Sometimes a passion begins with a single moment – a picture, an encounter, or simply that feeling that something new is waiting for you out there.
For me, it was more a chain of coincidences – and the saying: “When one door closes, another usually opens.” That’s exactly how wingfoiling found its way to me.
Originally, I come from surfing. Even though my skills could still be improved 😅 – my enthusiasm for surfing is huge. But in Germany, life is not exactly easy for surfers. Most good swells are far away, and on the Baltic Sea, which is closer from Berlin, they appear only rarely – and then timing is often crucial. With the beginning of the pandemic, everything stopped anyway: no travel, no sea, no surf.
So I got myself a surfskateboard to bring back at least a small piece of the surf feeling. Longboarding also helped me to fill the gap a little.
One day I was out on the longboard with a friend on a windy day. Laughing, he said: “Now all we’d need is a kite!”
That reminded me of something I had once seen on a flyer from the shop where I had bought my surfskate. It looked a bit like a kite – but without lines, meant to be held directly. A “wing.” The thought of being pulled across the asphalt with such a wing wouldn’t leave me. And with Tempelhofer Feld in Berlin, there was the perfect spot to try it out.
The next day I told a colleague about my idea. His response: “Dude, those things are actually for the water!”
I had to check that right away 😅. On YouTube I already found some videos about the then relatively new wingfoiling – and after just the first clips it was clear to me: I definitely want to do this!
Wingfoiling seemed the perfect addition to surfing. You don’t need a proper swell, but you can also surf or foil waves if you want – even out on the sea, long before they break. Thanks to the foil, a special fin designed like an airplane and working in the same way, the board is lifted above the water when foiling. As a result, you use the wave’s energy more efficiently and have hardly any drag, because the board no longer pushes water aside. So you also need less wind and space – perfect if you’re landlocked! Even on lakes in the middle of Germany, wingfoiling creates a special surf feeling that feels like flying over the water – and basically, that’s exactly what you’re doing.
Many lakes that I had never thought could be good surf spots have now become just that. Lakes also have the advantage that in many parts of Germany they are quicker to reach than the coast – and usually a bit safer, for example without strong currents. The sea, on the other hand, continues to attract with often more consistent, stronger winds, waves, the scent of salt in the air – and that feeling of being out there on the ocean, able to leave all worries far behind. Although that works quite well on a lake too – once you’re in the foilflow 😉.
At first, however, I started on land – first with the longboard, then with the surfskate. I already had a lot of fun and learned to control the wing. But one thing was clear: the adventure on the water would come …
How my first sessions on the water really went – I’ll tell you about that in the next post: First Steps.
