Hyde Sails Blast wings are going from strength to strength in terms of popularity for wing foiling. I’ve used Hyde Blast wings for a while and love the bottom end grunt yet easy drift handling. As part of my ongoing work with Windsurfing UK a review of the Hyde Blast 5m wing was published not so long ago.
You can read the Hyde Blast 5m wing test here.
For anyone interested in finding out more about the Hyde Blast wing range then hit this link.
This morning I managed to get out for a first run on the Indiana foil board I currently have on test. Indiana is a new brand Foilshop UK is about to start working with via Lyon Watersports. Stay tuned for more from Indiana foiling products moving forwards.
Wing foil is all the rage within watersports. If you’re not doing it then you’re probably thinking about doing it. And in my case writing/creating wing foil content. Of which some examples can be found below. Check out the links below if wingin’ pricks your interest.
At the tail end of 2020 Foilshop UK was launched. With my ongoing work in and around hydrofoiling (wing foil, windfoil, SUP foil, eFoil, foil surfing, foil pumping and so on) I hit upon the idea of creating ‘something’ around the topic. I didn’t want to strat a new printed magazine – for various reasons. SO playing to my strengths of content creation/strategy, SEO/tech SEO and writing/editing I thought a content led eCommerce website would be better. And so it came to be…
12 months on Foilshop UK‘s doing well. We’ve just strated working with a unchof new brands with more coming soon. I’m super enthusiatsic about foiling (as you can probably tell). And hope things will continue to become bigger and better across the whole industry. In tandem Foilshop UK following suit. For now, check out the site and if you have any questions about foils or foiling then get in touch.
Check out these other related posts as well –
Keeping things on sport 2019 has mainly been about foiling. 80% of my board riding shenanigans have seen my flying above the water. Windfoil and SUP foil are addictive. I’m also keen to investigate surf foiling – but that’s a work in progress. Of course, there’ve been sessions of standard windsurfing and SUP – there has to be as it’s part of my work. But overall I’m super keen on flying and the feeling and want to do more. Who would’ve thought 2ft and 10 knots could be so fun?
If you’ve yet to try some form of foiling then now’s the time. Equipment’s much easier to learn with and knowledge relating to the subject is in abundance. It mightn’t be for everyone but there’s a large portion of the watersports fraternity that it is for.
Here’re some wind and SUP foiling highlights from my 2019.
Non-POV pics: James Jagger, Nick Kingston
Further to my last post featuring a bunch of images from 2018 relating to windsurfing and windfoiling there have been (as is inevitable) a few more sessions that have been captured to camera via James Jagger. Here’re the pick of the bunch.
As part of my work for Windsurfing UK magazine I test and review a whole raft of equipment – sails, boards, foils and windsurfing accessories. This is in conjunction with similar work I do for SUP Mag UK.
Those who are part of the UK’s windsurfing scene will probably be aware 2018 hasn’t been great for breeze and conditions in general. The New Year started cold, snowy and fickle, so not great or inviting as far as watery shenanigans go. Then in the blink of an eye it was all change as a prolonged period of Mediterranean esque weather hit the UK like a bolt out of the blue. Here on the south coast it was wall to wall sunshine with regular 30C+ days. Still not great for full power windsurfing but with a regular 12 knot sea breeze windfoiling was the go.
Of late we’ve had a mixed bag with the return of proper wind and even some decent wave sessions in the mix. All through this I’ve been working with Windsurfing UK’s chief contributing photographer James Jagger to get those necessary shots of equipment being featured in the mag’s test section. It’s not always easy, and there’s still more to do as we head towards the final issue of the year. We’ve managed, however, in almost all cases to nail it. In some cases I’ve needed to employ my trusty GoPro, but generally between myself and James we’ve come up trumps with accompanying images for each test report.
With this in mind I thought I’d share a bunch of pics from this year (to date) that highlight the work we’ve been doing. So without further ado what follows is a selection of windsurf and windfoil images courtesy of James Jagger Photography, mixed in with a handful of point of view action cam photographs.
Big thanks to James for all his hard work and massive big ups to all the brands who’ve helped by loaning equipment for review purposes.
Brands included are –
Severne , Fanatic, Witchcraft, Loftsails, JP Australia, Duotone, KA Sails, Horue foils, Zeeko foils, Alpinefoil, NoveNove, Slingshot, AHD, AFS foils, BIC, Flight Sails.
Check out JJ’s website for more –Â https://www.jamesjaggerphotography.com/about/ Continue reading
I made this little brown paper bag video ditty for LinkeIn but thought I’d share it here as well.
As anyone who works in content creation knows video content is a good way to increase engagement on your website or social media feeds. This is even more so when dealing with action sports and lifestyle hobbies where conveying movement and stoke can sometimes be hard through written words alone. In a lot of cases video can be the best format (and the quickest).
Some, however, think video content needs to be a highly polished and well edited four minute flick that takes a while to put together, which simply isn’t true. Video content can simply be a case of mashing together a bunch of images and having them stitched into video form with a bit of music added for atmsophere. Or, you can create the kind of videos that follow below, as I’ve done for SUP Mag UK.
Starboard Hyper Nut 7’8″ cold surf testing
The weather can change in a heartbeat – pretty obvious for anyone living in this very same neck of the woods. Having had weeks of full power windsurfing the last seven days have seen a raft of pulsing swells – some even accompanied by sunshine. As is often the case swapping out one sport for another (or even multiple) is the best way to score time on the brine. Here are a few pics from the last few days of paddle surfing and surf sit on top kayaking.
Tez Plavenieks - content creation/strategy, SEO/tech SEO, social media, print media. 