A “winger,” or wing foiler, cruises S.F. Bay during last year’s Spring Wingding competition.
Ryan Taylor / Salty Brother
When they really get pumping, wing foil racers can hit speeds of 30 mph.
Ryan Taylor / Salty Brother
This weekend, San Francisco is hosting the first-ever U.S. national wing foiling championship, a three-day slate of speed racing in the waters off of Crissy Field that marks a key development for a growing, competitive watersport with strong roots in the Bay Area.
Wing foiling cropped up in the bay in the past five years as an evolution of windsurfing and kite surfing. “Wingers,” as they’re known, strap their feet into hydrofoil-surfboards and propel themselves using huge handheld inflatable sails.
The fun of the sport lies in blazing across open water with minimal drag, traveling long distances on the wind, performing aerials and riding waves, even the smaller ones that form inside the Golden Gate. When they really get pumping, wingers can hit speeds of 30 mph. It’s a slower sport than windsurfing and kite surfing but allows participants to launch and sail in more challenging weather with more maneuverability.
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“It’s about the pure joy of getting out on the water in a stress-free manner,” said Geoff Headington, foilsports chairperson at the St. Francis Yacht Club. “It opens up whole new places and conditions where you can be out on the water.”
Wing foiling cropped up in San Francisco Bay in the past five years as an evolution of windsurfing and kite surfing.
Ryan Taylor / Salty Brother
Headington estimates there are several hundred wingers active in the bay. They launch from Crissy Field each afternoon when the winds pick up, and out of Sherman Island in the Delta, 3rd Avenue in Foster City and spots along the coast.
Many of them showed up to last year’s Spring Wingding, the city’s first wing foiling competition, which the yacht club hosted and Headington helped coordinate. It was a localized affair but demonstrated the sport’s intrinsic appeal.
“We had bigger ambitions when we did that,” Headington said.
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This year’s championship, which runs Friday through Sunday, promises to be a higher profile and more competitive event. About 50 racers are participating, hailing from Long Island, N.Y., Nantucket, Mass., Hawaii, Rhode Island and elsewhere. The event is sanctioned by US Sailing.
“As a fast-growing, exciting part of our sport, US Sailing is thrilled to establish a national event for wingfoil sailors,” Andrew Clouston, US Sailing’s senior vice president of programs and services, said in an announcement this summer. “This event has the potential to be one of the biggest US Sailing Championships yet!”
Part of the fun of wing foiling is throwing aerials.
Ryan Taylor / Salty Brother
The waters just inside the Golden Gate are renowned among sailors worldwide for their strong, reliable winds, fluctuating currents and iconic scenery –– all of which makes for dynamic racing conditions. Apart from inspiring board-sport enthusiasts, the bay is the chosen site of the annual SailGP championship as well as the Rolex Big Boat Series coming next month.
The three-day championship regatta mixes short-course races of 10-minute sprints with slalom racing and includes a 20-mile out-and-back from the beach at Crissy to the Berkeley Pier. For that longer journey, wingers will have to dodge shipping traffic and sailboats and maneuver around Alcatraz and Angel Island.
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“It gets tiring,” said Johnny Heineken, a 36-year-old national kite surfing champion from Larkspur, who won last year’s Spring Wingding.
Speed is partially a function of wind gusts but also of how vigorously a winger pumps their foils up and down in the water and heaves their 10-foot-long hand sails to generate thrust.
Larkspur resident Johnny Heineken took first place in the 2023 Spring Wingding racing competition.
Ryan Taylor / Salty Brother
Maneuvering the hand sail is a special skill. It essentially cuts visibility in half, and dipping its lower tip into the water can pitch a winger into a faceplant, Heineken said.
“It’s a little tricky keeping track of who’s around you,” he said. “You need to occasionally pick the wing up and glance around to make sure you’re not too close to anything.”
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Apart from a trophy, the Wingding champion won’t take home a cash prize or secure a spot in an international competition.
“Just bragging rights,” Heineken said.
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