USEFUL LINKS
ADDRESS
- Kalpitiya Road
- Kalpitiya
- Sri Lanka
CONTACT US
- Villa Manager
- + 94 77 436 2699
- Kite Centre Manager
- +94 71 498 4813
- matt@sethawadikite.com
Wingfoiling, the latest trend in water sports, combines elements of windsurfing, kitesurfing, and kitefoiling. It's gaining popularity among wind sport lovers because it's relatively easy to learn, and can be done in a wider variety of locations and wind conditions.
Kalpitiya Lagoon provides an excellent place for wingfoiling in Sri Lanka! Many wingfoilers and students are coming here for the reliable wind and flat water. Guests at Villa Sethawadi can enter the lagoon directly from our hotel grounds.
Wingfoil boards tend to be smaller than windsurf boards, but bigger than kitesurf boards. The wings are much simpler than kites—no bar, chicken loops, bridle... Kitesurfers will be happy to find there is no need for lines, which require a lot of space on the beach and can tangle. Underneath the board are the foils, which are similar in design to kite foils and windsurf foils.
We've searched extensively for the best possible boards to learn on. One key factor is the size (volume) of the boards. With a huge volume of 235 litres, our largest beginner board (made by Robert Ricci Designs) is much easier to stand on, allowing students to focus on wing control and riding instead of just keeping enough balance to stand. This translates into less lesson time and more riding time.
These boards, which for beginners have 3 huge fins, also allow us to skip the frustrating step of using SUP boards to practice first rides. This eliminates a lot of ending up downwind and "walks of shame."
The foils themselves are much larger than kite foils, making it possible to ride up on the foil at less speed, making the learning curve much shorter.
With only a couple of hours of lessons (this depends on the rider and on conditions), it's possible to ride around independently on the surface of the water, staying upwind. At this point we recommend taking advantage of the opportunity to rent the gear on your own, until your wing control becomes intuitive enough to progress to the next step.
When the time comes to start riding on the actual foils, we can switch out the middle fin for a large, beginner foil- 2,400 square centimetres. Now we can start teaching you how to get up and stay up on the foil, and you are on your way to being a wingfoiler. Once you are comfortable with this, you can move to progressively smaller boards and foils for more speed and performance.
