Wing foiling is pretty much the fastest advancing water sport of all time. Wingfoiling allows you to combine the thrill of kiting, the speed of windsurfing and the indescribable feeling of flying over the water in one sport. And all that in one
package that is easy to take with you on a trip. So it is also the ideal sport for your holiday!
Easier to take with you and to take a break in between
If you want, you can put the wings foil set all the way in your trunk and you’re on your way. This allows you to wingfoil in different locations, you can even do a session in the afternoon during a business trip after you have had an appointment for work in the morning. This opens up a whole range of possibilities to go wing foiling in different places. I’m happy to share my experience for traveling with wing foil gear and have some surprising (less obvious) locations in Europe for a great wing foil session. Let’s start with the locations.
Lake Como in Italy
Lake Como can be found a few hours’ drive from Milan, Innsbruck and Switzerland. In any case, an emblematic lake with beautiful surroundings, so worth a road trip to. On the north side of Lake Como, a true wingfoil paradise can be found on the beach of Cólico Piano. This lake is clearly less crowded than Lake Garda.
Almost every day (when the weather is nice) the wind starts blowing around noon, and you can be ready for a breeze of 15 to 20 knots. If you go into the water on the beach of Spiaggia la Breva, you can foil to one of the other beaches and drink a cup of coffee there before you sail back. How cool is that!
Silvaplana in Switzerland
Another fantastic place is Lake Silvaplana, Lake Silvaplanersee. It is located next to the famous ski village of St. Mortiz in the beautiful Alps in Switzerland at an altitude of 1800 meters! Very windproof and a great surfing atmosphere in the summer can be found here. Make sure you are high up in the mountains, so bring your long wetsuit. Camping Silvaplana is the place where you can easily get into the water.
What makes this place so special, and Lake Como for that matter, is the fact that you are foiling between the mountains. This makes the whole experience truly magical. In addition, you can also take a lift to the glacier in the summer and you can work on your fitness by, for example, mountain biking.
Leucate in France
One of the top surfing destinations in Europe is the lake at Leucate in the south of France. What makes this destination so good, and so loved by surfers, kiters and wingfoilers, is the constant wind. More than 250 days a year you can count on a strong wind of 15 to sometimes 35 knots. If you have an extensive set of wings, be sure to bring your small wing.
Not all of Lake Leucate is suitable for wing foiling. The northeast side is often too shallow for the foil. On the beach of Barcarès you will find a great spot: you have a protected bay for beginners with a passage to the large lake for advanced riders.
Costa Tequise, Lanzarote
For this location, you have to catch the plane. Lanzarote is the northernmost Canary Island and has 1 fantastic surf spot, Costa Tequise. From a bay with a sandy beach you can easily foil ‘outside’ where there are bizarrely beautiful waves to play with with a NE wind. If you really want to go radical, you can do so on the reef next to the bay.
It is recommended that you bring your own belongings. Wing foil equipment is rented, but the range was quite limited and the quality of the material moderate.
Rent a board bag
If you decide to travel with wing foil gear and especially if you want to take your belongings with you on the plane, good protection for the fragile material is very important. A good travel boardbag that we have used ourselves is the Mystic Star boardbag. Good protection and plenty of space for more than 1 complete set. Don’t want to buy a board bag? No problem, in the Netherlands there is a company that specializes in renting out (travel) board bags for wingfoil equipment and windsurfing equipment. The company is aptly named Boardbagger. For our trip to Costa Tequise on Lanzarote we used Boardbagger. Super simple, you reserve a board bag for your holiday period. You will receive the board bag at home 2 days before departure and after your holiday you send the board back with the included return label.
Purchase wingfoil board bag
If you go out a lot with your wingfoil gear and you are considering purchasing a decent (double) board bag yourself, then we have 2 very nice variants of Mystic in our webshop that are ideal for traveling and protect your equipment well.
About our guest blogger Rigtmar Brandenburg
Rigtmar is an enthusiastic wingfoiler himself and from this passion for winging Rigtmar started the blog www.wingfoiltips.com. On this site you will find all kinds of information, tips, instructions, tutorials and a handy spot finder for the best wing foil sessions.