Wing thingy (Slingshot slingwing) initial impressions

[snapster]

So I finally received my wing thingy, a Slingshot slingwing, and today I had a chance to try it out for the first time.
It has been total doldrums here in the NE, but I had to test this thing out, so even though winds were only 10 mph max, I went out. My son and I went out to a local lake, me on a paddleboard with the sling wing, him on a motorized paddleboard to haul me upwind when I inevitably blow downwind.
When I saw videos of these wings, one of my thoughts was "don't their arms get tired holding that thing up?" and initially, it was indeed a chore to hold the wing up. The wind was very low, maybe 5 mph initially. I was thinking about this thing like a windsurf wing; sheet in, sheet out, wing towards the stern to steer upwind, etc.. It's a little different. It was difficult to turn at first, but I started to get the hang of it more. I found gybing easier than tacking. I had to really put some torque into my feet to get the board to turn. I also had trouble with the bottom part of the wing touching the water.

When the wind picked up to maybe 10 mph, things got a lot better. I found that by holding the wing more horizontal, with a little bit of angle-of-attack, I could get the wind to support the wing AND pull the board along. In fact, the lift from the wing even held my arms up; I just had to hang on. This is similar to when you are walking on the beach with a windsurf sail, and using the wind to hold it aloft. I think finding this sweet-spot direction with the wing is key. With more wind, I was able to stay upwind better. It seems (not surprisingly) that you have to be rather aware of the apparent wind direction.

Sometimes the wing got flipped upside down. I found it to be a pain in the ass to get the wing flipped back over; and inevitably I'd get blown downwind significantly in the process. I need to develop a reliable technique to flip the thing (something analogous to bringing the mast through the eye of the wind to flip a windsurf rig).

All in all, though, I had a lot of fun. Look, I'm not obsessed with performance, and I like windsurfing because I like fooling around in the water and wind and having fun. And these wing thingies are all about fun in the water and wind. So in summary:
Pros:
-SUPER quick and easy setup. Like 1 minute.
-Packs up small,
-Fun and not too arm-tiring as long as the wind isn't too low.
Cons:
-PITA when wing flips over,
-Not going to give you windsurf sail performance,
-Upwind ability still unknown to me; I'm not smooth enough with it yet to tell (though I think you can get upwind).

I'd be curious to hear the thoughts of others who have tried these things.

[PCfoiling]

My very first flight was a week ago in conditions very similar to yours. We are also stuck in a summer no wind hot as balls scenario.

I made a quick video if people are interested in what it is and how it pumps up but the wind was so stupid light it was quite uneventful that day.

Very much looking forward to flying the SlingWing in stronger winds and exchanging experiences.


https://youtu.be/q_x1x1cTjSI

[DelCarpenter]

I'm eagerly looking forward to more reports about using one of the new inflatable "wing" sails with an ordinary (non-foiling) SUP.

[dllee]

Watched a good windfoiler and expert 180 lbs'ers 1st try.
Took him 10 minutes to foil up with stability, M wing and 15-22 mph wind.
Was going out and jibing back 1st run.
Was the Duotone M.
Also watched 2 drunk guys flounder quite badly, both windsurfer and foilers.