Casey’s Blog:
Finally Reef Warriors Boards has a home. ReefWarriorsBoards.com Something I should of have made 3 years ago, but there is just never enough time in the day. No worries all fun blog posts and shenanigans will still be posted here on the blog. Its just that ReefWarriorsBoards has gotten so popular that it needed its own site for content. So Please check it out and spread the news! As a bonus for the Website Launch of course we had to have a Promo Video. Hit The Lip!
Caseys Blog:
2019 was one crazy year again. It was even worse than last year for surfing & wind (and last year was soo bad). If you’re a high wind junky you have to be losing your mind, but on the flip side if you have a TopGun/GoFoil kit, you are having the time of your life. You’re having soo much fun in 5-15kt that its makes you not even give a shit about 15-25kt. It truly is a game changer. As a result, 2019 was a huge year in The Board Room. I spent a lot of time pumping out as many of these TopGun boards as I could. I am not going to lie, I am exhausted, but seeing soo many riders throughout the country and locally now having the time of their life riding these boards truly makes it all worth it. Spreading the stoke never gets old. Hopefully I can expand on that in 2020. Looks like another busy year ahead so lets get this party started Reef Warriors!
2019
95-Total play days! (10 months)
95-days – Total wave surfing! (windsurf/kite//WWF/SURFFoil)
19-days Windsurfing (5.7 & smaller)
5-days Kitesurfing (9m & 7m)
15-days Foil surfing
56-days WWF (Windsurf Wave Foiling); Foil in waves
0-days Snowkiteing (Busy Building TopGun foil boards)
2-Days skiing (Busy Building TopGun Foil Boards)
9-days Scoring waves in Hatteras
Best day on the reef– Oct 27th Just Perfect!
Best month-July & Aug (17 days, Non stop WWF)
Best ride- 5 mile WWF Down winding. Crazy awesome.
Best new toy- 2020 93L Quatro Cube Wave board (Wave sailing).
Past years
2019-95 total play days, 95 total wave days (windsurfing,kite,WWF,Foil Surf)
2018-95 total play days, 95 total wave days (windsurfing,kite,WWF,Surf,Foil Surf)
2017-108 total play days, 108 total wave days (windsurfing,kite,SUP,Surf,Foil Surf)
2016-109 total play days, 105 total wave days (windsurfing/kite/SUP/surfing)
2015-101 total play days, 93 total wave days (windsurfing/kite/SUP/surfing)
2014-83 total play days. 75 total wave days (windsurf/kite/SUP/surfing)
2013-95 total play days. 93 total wave days (windsurf/kite/SUP/surfing)
2012-124 total play days. 119 total wave days (windsurf/kite/SUP/surfing)
2011-129 total play days 93 total wave days (windsurf/kite/SUP/surfing)
2010-144 total play days 104 total wave days (windsurf/kite/SUP/surfing)
2009-102 total play days 42 total wave days (windsurf/kite/SUP/surfing)
2008-100 total play days 40 total wave days (windsurf/kite/SUP/surfing)
2007-83 total play days 36 total play days (windsurf/kite/SUP/surfing)
2018 Monthly break down
JAN) 1-WWF
FEB) None
MARCH) None
APRIL) 5-Windsurf, 4-WWF Foil
MAY) 2-Surf Foil, 3-WWF Foil
JUNE) 2-Windsurf, 6-WWF Foil, 1-Surf Foil
JULY) 14-WWF Foil, 3-Surf Foil
AUG) 3-Windsurf, 13-WWF Foil, 1-Kitrsurf
SEP) 2-Windsurf, 5-WWF Foil, 4-Surf Foil, 1-Kitesurf
OCT) 4-Windsurf, 7-WWF Foil, 2-Surf Foil, 1-Kitesurf
NOV) 4-Windsurf, 3-WWF Foil, 2-Surf Foil, 1-Kitesurf
DEC) 1-WWF Foil, 1-Surf Foil, 1-Kitesurf
That’s it! Time to do it all over again. HIT THE LIP!!
Casey’s Blog:
The Wingy Dingy Thingy or whatever the heck you call it is the newest kid on the block that the surf industry is promoting the hell out of. (I am sure it cost under $100 bucks to make one and selling them for $800 plus has something to do with it-chaaa ching! $$$$🤔). I have been asked about a zillion times this year what is my take on it? Everyone who knows me knows that I never sugarcoat nor B.S. anything.
After playing with a wing all summer I now have some experience doing the Wingy Dingy Thingy Thing or “Stringless Kiting” or whatever you want to call it. Let me first say that it’s fun! Anything that gets you on the water is fun in my opinion. The most asked question is “don’t your arms gets tired?”, and my answer is no, not really. I would go out for a 2-3 hr session and my arms never got tired. The wing mostly pulls on your arms lightly in a neutral kind of way. When I first started learning to use it, my back arm would get a little tired from sheeting in while trying to get going. As I got better with the wing, that arm stopped getting tired.
Within a couple of days, I learned to use it and I was flying and gybing on my TopGun Foil Board, which works amazingly for winging. 👍👌 I give the disclaimer that I am also a very experienced foiler and waterman so I would not expect that to be the norm for the average or beginner folk. In fact, If you don’t know how to Foil, windsurf or kitesurf it’s got to be very hard to learn to wing-foil because there is a lot going on. First off, you are tethered to the wing and you are tethered to the board. Many times I would wipe out and come up a tangled mess.😆 Also, foils and Wingys don’t like to come in contact with each other. The foil is basically 4 knives trying to cut the kite up. There is lots of tape holding my Wingy together let me tell you. 😆 Once you get past all that, the Wingy experience is very cool; flying all around back and forth was lots of fun.
One of the appealing things of Wingy to me of course was riding swell (oh and I rode lots of swell with it!).😉 One negative thing I found was the lack of stability in the whole process. It’s hard enough to foil surf alone and then you add a flapping wing throwing you off balance all the time, that sure doesn’t make it easy.😒 When catching swell heading up-wind or side-shore it’s cool to just let the Wingy go neutral and ride the swell up wind. That’s fun stuff! Now if you want to ride a swell downwind, that has the same problem as kite surf foiling. You are now going with the wind matching it’s speed, which means the wing loses it’s lift and falls out of the air. So you literally have to hold the wingy up over your head and try to foil surf at the same time.😣 Not any fun and a very frustrating experience. The only time I could downwind foil surf on the wing was in 25-35kts+ where you had lots of wind keeping that wing in the air. So my conclusion of Wing foiling in the surf is- if you want to leisurely ride some swell upwind it works great, otherwise you need lots of wind to ride downwind. Side off conditions, for the lucky few in this world, are the best for the Wingy. Side off conditions work much better to be able ride a wave any way you want and they are best for keeping the wing flying.👍
“How is ‘Wingy Dingy Thingy’ compared to ‘Windsurf Wave Foiling?’” is the second most frequently asked question I have been asked this year. Both sports actually share the some of the same traits such as using a way smaller power source which makes it so easy on the arms/body (as long as they are paired up with the big surfy glidey foils). I am a bit biased but my conclusion is that Windsurf Wave Foiling wins that debate by a large margin and here is why. WWF is way easier and way way more stable (at least on a TopGun/GoFoil combo). The sail/mast being attached to the board always gives you something to lean on. When flying with the Wing, you need very good balance and two brains because you have to fly two independent things at once (the wing and the foil board…that is a lot going on!). WWF is way more efficient with the sail. I will use .5m to 1m less in sail size compared to Wing size. The smaller the size the more fun it is… that goes with any sport. WWF is way safer because the rig is attached to the board you pretty much always know where the foil is when you wipe out. When you crash while winging, you sometimes have no idea where that board and foil is which can be a bit nerve-wracking. When it comes to Riding swell, WWF is the big winner because you can ride any wave in any direction you want just by flagging out the sail. Winging is limited to upwind riding unless its blowing 30 or is side off (and if it’s blowing 30, I really don’t want to be on a foil). Good clean side off conditions can be where Winging can be on par or maybe even more fun…again that’s if you’re lucky enough to live in such a rare place. Traveling on planes would be much easier with the Wingy dingy Thingy. It packs up in a big backpack (though RRD has made sail kits that do the same now).
Well that pretty much sums up my experience with the wingy dingy thingy so far. I am looking forward to see how this new sport evolves. I expect to see lots of innovation in the next few years. Wingy dingy thingy is in it’s puppy stages. I feel like it’s just like Kiting was in the beginning; it took kiting about 6-8 years for the gear to start to be any fun. Luckily everything evolves faster these days.👍🤙 Remember, this is just my opinion on the subject. As always, with anything in life, give it a try and come up with your own take on it. Some people will love it and some will think it’s stupid. Either way it’s always fun learning new sports and playing with new toys.
Caseys Blog:
2018 was the year of two tales, Its was the worst surfing & wind year that I can ever remember, just horrible. We had a long cold winter that seemed to go on forever, then a crazy hot and calm summer. it made for not many days of action. Now on the other side of the coin with the advent of Surf Foiling, thru sail, paddle, or kite. this year turned out to be soo much fun on soo many days. The days were you wouldn’t even have thought about getting a session in, turned out to be the most fun you can ever have. I think 2018 is the year that we turn the page, Thanks to Surf Foiling even on the worst years you still can have 100 days of an insane amount of fun. Its the new Norm now. Life is good. Now on to the 2018 stats and let the records fall in 2019.
2018
95-Total play days! (9 months)
95-days – Total wave surfing! (windsurf/kite/SUP/surfing/SURFFoil)
28-days Windsurfing (5.7 & smaller)
2-days Kitesurfing (12m & 8m)
17-days Sup/prone/Foil surfing & Foil surf
48-days WWF (Windsurf Wave Foiling); Foil in waves
0-days Snowkiteing (Bust building Kitchen)
0-Days skiing (Busy Building Kitchen)
14-days Scoring waves in Hatteras
Best day on the reef– Oct 11th Just Perfect!
Best month-October (18 days,Just an incredible action packed month)
Best ride- 90+sec Foil surf Ride all the way thru Da reef and right to the beach.
Best new toy- TOPGUN Reef Warriors Foil Board.
Past years
2017-108 total play days, 108 total wave days (windsurfing,kite,SUP,Surf,Foil Surf)
2016-109 total play days, 105 total wave days (windsurfing/kite/SUP/surfing)
2015-101 total play days, 93 total wave days (windsurfing/kite/SUP/surfing)
2014-83 total play days. 75 total wave days (windsurf/kite/SUP/surfing)
2013-95 total play days. 93 total wave days (windsurf/kite/SUP/surfing)
2012-124 total play days. 119 total wave days (windsurf/kite/SUP/surfing)
2011-129 total play days 93 total wave days (windsurf/kite/SUP/surfing)
2010-144 total play days 104 total wave days (windsurf/kite/SUP/surfing)
2009-102 total play days 42 total wave days (windsurf/kite/SUP/surfing)
2008-100 total play days 40 total wave days (windsurf/kite/SUP/surfing)
2007-83 total play days 36 total play days (windsurf/kite/SUP/surfing)
2018 Monthly break down
JAN) None
FEB) None
MARCH) None
APRIL) 9-Windsurf, 6-WWF Foil, 1-Kitesurf
MAY) 1-Windsurf, 4-WWF Foil
JUNE) 1-Windsurf, 5-WWF Foil, 3-Sup/surf Foil
JULY) 1-Windsurf, 6-WWF Foil, 1-Sup/surf Foil
AUG) 11-WWF Foil, 4-Sup/surf Foil
SEP) 3-Windsurf, 7-WWF Foil, 3-Sup/surf Foil
OCT) 9-Windsurf, 5-WWF Foil, 4-Sup/surf Foil
NOV) 4-Windsurf, 3-WWF Foil, 1-Sup/surf Foil, 1-Kitesurf
DEC) 1-WWF Foil, 2-Sup/surf Foil
That’s it! Time to do it all over again. HIT THE LIP
Casey’s Blog:
“What’s the difference between WWF and normal foiling? Isn’t it the same thing?” This is the question asked to me a million times it seems and probably deservedly so, since I started the WWF craze 2 years ago. My answer is sort of yes but No not really. To explain it the easiest way, normal wind foiling is more like slalom sailing and WWF is more like wave sailing and surfing.
Normal wind foiling is all about getting in the straps, locking in with the back foot and going as fast as you can with as much power as you can handle. A very “locked in” exciting ride is great for flat water blasting. It feels like you’re flying a jet (super cool feeling). It’s the future of going fast in light winds and racing.
WWF is all about using big (slower, but only by a little bit) surf wing foils and tiny sails, which allows you to glide through the lulls, along with the ability to carve and turn like crazy. Plus that combo gets you going in very little wind. The riding style is more of a upright stance with more front foot pressure that allows you to ride on top of the board and foil. Along with being strapless, this gives it a very similar feeling to riding a surf board. Now because you are using a Surf foil they are designed to gain speed on surf, swell and even large chop making for the coolest and most exciting moments where you dont even need any sail power. Just surf the wave, it’s all about surfy surfy.
What type of foiling is for you? If you do most of your sailing in super flat water or just like to go fast then “Wind foiling” is the way to go. If you like to play in swell, waves and carve it up in bump & Jump conditions “WWF” will be your addiction. I am really amazed at the board spectrum of styles, from surfers, sup, sup downwind, kite surfers and even windsurfers who haven’t windsurfed in 15 yrs, all are wanting and getting into WWF. It’s pretty cool to see!
Foiling gear is a hot topic these days and a very complex one. pretty much 99% of the gear being sold is for Wind foiling. The only setup that has some similarities to WWF is the Naish Wind foil setup and maybe the slingshot kit with one of there bigger front wings, but even those kits are kind of of a hybrid version I would call it. Naish, starboard and some others have crossover sup boards that would work and have the foil mount moved forward which is what ya need for WWF. The big problem with them is they have full blown out rocker because they are made to be a wave board and that makes for a horrible foil board. Hopefully in the next few years there will be more true and better WWF kits and options available.
Hopefully that helps to answer that most frequently asked question, or it confused you even more (hahaha)! One thing is for sure, Foiling is a revolution for all wind sports along with surfing and that makes for super exciting times!
WWF (Windsurf wave foiling)
Windfoiling
The Reef Warriors and Casey's Hit the Lip Blog 