When going fast isn’t enough

The evolution of high-performance one design racing always results in somebody figuring how to go faster than everyone else. Whether its a new class of monohull, multihull, or board, the early days can be lopsided.

But as time marches on, the chasing pack figures it out and the early leaders can’t just be faster to win. They need to have more tools in their toolbox.

The WingFoil is the latest example as competitors sort out how to ride a foiling board powered by a hand-held wing. Reigning World Champion Paula Novotna (CZE) has been dominating the women but is finding her advantage diminishing.

Novotna has been relying on her raw wingfoiling skills and pure speed to keep her ahead of the pack. But now that other riders are starting to beat the Czech rider, she is having to focus on new skills.

“I need to dedicate more time to racing,” said Novotna. “I don’t have much background in racing. I can just go very fast and that’s my advantage because I spend a lot of time on the water and I think that I have a lot of experience of being on the foil. But I am missing the experience of racing. I’m missing the tactics; I’m missing all the strategies and these are things that I need to learn.”

Here is video from the final day of the WingFoil Racing World Cup event which opened the 2023 season on March 15-19 in Abu Dhabi.