How did we end up 1,300 miles away from sunny St. Pete teaching a wing clinic in Rhode Island? As the newest toy on the beach, wing foiling has been growing like crazy and lots of people are giving it a go without having a local instructor. The crew in Rhode Island had been getting gear and technique advice from us all summer, and they were having a blast learning on their own. By the end of summer they were hungry to accelerate the pace of progress -that’s where we come in. There were enough people and excitement in one area that it made sense for us to pack some gear, and book some plane tickets for our first traveling 2-day wing clinic.
Day 1: No wind? No problem!
After a lot of morning debate about where it might get breezy first – there was a spike on the forecast at a local spot called URI so we raced over there. We pulled up to the beach just in time to see David and Ted schlogging into shore. They got one foiling run in before the wind died. The wind was light, but everyone was stoked to learn and we had no shortage of subjects to cover. We had 5 people for the first day, all with varying levels of experience, so we got to work getting everyone caught up on the fundamental skills like the importance of having a stacked body position, proper board pop-ups, hand transitions, wing handling and more. The day started with everyone bummed about the lack of wind, and ended with everyone stoked with how much they learned anyway!
Day 2: GAME ON!
Pulling up to the Wheeler Beach parking lot, we were greeted by an unseasonably warm morning and great WIND! It was a beautiful sandy beach protected by breakwaters, with a big open fetch that was perfect for learning. We couldn’t have asked for a better day as we went over more intermediate skills. The day started with a brief recap of the basics and moved on to how to build those basic skills into more complicated moves like jibes, tacks and riding switch. Everyone was stoked to finally get on the water and have some fun. Jonathan was chasing the students on the water for some real-time coaching, helping people through pop-ups, pumping and jibing. We couldn’t have been happier with how the weekend went. It was such a great group of people and we loved being able to help them have more fun on the water. We can’t wait to go back and foil with our new friends.
Back in Florida, we spent the next couple days going over footage and sending out video analyses of the on-the-water footage for everyone. Almost a month later we’re still getting emails from these wingers as they update us on their progress. We are just as excited to hear about their successes as they are to share them with us. Some of the Rhode Island crew tested out their new winging skills by going in some big waves and they had a blast. One of the guys, who prior to the clinic wasn’t able to get to his feet on his foil board, just let us know that he was able to get up onto foil! We know how good it feels when it clicks, and we know how frustrating it can be when it doesn’t. We’d love to help navigate you through the frustration and help get you to the fun part faster, after all, that’s why we’re doing this, to have fun! Teaching is our passion, and if you’ve been wanting to get some more comprehensive training than YouTube videos and trial and error, seeing us in person is the way to go!
Check out our video on our Youtube channel linked nelow to get an inside look into the wing clinic in Rhode Island.
Call us to book lessons or to see if we could do a clinic in your area.