LE MAGAZINEHow to care for your Wing Foil wings?
We explain how to maintain your wing foil to ensure maximum life. These tips also apply to kite surf kites. Here area few tips on how to maintain your wingfoil or kite surfkite.
How do you maintain your wing foil during the session?
Preserving your equipment requires a minimum of maintenance and logic.
– Watch out for the sun: It’s great when the weather’s nice and warm, but our friend the sun can be our enemy. Your wing foil equipment is sensitive to the sun, especially the sun’s UV rays. If you’re not sailing, don’t leave your equipment in the sun unnecessarily. If you need to take a long break, store your equipment to extend its lifespan.
– Never let your wing hit the beach: If you leave your wing upwind on the beach for a long time, the trailing edge of your wing will quickly deteriorate. If the trailing edge beats for a long time in a strong wind, you’ll have premature trailing edge wear. This will lead to a loss of rigidity and strength, so the spinnaker will become porous and you’ll lose performance in the long term.
– The third enemy is sand: sand is one of the causes of equipment destruction. When the wind is strong, the sand flies and hits your spinnaker. Sand is abrasive, so you’ll prematurely wear out your spinnaker for “sand sanding”.
1. Check your gear before going in the water
It’s highly recommended, if not essential, to check your gear on the way to the water or at the end of the session. However, if you’re a regular sailor, you may want to do this only once a week. What’s important to check on your wing :
- Check the wing for tears and holes: stand under your wing and look through it towards the sun. This way you can easily see if the wing has any holes.
- Pay close attention to the seams on the leading edge to prevent the leading edge from bursting if a seam is damaged.
2. Placing your wing foil on the beach
When you go for a session, put your kite or wing foil on the beach whenever possible. It’s best to avoid sharp rocks and asphalt in strong winds. If your kite slips in the wind, it will rub against the ground, causing wear to the seams and spinnaker.
3. Tying up your wing
To maintain your wingfoil, be careful not to let it fly and hit the ground. Try to hang it as close as possible to your board.
Warning: never put your wing into the wind at foil. You risk tearing your wing if it flies over your foil.
4. Take care when navigating
If it’s important to take care of your equipment out of the water, it’s just as important during the session. As far as possible, try not to jump onto the wing in the event of a fall, as you risk tearing your spinnaker. Also beware of lightweight foils, which are generally foils foamed from carbon. These foils have a tendency to fly away in the event of a fall, and don’t sink back into the water immediately. When the foil flies away, it can easily tear the spinnaker of your wing.
5. Don’t drag your wingfoil
Some sessions are tiring, we know, but that’s no reason to drag your kite along the beach on the way out of the water (or on the way in, for that matter). Repeated rubbing could damage the seams and cause the wing to explode. What’s more, the spinnaker is covered with a waterproof coating that is not very resistant to abrasion. So avoid rubbing your wing with your hand to remove sand, for example.
Care for your wing foil: how to rinse them?
For optimum maintenance of your wing foil or kite surf kite, you should rinse it in fresh water after each session. The salt contained in seawater attacks the seams of the bladders. It’s all the more important to rinse them if you don’t plan to return to the water for a while. However, if you foil often, we understand that you don’t want to rinse your wing every time. We therefore advise you to rinse it once in a while at low pressure with fresh water.
However, if you are unable to dry your kite properly. We advise you not to rinse it. A damp wing in fresh water could cause your wing to mildew.
How to dry wing wings foil
To maximize the life of your wing, we recommend that you dry your wing before storing it. Moisture and salt from seawater can eventually damage your foil wing. In general, this may involve deterioration of color, detachment of valves or mildew.
Best practice?
When you know you’re about to stop your session, try to make ten or so edges without falling in the water. This will allow your kite to dry out. Next, you’ll need to get out of the water without getting it wet. If you hold it over your head with your arm outstretched, it shouldn’t get too wet.
If your kite is wet when you get out of the water, you can dry it on the beach by attaching it to your board. To do this, make sure it’s not resting on anything that could damage it, such as asphalt or sharp rocks. In addition, always dry your wing in the direction of the wind. That is, the leading edge of the wing facing into the wind is the one that catches the wind.
Maintaining your kite surf and wing foil: beware of the sun!
Just like your skin, the spinnaker of a wingfoil or kitesurf kite is sensitive to uv rays. That’s why we strongly advise against leaving your kite on the beach in the sun when you’re not in the water. So, if you’re not using your equipment, it’s best to put it away for maximum durability.
As with the sun, prolonged exposure to strong winds and sand can accelerate wear and tear on your wing. This is why, in strong winds, the trailing edge of your wing flaps in the wind, prematurely damaging it. What’s more, when the sand flies (in tramontana conditions in the south of France, for example), the sand hits the wing. The sand then acts like sandpaper on your wing foil or kite surf kite.
How to store your wing foil correctly?
When you’re not wing foil or kite surfing for a long time, we recommend that you rinse and dry your kites. Then store them in the Sroka wing bag provided. Store your kites preferably high up in case rodents get in.
Finally, whether kitesurfing or wingfoiling, never fold them in the same way, and avoid sharp creases. Overly pronounced folds can weaken your spinnaker.
If you have any further questions, or if you have any other requests, please don’t hesitate to contact us!
Le Magazine
Article you may be interested in
