Bring on fun, fast competition and post-racing camaraderie! Register by March 31, 2023, to receive a discounted entry fee for Spring Wingding & Wingfoil Pacific Coast Championships at St. Francis Yacht Club.
Spring Wingding is open to all wingfoil competitors and follows on the heels of the successful No Strings Attached wingfoil event hosted by StFYC in 2022, the first of its kind on the West Coast supporting this relatively new sport. Performed on hydrofoil boards with handheld wing-shaped sails, the sport has evolved rapidly, in large part because participants have adapted what they learned from kitefoiling to wingfoiling.
The three-day event will feature a combination of course slalom, distance racing and freestyle competition. The distance race, known as the San Francisco Bay Challenge, includes a long windward-leeward course from Crissy Field to Berkeley and back. Windsurfers and kitesurfers are also invited to compete in the San Francisco Bay Challenge. On shore there will be competitors’ meetings prior to racing and social events each evening.
A key component of the wingfoiling community are the groms—kids leading the charge in freestyle with fearlessness. Sixteen-year-old Morgan Headington is co-chairing Spring Wingding with his father and organizing the grom panel for one of the evening events where a moderator will check in with the kids about the state of the sport and where it’s headed for them, for example discussing the appeal of freestyle versus course racing.
“It should be high competition with the adults and the groms so any practice helps even if you’re not focusing fully on racing,” he said. “I’m going to gear my sessions towards actual racing instead of going up to the bridge and riding waves which I do easily. I’ll haul upwind best I can and when I’m going down will try to race other people going downwind.”
Competitors, register by March 31, 2023, to receive a discounted entry fee.