Wing Life Show Episode #4 - Your First Wing Foil Lesson

[00:00:00] Welcome to The Wing Life Podcast, where we talk about Wing Foiling and the lifestyles of those who enjoy this great sport. We're first off everybody. Hope you're having a wonderful day. We appreciate you.

[00:00:19] We're so grateful to be on this show and sharing just passion and love for water sports and hopefully throughout this time you'll learn something. Let's dive into it today. We're going to dive into, I would say, first expectations but also your first lesson

[00:00:36] and what's kind of we're going to break it down and we're going to take you from zero to hero or at least zero to one point two and then we'll go from there. So let's get it rolling. Yeah, thanks so much for joining you guys.

[00:00:52] And today is a very special day because Damien has a fresh haircut so I think this is going to be a real stylish. Yeah, sure. We were feeling pretty quick today so I should be able to teach you guys quick. So people heard of Wing Foiling.

[00:01:11] They are down and excited. Now it's time to pick their school and then go from there. Alright boys. Yeah, I feel like what's first, what's really cool about Wing Foiling is if you want it,

[00:01:27] if you feel like you want to learn on your own you can and it's not too dangerous. We're like, you know, citing can go very wrong if you don't know what you are doing right away.

[00:01:39] So we're citing always like for sure, like take a lesson and have somebody really like experience you know, showing you how it's done. But so first, yeah, Wing Foiling super friendly so you can just go out there and start practicing.

[00:01:58] But in terms of like, if you really wanted a lesson that's for sure it's going to be helpful and it's going to make your progression faster. So I think, have you guys learned on your own? Sure, that's me. Yeah, I mean, I have a simple comment all this.

[00:02:19] I would say highly recommend the lesson to get a little bit of information because learning on your own totally doable. Totally you can do it agree with Gwen. That's what's so special about the sport is you can learn on your own.

[00:02:32] I would say it's gotten a lot easier the gears gotten better. It's gotten safer. There's just so much more information out there. I would say no matter what, you're going to benefit from talking with somebody that's knowledgeable

[00:02:44] in it whether it's a school, whether it's somebody on the beach, whether it's anybody that's a part of it. You're going to get a lot of information and there's a lot of information out there.

[00:02:53] But I would say, you know, a lesson will for sure give you a lot of, I think, a really good kind of a place to start with knowledge on especially when it comes to like setting your gear up.

[00:03:08] As always, I would say that's more important than actual lesson. I feel like if you had a decent set up of gear, you can definitely learn on your own. And I'm not saying that that's a game changer.

[00:03:19] Yeah, also what helps with getting a lesson is knowing, having somebody that has the knows how the process goes so that can set expectations for you in a way that it's going to be setting expectations that you're going to be able to achieve.

[00:03:39] When you go on your own, you just don't really know what to expect so you have a really high expectation. As much as wing-foiling in my opinion is very accessible, I've been teaching so many like

[00:03:54] all the people like even all the ninth, seventies or like, it's, you know, anybody can do it at truly believe it. Yet you would see guys that are like probably while citing going into it and have a terrible

[00:04:10] time on their fair session for a few reason because their expectation is way high. Their gear is maybe not adapted. So as much as it is accessible to anybody, it can be incredibly difficult to the world

[00:04:29] champion citing, you know, and we've had guys on our podcast, Jesse Richman is a good example describing his fair session. He's like, well class, kinder and yet had a terrible fair session. So having somebody that's going to walk through the process and set expectation that

[00:04:54] that achievable is just going to make your experience better. So you won't have to make unnecessary mistakes in your first session so that you can write away stat kind of like succeeding in go step by step. Makes sense, and especially we've got two points here.

[00:05:15] Somebody coming over with wind experience or somebody coming over with no wind experience. If you've got no wind experience at all, then I would definitely recommend hooking up the professional who's been there for five, ten, fifteen years.

[00:05:29] And as, as you mentioned, go in like even if you're coming over from citing like, I learned how to foil a wind surf boiling because I was a wind surfer and I found that was super easy

[00:05:37] but I saw some pros from Hawaii who were hopping on just directly on and they were just learning how to foil like wind foiling. And yeah, it was super super challenging because there's no anchor point on it. You're completely disconnected.

[00:05:51] So that's where potentially toe foiling or something else might be helpful. But so for those people who want to take a lesson, you've been given a ton. So what should they bring to their first lesson? What should they expect? Maybe where should they set their bar?

[00:06:08] They're happy at the end as well. Yeah. So usually I provide the gear now. It happens that some people have their own gear but I would say in my experience, most of the time people actually honestly bring the wrong gear or something that's going to

[00:06:26] make it harder for themselves. You know, ideally, you know, the school is going to provide you with the right gear. They've had tons of beginners on the setup. They know exactly that's the best setup to get you started.

[00:06:44] And so the other thing that's going to be very valuable is to have about safety that's going to be able to bring you out there because the first challenge is going to be to go upwind.

[00:06:58] And if you can't go upwind then you're always going to be starting to go a little and and then you're going to have to come back and walk back upwind. And now your time is split 50% of like working.

[00:07:10] That's kind of like what you would do if you were learning on your own. And that's another reason where like a lesson is very valuable, especially if you are provided with jet ski, both super alt because now 100% of your time is spent writing

[00:07:27] and that's like just in that aspect there is so much more progression that's going to happen. So gear, gear ideally is provided because at the beginning you need a massive burn. And that's also why people don't really want to buy a massive burn because yes,

[00:07:52] you might graduate pretty quickly. But in your first few sessions it's so valuable. You can really build strong skills from writing a massive burn. I'm talking like 150, 170, 200 litre of burn. You see you can understand the principle that's going to at least allow you to

[00:08:16] understand how to go upwind and then after that you can start sizing down when you are ready to get up on fall, which means you have for sure you can stay upwind.

[00:08:30] You are ready to size down in burn size because a 200 litre burn is ideal to like learn how to go upwind but to get up on fall is very difficult. I'm like anybody would have a half time getting a 200 litre on burn up on fall.

[00:08:47] Even a pro-winger, I mean that thing has so much drag that it's actually kind of hard to fly. So then you can start making your way down in burn size but just those steps of understanding how to go upwind

[00:09:07] I would say from there you could almost go out there and spend your time on your own. To me how I almost would like to prefer to structure your lessons is to have a first lesson and then people go out there and apply everything we talked about.

[00:09:21] And another lesson a few sessions later to address the rest and kind of like step-by-step I would say most people that I get after one the first lesson they can pretty much stay upwind.

[00:09:39] So that's your step and then I tell them like come back to me when like you are like ready to get up on fall and you feel like you are so close and you can't get it then let's get a another lesson. That's kind of like the process.

[00:09:56] Let's say the key points you know breaking it down really simply there is with a lesson you have safety support motivation, setting your expectations. Not to mention you got the right equipment to make the learning curve faster.

[00:10:11] When you're learning on your own what you see a lot is people going well I'm going to skip the big board but I'm going to get the right size board for me but what's going to happen is it's just going to be a longer learning curve because

[00:10:24] you're going to really struggle in the beginning but then you'll get it and it's just going to be a little bit longer learning curve and you see that a lot happened and I would say that's

[00:10:32] those are kind of the trade-offs of learning on your own slash you know having a little assistance in the beginning and it's just good thing to know. Yeah I mean the other thing that's that's important and I didn't really quite hear the

[00:10:47] the end of I don't know a froze for me but what's important is just like not to compare you know yourself to other writers everybody has like a different journey and it can be

[00:11:02] frustrated when frustrating when you look at somebody else and you are like they got it in like a week and they're up and writing and then not me you know but there's so many factors that go into

[00:11:15] it that really you know the main time is just focus on yourself putting the time and break it down step by step and in a way that you get success along the way if your expectation is too high

[00:11:31] and your goal is to far away it's going to feel like failing a lot until you get success and so that's why like also like you know the lesson is there for that so that your

[00:11:45] instructors knows your ability and it's going to be able to set the correct expectation so that along the way you get you get victories that that you can really enjoy because there's a lot of

[00:11:58] little victories in this whole process like my lessons always started with a ground class so we would go over safety set up all of that kind of thing so you would end up blown up your wing

[00:12:08] figure out how to do that and then we would go through how to fly your wing so and then I would want you to go through so the basics would be flipping and then just figuring out how to

[00:12:18] make the wing go left and right so all that kind of stuff you're going to go through with your instructor because it's all dependent on them and then from there you're starting to like okay I'm kind of ready

[00:12:27] I want to go in the water now so like you have little winds on land and then you get into the water and then yeah jet ski support massive but then there's so many different kinds of techniques which is

[00:12:37] what I find fascinating every single instructor in coach is going to teach differently and it's all based on your individual skill set or your biomechanics or how your hips move so there might be different tricks and things that get into play that are unique for you

[00:12:53] and that's also the nice thing about having a coach or instructor is that as we're following on jet ski we might be filming and then we'll be able to say hey like you could have moved your foot

[00:13:04] this way or why am I cistering or why am I not able to do this so it's just direct feedback which is really really nice so I guess four expectations for the first one for the most part

[00:13:16] when you're saying most schools do provide gear so they just have to bring booties, wetsuit, helmets are also provided impact vests are also provided so just make sure to have a little bit of skin care and food and don't underestimate the amount of calories in the mental

[00:13:31] energy you expend so make sure to bring some decent amount of food yeah that's also like you know an expectation to have on the you know on the student path is not you know expecting like

[00:13:44] okay I want to book two full days let's go and be eight hours on the water that's gonna be very difficult and it's you know I mean after like a few hours really to me I

[00:13:56] prefer like two hours like that's plenty years already maybe two hours break broken into like you know two hours in a morning to hours in the afternoon but once you start getting tired you know

[00:14:10] you are not making you know the right thing so it's a process and just like it's a spur that you are not gonna learn over weekend so you know you kind of like have to be committed and see it

[00:14:28] for you know getting it for the long-wrote because it's it might when you show up to the beach and you look at people writing and you see like all the people and anybody like you are like okay

[00:14:40] this thing is like easy it just like stand around hold the wing lean back all good and it's not it's it's actually you know it takes time to to figure out but it's we all do it because it's really

[00:14:54] fun so yes you know it's a process but like it's so rewarding so don't you know keep keep at it and then it will it would come you know to me the most important thing you know that

[00:15:08] you remember is like the whole point of getting into this is you're learning how to wing fall this isn't like I'm just gonna be a professional wingfiller or I'm gonna be that guy that's

[00:15:16] killing it out there that I want to be you're learning so like enjoy that learning process when you've said this a million times you know on the YouTube channel but like you know you

[00:15:26] expectations everybody wants to be good at something and you want to be right here you don't want to go through this struggle but I'd say the more you can actually look at the struggle and

[00:15:34] enjoy the struggle and enjoy the little teeny gains like your whole learning process will be the most fun thing you get to ever do especially if you do it with maybe your wife maybe your

[00:15:44] kids maybe you're you know your your son or daughter or just with your friends or maybe we'll buy yourself but you you'll have so much more I think gratitude and so much more

[00:15:56] respect for the sport and and and prior longevity of it because you know if you're thinking end result and then you get there and then what right so like enjoy the ride because

[00:16:08] in the end no all we have is learning in life with whatever we do and the cool part about wean that I think is you know need to need to be said is whether you're learning on your own or

[00:16:18] learning through school you have a there's I mean we're still learning right all of us so the the room for what you can do is still endless so your learning process can be beyond

[00:16:34] and boiling only gets better and I say that because you have things like you know at first we ride swells with wings right just just riding these swells and now you can take your wing away

[00:16:44] and ride a swell for days while going can I only go for like 10 seconds but but these are those things that there's so much more potential and I'm not even saying it's not

[00:16:54] winging I'm just saying it's another form that you know can can open up a new learning process so you know I think I I learned on my own and I would say nightmare super hard I'm sorry this

[00:17:08] sport I think it would be good to hear like like tell us a bit more about like your first time out there because it was at the beginning so you know there was not much knowledge out there

[00:17:21] you were kind of like you know figuring out the spurt as like nobody had that figure that you know yeah I would just say you do with everybody does it I was a water sports athlete I was once a

[00:17:32] world champion and I'm part of it's pretty talented I can foil so I took all the cool setups and I couldn't do it and I was like we need like a hurricane to do this so we did have a hurricane

[00:17:44] literally and we went in the intercoast on his blowing like 40 knots and we're all kind of barely doing it and I'm just like there's no one this sport this sport is gonna take off but it was

[00:17:57] because we had the race gear on we had boards that were like potato chips at zero volume in them you know we still didn't even know how to use the wings but we we had an idea but we didn't

[00:18:09] learn on the land we just were we knew we thought we knew and so now it's awesome because you have this knowledge that people can share in a very fast efficient way which I highly recommend I would

[00:18:22] say yes you can learn on your own but 100% you're gonna get safety knowledge help you know expectations that a lot of things with a lesson or even just one time you know so but yeah I would say

[00:18:35] it was challenging fun exciting learning process what I wanted everybody got through it no for sure not so after your first first time out we came back it was a disaster where you like kind of like

[00:18:51] excited to go again or where you like you know like nowhere like this is dumb like I'm not gonna do this again and then you kind of like dropped it until later um I kept at it but I was like

[00:19:05] I just don't get it I just like I just like like it's blown 40 like hiding is all time when it's 40 like I was a cater cater for else like why would I struggle and I'm in the intercoast

[00:19:21] because if if it's if the waves are too big I'm just getting annihilated with the wing so it's like I didn't really get it but then what what what change I think as time went on is all of a

[00:19:31] sudden you could ride in nothing so now you can still kite in those incredible conditions if you if you are a kites are for out there but um but weaning just the door the window just is massive

[00:19:47] and it was like well my time I thought it was like that big but now it's huge I mean I thought you only had to have a hurricane and you maybe could do it and uh and now I feel like that

[00:20:01] you know you can do so much in so many places and intercoast those in ocean and you I mean you name it um and that's what's making it so special and rewarding because people are learning

[00:20:12] it's physically good mentally you know stimulating it's it's healthy here you know everybody's working so hard in their world today and there's a lot of stress and and it's a great release like

[00:20:23] absolutely a great release your in the elements of Mother Nature and uh and I just highly recommend it's awesome you know what's what's funny is um i see you know in a lot of people you know

[00:20:38] they get into it they are first session first lesson there is a lot of struggle in that and you know I am like seeing it you know they are struggling and you know sometimes in the back of my

[00:20:50] one I'm like oh dang like they're gonna hate it they oh no but I'm like I feel like bum because I'm like oh dang like I know this this is this point is amazing but I feel like they don't

[00:21:04] they are not having a good experience and turns out they love it like most people struggle and if you would look at them from the beach you are like this person like they hate it like they can't

[00:21:15] even like get to you know they get to the end of the fall and you know um and yet that person comes out of the water and have the best time ever so there is something about um kind of like embracing

[00:21:30] the challenge and and kind of like the satisfaction that like okay you know you you you wear in it facing that challenge did you get success you know some um but you are like one step closer

[00:21:43] and I think you know you you took that first step you know whether that was your first session your first lesson you you took that step and that's like massive I remember like my first time

[00:21:55] was like terrible like I literally like barely got to my feet like within like two three hours or something like that was a squad it was like a total fight like just I would get to my knees and I

[00:22:08] would fall because it was like you know Damien's born like you know he's the one that taught me and he was teaching my game the gear so he learned not his own people later I said yeah that

[00:22:18] there's a board here's a week that's the lesson he gave me he said here take my gear and you go there and you go you try it yeah and so literally could not stay on my knees but in looking at the

[00:22:32] foot age you know my like my Kelly my sister and her she was there she took some some videos and looking back at that footage now I'm like how did I not hate it like it looks it looks so like

[00:22:45] terrible and I remember I was like so happy coming out of the water and that was really because of like you know I love a good challenge and I was like so excited that you know I took the first step

[00:23:01] and I was I started the process and I saw people out there writing and I was like I know I know I can do it you know I just need to like put in the time and now I'm just excited to put

[00:23:12] in the time I want to go back I want to get there as soon as possible so so even though there is a lot of struggle in the learning like you still in my opinion most people still like really

[00:23:26] embrace the challenge and have the down the fun out there I think there's two different frames of thought that you can approach this with his either approach it through achievement or approach it through fun and you recognize that it's gonna be because learning how to foil winter

[00:23:42] foiling my buddy did the same thing at a sling shot as I was 2018 or 2019 I started a little bit later and he said here it is go have fun like I popped up really fast but sure enough like I almost

[00:23:53] got my foot cut under the mask a couple times for when my sail came down and all these different things but then what I went to try it in 150 later in a big foil and like it wasn't I didn't

[00:24:06] think because I had seen the pros on YouTube and other stuff I said there's no way like this is two advance but when I got up moving relatively quickly because I had gone through that little bit of

[00:24:17] danger pain on wind surffoiling I was so moving because it's like whoa it went from like chatter like we're so used to kidding and wind surfing this constant chatter and all I remember is how

[00:24:29] quiet it was the first time I actually got up and didn't fall and that's what hooked me in so it's like if you're looking at this make sure to look at it from the experience of just enjoying

[00:24:40] because you're gonna be learning for the next 20 years and if you're racing to a destination you just gotta learn how to how to let that go giving lessons I found that as well there's certain

[00:24:51] different kinds of personality types that will hold on to the wing like death grip so what I started learning how to do is you're only allowed two fingers to learn on land I'm only giving

[00:25:00] you two fingers instead of five and you're just gonna do these little movements and that so that's the kind of cool part about an instructor going to read your personality you're going to see

[00:25:08] what you're trying to do and then they're going to help you have the most fun possible because I had one client who I was toe-foiling with I couldn't stand him up because his level wasn't there

[00:25:19] I kept him on his knees for an hour your quote his quads were burnt and he was 65 to 75 and then I was like oh this guy's not having fun he's falling 15 times he comes in so that was the best

[00:25:29] hour I've spent in a long time who's like really is again this was perfect and all I do as I kept him on his knees to sit as soon as you can apply the foil I'll graduate you to standing

[00:25:43] but right now I just start with the basics man just like look around and joy and so we're in this beautiful lake in the middle of like this old-growth rainforest and here he is just

[00:25:50] kneeling and sitting and it was like well this was time away from work this allowed me to focus for myself and then he didn't have to worry about the safety aspect because we had a boat with them

[00:25:59] and we could just tell him to sure so learning is challenging but I don't know what in life isn't yeah I mean for sure it's it's so rewarding that's that's why we do it and again just go

[00:26:19] go to the beach and talk to people doing it the community to me is is amazing so that's you know that's a huge part of like also building kind of like your support network you know finding

[00:26:34] people that are ahead of you in the process but also maybe people that are at the same level as you so that you go through that process with them so you can kind of like motivate and

[00:26:45] trolling and then talk about your challenges that they can relate because they are facing this same challenge sometimes when people are like where head you know they may mind or remember or some some people didn't go through the same challenges so

[00:27:00] kind of like not only you know yes go get your first lesson but start building your your community and that would be huge yeah and one other thing I would just tap into which is

[00:27:13] kind of actually a shout out to Cindy but you know there's there's other aspects of the sport like for instance e-foiling can be a great way to tap into foiling in your own safe, confident

[00:27:27] way to learn that feeling but I wanted to say this because I thought it was interesting but we have a friend Cindy who wings and she's she learned how to wing with through the whole

[00:27:37] process and loves it and it's great and we took her for the first time e-foiling a couple weeks back in like another a four like most incredible experience of her life and yet like she already falls

[00:27:49] like she already does it but it's just like that other form and I'm not even saying it's a different form it's just a different challenge, learning feeling experience and I just would say like

[00:28:01] if you're listening in and you're like how man I just you know I have an opportunity to do this or this I mean there's tons of ways to get into this foiling journey so I would say you know

[00:28:12] don't don't necessarily count one or another out I would say they all kind of merge to be something pretty special. That makes sense and coming at this from another from a travel perspective if you're looking to find a school there's schools all over the world. There's some

[00:28:28] basic safety questions you could always ask and you could always ask your instructors of the school to lay out what is my first lesson look like what's gonna happen am I gonna spend

[00:28:38] half an hour on land am I gonna get to foiling and then from there once I master that I'm gonna get connected to the wing what's the insurance situation like in case I do get hurt what kind

[00:28:48] of waivers do I have to sign what safety gear you're providing just make sure to ask any questions and obviously there are some opportunities if you're traveling into a different

[00:28:57] country that the school might not be up to snuff just just make sure to do a little bit of your own due diligence but insurance and different safety questions if they they should just be

[00:29:07] forth right without information more than happy to give it to you because it's about you and your safety at the end of the day and but yeah this is a pretty good one fellas is

[00:29:17] there anything else that you want to add or we get to wrap her up I just say struggle away you're gonna enjoy it like uh it's probably like the greatest thing ever is when you I know it sounds funny

[00:29:28] I use struggle as a word that sounds rough but it's like so awesome it's so good it never goes away yeah like never it's it's but it's so awesome you know like it just gets it's a new struggle that

[00:29:44] you gotta learn whether it's a new driver whatever you want to get into next it's it's super rewarding puts you in a different mind state it's great for I think Gwen said it you know very important

[00:29:55] and that's the communities incredibly special if you just take any sport out there and you look at it there's something very special about the water sports community and it's it's very um I would say a family like you like nobody's nobody's out to prove anything they're happy

[00:30:12] to help and share and be a part of it so I think you'll be pretty pleasantly surprised with how nice that is been closing guys I got a pretty good story here from last week it was a bigger

[00:30:23] day in Laventana I did a 5k down window I'm playing in the waves at the beach right and I see this big one kind of but shoulder high it's starting to crest a bit and I go and I get this

[00:30:34] beautiful turn on it and I come back down and I realize like I'm way too close to sure so have to eject over top of the wave my board gets drugged to shore sure enough and I've been doing

[00:30:46] this what through for and teaching I get drugged to shore you know like the crazy carpets if you're at a snow country or whatever and you can lie down and that crazy carpet and it takes you down

[00:30:56] I actually fell on top of my wing and it was a crazy carpet up the beach and then the shore break was too big and I was like a kilometer or two kilometers away from my other spot and

[00:31:08] is like okay dude you got to get in the water somehow which took me 15 to 20 minutes I had to walk half a kilometer and then I finally was able to get punched through and then work my way back up

[00:31:19] 5k so it does matter what level you are I'm just an intermediate but like it doesn't matter what level you are you're always going to be pushing to try different things and yeah just enjoy

[00:31:31] process and look at you right now you're laughing at it loving it it was an experience you remember forever yeah trying to get in six times I was like okay I got my chance I got my chance

[00:31:40] boom my board gets yanked I I tested my leash leashed in snap and then the the wing would fly whatever and I would get drugged back to shore grab my kit walk another 20 feet try to get back

[00:31:52] in boom another set would hit me takes me back to shore luckily nothing broke but it was the crazy carpet thing that I laughed because my board was standing up sliding with me I was down on the canopy

[00:32:05] and just right up the beach was like all right all right I'm gonna walk a kilometer now thank you it's funny stuff though you always have things like that but still impact vascals I was like there

[00:32:17] and helmets and whatever and you okay on the moment you don't always laugh but then they too it's it's fun all right guys hey thanks everybody for joining us on this one and we'll see you in the next one