear continue to call me back to the water.

For those who don’t consider these Wing Dinging highfliers true “sailors,” that’s fine. The fact remains that whatever barriers hold us back, a bunch of sailors from every corner accumulated nearly 10,000 miles of buoy racing in San Francisco Bay.

Photos: https://usst.photoshelter.com/galleries/C0000cETlicxfMoA/2024-U-S-WingFoil-Championship