Wing · Boom
2022
World Sailing takes the wing on board
World Sailing endorses two wingfoil world tours, one for expression disciplines and one for racing, and brings the sport into the sailing federation.
2world tours
GWA expression tour and IWSA racing tour, endorsed by World Sailing, 21 November 2022
Fourteen years after kiteboarding became a sailing class, the wing followed a similar path. On 21 November 2022 World Sailing, the international sailing federation, announced a partnership with two organisations running wingfoil competition.
The Global Wingsports Association (GWA) would run the Expression World Tour, with wave, freestyle, big air and surf slalom. The International Wing Sports Association (IWSA) would run the Racing World Tour, with two disciplines: Open, for any equipment, and Formula, for registered equipment from affiliated brands only.
World Sailing endorsed both tours as World Sailing Special Events and took on a supervisory role. Each association kept running its own tour and crowning its own world champions. The federation’s chief executive, David Graham, said the tours would bring the sport together and help it grow among sailors.
The Formula discipline, with registered, series-produced equipment, got its first world championship three years later.
Fabian Horst · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
