The thrill of f lying

Wing foiling: it’s going to be huge. And a group of older people are getting a jump start at Raglan. Richard Walker reports.

You get up on that foil, you’re flying. Across the mouth of the harbour, wind in your face, taste of salt in your mouth. Flying. Just you, the swells on an outgoing tide and a southwesterly. And a dozen or so others like you on wing foils, along with two kite surfers and a wind surfer.

Back and forth, weaving in and out, occasionally completely out of the water.

It’s early afternoon on a weekday, which helps explain why so many of these foilers are older. They’re here a lot, and that’s what’s brought me here.

Among their number – though at the younger end – is long-time local Ian Hardie, 63. He operates Raglan Harbour Cruises from his base on the other side of the harbour from Raglan, and he’s come across on his wing foil to make the most of a southwesterly and an outgoing tide.

Westerly is best, coming straight in off the sea, uninterrupted by land. And the outgoing tide creates more apparent wind strength as it flows in the opposite direction.

Wing foiling is the new thing, combining boards and handheld wings with the foil technology popularised by the America’s Cup.

It's a hard sport to learn, given the need to co-ordinate a highly manoeuvrable board with the wing. There are many, many face plants along the way.

But once you've learned, it’s gentle on your body, Hardie says, as he briefly takes a spell on the beach. With kite surfing you’re bouncing over the surface whereas this way the foil’s running under the surface and it’s a smooth ride. “When you're on these things you're actually flying over the water.”

You can do it in most winds, he says, and the outgoing tide is useful but not critical because wing foils go upwind pretty well. When the conditions are right, the foilers can probably get up to speeds of 45kph, he says.

“It’s going to be a big sport. I think it’s going to be huge actually,” he says. The evidence is right there in front of us.

Hardie, an affable character who came to Raglan in 1978, was a long-time kite surfer before he got into wing foiling about a year and a half ago. It’s a long learning curve, he says.

“Foiling’s exciting, foiling is a real nice feeling. I didn’t think I’d find another sport I’d be addicted to, but this came along at the right time.”

Hardie greets a friend, and tells him I’m there to do a story about old fossils who wing foil.

Yeah, I know, his friend says. I’m not old enough for that, he claims, though he clearly is.

Then he gets down to business. He’s wondering if the 5.5 might be a bit over the top. No, you don’t want that, Hardie says. Have you got the three or four?

Hardie’s on the three and a half, and that’s plenty.

I’m going to get my four and a half, his friend decides, and departs.

They’re talking about wing square metres, driven by what the wind will be doing.

Another wing foiler turns up. “Marek! Ready to go,” Hardie hails him.

“Ready to go,” Marek Kaniewski replies. “Four-five? Three-five?” Kaniewski asks Hardie, eyeing his wing. Three-five, Hardie says. Plenty. Kaniewski, 75, was a kite foiler and kite surfer, and has been wing foiling for two years. “I like the connection to the power rather than the kite which has got 25 metre lines,” he says. “I find it less intimidating. Because if you fall into the lines, they can get wrapped around you, where with this, you've just got your power source, which is the wing, and you just let it go.”

There’s less impact on the beach for others as well. “It’s just all more minimal.”

Kaniewski, originally from the UK, has been in Raglan 16 years, typically for six months of the year. He says he was surprised he “quietly” fell in love with New Zealand. “I think the summers – well, the winters are gorgeous as well – but the summers are just so changeable and spectacular. Look what we have here, we’ve had cloud, we’ve had rain today, sometimes we get lightning and thunder. There is a connection to the land that I love, and to nature.”

Kaniewski’s teenage years would have been in the 1960s and it’s not hard to see him as a child of the hippy era, still globe trotting after all these years.

“I’m a time traveller. Seriously, that's all I’m doing. I travel with time,” he says.

“I’ve learned all over the world, I'm learning today. I'm really learning today. It doesn’t stop, it goes on and on and on. Every session is a learning session.”

There’s always something more to try. You do a gybe, a backhand gybe, a tack. The list goes on. Jumping if you want to jump, endless possibilities.

“It’s fantastic in a storm. It's fantastic when it’s a sort of classical NZ summer’s day. It’s great as the sun’s setting ... However wet and cold and miserable it might appear, there’s something just so beautiful about flying through the water. Because you’re flying. It's a flying sport.”

Kaniewski points out a youngster among those zipping around the harbour mouth. You’ve got a 7-year-old and a 75-year-old enjoying the water together, he says. “That’s important.”

The older foilers are an informal group. “We do it together and we look after each other in the water, which is what all the kite surfers, windsurfers, foilers tend to do.”

“You'll mention all of us, the over-75 group, yes?” he asks me.

But a couple of the cohort have declined and one I’ve been told about, Keith, seems to be out on the water and not coming in.

Near at hand, however, Valerie Lubrick and Dominic O’rourke are preparing to get out there.

Today’s southwesterly is creating holes of wind, O’rourke says. It’s a bit average, but they’ll go anyway, make the best of it.

The swell is small today, he says, but when it’s bigger you can surf the waves, wing trailing behind you like a balloon. “You can get some super long rides, like 800-metre rides, kilometre rides, just surfing the wave.”

“The problem is, he does this all the time and he’s very good at it,” says Lubrick of her companion. “And now people are going to read that and everyone’s going to come play, because it's amazing.”

It was less amazing for her when she smashed her nose on a board a month ago. This is her third time back out since.

“I’m more of a beginner. So I’ve been out quite a few [times]. But I still get my arse kicked.”

You have to talk to Joyce, she says. So there’s all this, and then there’s Joyce Stalker, 75. The Hamilton woman took up kite surfing at 61 and now she’s switched to wing foiling, mainly in the Tauranga harbour, though she’s taking lessons through Adrenaline Alley in Raglan where there’s also the rip tide to contend with. “The tide is crazy.”

With Lubrick’s encouragement, she’s been out in Raglan after building her confidence in Tauranga. A photo shows the two smiling women, both born in Canada, foil boards in hand on the beach.

People are very supportive, says Stalker, back at her Hamilton home. “Everybody begins, you know, in some face-planting experience for a long time. And for some of us, it just takes longer.”

What’s hard about wing foiling is you’re on a “little tippy thing”.