Wing · Birth
2019
Naish launches the Wing-Surfer
Naish announces an inflatable hand-held wing for foil boards and SUPs, with no hardware, no rigging, no bar and no lines.
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No hardware, no rigging, no bar, no lines: the Naish Wing-Surfer, April 2019
On 12 April 2019 Naish announced the Wing-Surfer, an inflatable wing to be held in the hands while riding a foil board or a stand-up paddleboard. It was light and simple: no hardware, no rigging, no bar and no lines. It would reach the shops by early summer 2019.
Robby Naish, a pioneer of windsurfing, kitesurfing and stand-up paddling, put his name behind it. “Hand-held wings have been around for decades,” he said. “But everything has its time, and the time for this is now.” The wing was built with materials similar to those of kitesurfing kites.
Naish sold the product as the Wing-Surfer; the sport itself is known both as wingsurfing and as wing foiling. Who deserves the credit for the sport itself is still disputed: some accounts give it to Robby Naish, others to Flash Austin and Ken Winner on Maui a year earlier.
Within months, riders could choose between wings from several brands.