NA West Coast Demo Days?
Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2022 1:41 pm
Came back from a recent Euro trip where I was in Brittany for about 10 days. Most of the time was visiting some friends near the northern exit of the Golfe de Morbihan. Brought a wetsuit in case winging opportunities arose. Found some folks willing to rent gear but never had any decent conditions. Last 2 days drove around the north coast, popped into a beach near Landéda, and to my amazement there was a demo day (actually demo weekend). I stayed a night and tried out a bunch of gear - North, F-One, Core, and Slingshot. Now that I have a better handle on wingfoiling it was pretty neat to test it out. Tried ~90 L boards, a 70 L board, and 130? L Slingshot inflatable. The inflatable had a 930 HA foil that I found difficult to get up on foil, and when I did the whole setup sung like nothing I'd heard before (could have been light wind conditions, ~10kts, with a poor setup, but I did not care for the inflatable very much). F-One I tried the first day and it was very easy to use (1450 front foil, 90 L board). I found I could dance around on the board much more than what I use here at home (same with the North and Core), ie. lots of margin for foot placement error. Second day the guy from North was super helpful and tried different wings/foils (~1500 and ~1100 HA) with 5 and 6 m wings. Believe the board was called Seek (I'd have to dig around the web as I didn't take notes). Found the North stuff the best of what I tried. Slingshot had a familiar boom for me but with webbing in the middle it made it more awkward. I'm agnostic to the handles/mini booms/booms but am simply used to the boom.
The beach setup was great: lots of gear options, lots of companies (7-10? I should have tried more - Duotone was there but with kites only), no waivers to sign, nothing to pay,...they sort of ask if you know what you're doing but plenty of foilers did not, and there was a rescue boat in the water.
Do such events exist on or near VI? I'd try something like that again, although I'm very happy with the gear I have right now.
A few photos of the weekend:
The beach setup was great: lots of gear options, lots of companies (7-10? I should have tried more - Duotone was there but with kites only), no waivers to sign, nothing to pay,...they sort of ask if you know what you're doing but plenty of foilers did not, and there was a rescue boat in the water.
Do such events exist on or near VI? I'd try something like that again, although I'm very happy with the gear I have right now.
A few photos of the weekend:
