Come Fly With Me
From the Summer 2024 Issue
Wing foiling marries water with wind
KELLY ADAMS WING FOILING BY THE BAY TRAIL ON A BEAUTIFUL FALL DAY. PHOTO BY GWEN LE TUTOUR.
If you want to see your favorite water sports lover as giddy as a dog with two tails, introduce them to the “magic carpet ride” or “best powder day” of water sports: wing foiling.
“It’s so smooth, it feels like flying, like a powder day every day, but there’s no crowds, no lines,” said Gwen Le Tutour, avid wing foiler and all-around water sports enthusiast.
In 2019, wing foiling became the latest and greatest evolution of hydrofoil technology—the use of a wing-like lifting surface to propel a water vessel or board out of the water; the faster the speed, the higher the lift. However, different from its foiling predecessors, wing foiling also involves a hand-held sail or “wing,” using both wind and water energy for a ride like no other.
“Slowly, foiling has spread out to many disciplines—surf foiling, SUP foiling, kite foiling and now, wing foiling. It’s combining a lot of different sports that have been around for a long time, and making them more versatile,” said Le Tutour.
TONY MUELLER WAS DRAWN TO WING FOILING WHEN HE WANTED TO SLOW DOWN, BUT STILL FIND A NEW CHALLENGE.
While active in water sports most of his life, growing up surfing and windsurfing off his native coast of Brittany, France, it wasn’t until he moved to the U.S. that Le Tutour started tow foiling (behind a boat) in Florida.
A recent Sandpoint transplant, Le Tutour found his way to the Pacific Northwest by way of his American wife; he had no idea he would find a like-minded community of foilers and now a good friend, Tony Mueller.
“We just showed up at City Beach at the same time and I said, ‘Let’s ride together,’” said Le Tutour.
Mueller had recently retired to his lake cabin on Pend Oreille from his home in California. With a history of surfing, kayaking, and paddle board-racing he was looking to slow things down while also looking for a new challenge.
“My first wing came from South Africa, in the fall of 2018, as they were the first ones in production and I wanted to try it,” said Mueller.
“So I went to the beach with my sail and board and saw this guy out on the water with a foil and a kite and he was launching and crashing, and I was like, ‘Whoa, I need to meet this guy.’”
Now the two men meet up regularly and make videos of their time on the water, some of which are added to a YouTube channel with fellow water sports enthusiast, Damien LeRoy (@damienleroyyoutube).
DAMIEN LEROY READIES TO CATCH THE WIND AT CITY BEACH. BOTH PHOTOS BY GWEN LE TUTOUR.
In the winter months, Le Tutour spends his time in Florida where he teaches different types of foiling with LeRoy. In the summer months, he takes his teaching to City Beach, in Sandpoint.
This year will be the first year he’ll have a jet ski to tow beginners, which is key in helping them to understand and learn how to maneuver the board and foil.
“What’s so cool about foiling, is that it’s opened the door to so many different conditions,” said Le Tutour. “Where before, say with wind surfing, you needed quite a bit of wind so you needed to be on the ocean to make it fun, now—for places like Sandpoint, it’s the perfect example—foiling has opened it up to doing these water sports anywhere.”
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