The wingfoil is a nautical practice which develops recently. It consists in moving on a foil board by holding an inflatable wing in the hands. However, the birth of the first wings goes back to the beginning of the 80s. The windsurfing champion Pete Cabrinha tried a kind of kite in 1982, but it was heavy and mounted on a rigid structure.
The birth of the wing
Quite similar to the wings we see today, the "Bird Sail" was developed by the Breton Roland Le Bail in 1982. Passionate about board sports, the computer scientist from Carnac was inspired by the flight of seagulls to develop this new concept with a rigid structure. He uses it on the water, but also on the ground in rollerblades or on skis to move. Unfortunately, it is still too early for the development of the wingfoil, largely competed by the advent of windsurfing.
At the same time, the Legaignoux brothers (including Bruno from Quimper) patented a kite with an inflatable structure which gave birth to kitesurfing.
In 1987, Tom Magruder invented the Wind Weapon - a kite connected to a windsurfing board by a mast tip - and demonstrated it in the Columbia River Gorge by performing incredible jumps.
New prototypes are born. In 2011, the Slingwing, which Robert Naish masters perfectly, arrives but the discipline is still not democratized.
The democratization of the foil to accelerate things
It is finally the association euros much later euros of these two concepts that will give birth to the wingfoil that we know today. The wing of Roland Le Bail will be equipped with this inflatable structure which will make it much lighter and especially easier to transport once folded.
However, it is only since 2019 that the wingfoil has become a "fashionable" water sport discipline. And this thanks to the development of the foil, which allows to take off the board from the water and to increase the speed without being braked by the contact of the sea. Easy to practice, requiring a small equipment, the wingfoil has seduced many followers in a few years.
