Wing · Birth
2018
Flash Austin winging on Maui
At Kanaha on Maui, Flash Austin rides a hand-held wing on a SUP foil board, and designer Ken Winner, watching him, is hooked.
Kanahā, Maui · Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL)
Twenty years after winning the first kiteboarding world championship, Flash Austin was on Maui with something new. In March and April 2018 he tested hand-held wings of 3.5 and 4 square metres on a SUP foil board.
One day in March at Kanaha, the Duotone designer Ken Winner watched him ride. Austin went fast downwind and on cross courses, and Winner was hooked. He later gave Austin the credit; as Duotone’s Sky Solbach put it, Austin was the first person Winner saw who put all the pieces together: the SUP foil board, a hand-held wing and simply going out and winging.
Austin’s wing was not yet the inflatable wing of today. Sources describe it differently: with an aluminium frame, as home-made from sail battens and ripstop, or built from old kites. A video of him riding at Kanaha caught the attention of the industry.
Within a year, several brands would be selling wings.