A selection of some of the boards we tested for this review. Photo: Will Sileo//The Inertia
Wing foiling has exploded onto the wind and watersports scene over the past few years. What were once quiet windsports locations with just a few kiteboarders and wind surfers gathering in high winds are now bustling hubs of foiling aficionados discussing finer details such as wing dihedral and emerging from the water grinning from ear to ear.
Of the three main components of wing foiling (the foil, wing and the board), boards get a bad rap as the least important part of the equation, spending (hopefully) most of their time out of the water. While that may be true, a good wing foil board is an essential part of the equation, and getting on the wrong wing foil board can make it extremely difficult (and frustrating) to progress, whether you’re trying to build skills in the surf or just get up on foil for the first time. There is plenty of nuance from the board shape to the specific literage, to small (but critical) details such as whether or not the board comes with foot straps, that make the question of “what wing foil board should I get?” one that’s worth careful consideration.
In the following article, we’ll be taking a closer look at some of the top boards in the industry, discussing their relative pros and cons, and giving you some side-by-side stats and comparisons to help you find the right wing board for you, depending on your ability, weight, riding location, and other factors.
To a certain extent, this review is splitting hairs, as within a certain class of wing foil boards (beginner boards, or sinker boards, for example) there’s a whole lot more that’s similar rather than different. With that in mind, we refrained from giving our normal “best of” designations to let the specific features, dimensions, and pros/cons of each board do the talking. Downwind boards are becoming a hugely popular tool in the arsenal for advanced riders in light-wind conditions. However, we’re going to withhold judgment on that class of boards until we’re able to test a wider selection.
To see the boards lined-up side-by-side, check out our Comparison Table. And for more advice and information on different categories and various features, check out our Buyer’s Guide. If you’re also in the market for a wing, here’s our guide to The Best Wings for Wing Foiling.
Best Wing Foil Boards of 2024
All-Around
Beginner-Friendly Design: Naish Hover Wing Foil Ascend Carbon Ultra
Intermediate-Friendly Shape: KT Wing Drifter
Classic Shape, But Longer And Thinner: F-One Rocket Wing 2023
Innovative Design: KT Ginxu
Great Bottom Contours: Jimmy Lewis Flying VM
Compact and Capable: Duotone Sky Series (Sky Free / Sky Style)
Sinker/Surf
Wide Range of Available Sizes: F-One Rocket Wing S
Stable and Compact: Slingshot Flying Fish V2
Ultra High-Performance: Duotone Sky Surf SLS
All-Around Wing Foil Boards
Beginner-Friendly Design
Naish Hover Wing Foil Ascend Carbon Ultra
Price (62L): $1,429
Weight (62L): 11.2 lbs
Available Constructions: Carbon/wood vacuum sandwich
Bottom Contour: Fairly flat with a slight double concave
Notable Features: Raised arch on tailpad for intuitive back-foot placement
Available Sizes (Liters): 42, 52, 62, 72, 82, 92, 102, 112, 122, 142
Pros: Retains a surfy feel despite wide, beginner-friendly outline, carbon construction is very light
Cons: Wider outline is better for beginners than advanced riders
The Naish Hover Wing is one of the best-selling beginner foil boards on the market, and with good reason as they do an incredible job of progressing past when a board their volume should be holding you back. The shape is fairly stubby, on the shorter side with a wide deck and average thickness. The board-shape inspires a surfy feel when riding, and is fairly intuitive to ride. The 2024 model features a slightly longer outline than its predecessors for better planing, waterstarts, and higher-performance riding at smaller volumes.
The width is a major selling point for beginner riders, aiding side-to-side stability, especially when waterstarting. However, it also presents the board’s biggest drawback, being that more advanced riders may find the wider outline limiting in trying to achieve the best upwind angles or make the sharpest tacks and gybes. For more advanced riding, a narrower board will be a much better call, letting you heel over much more, and keeping you from digging a rail when you make sharp turns. That said, the 2024 version of the board does have a more elongated shape, packing more volume into a slightly narrower shape, improving this aspect of the board over previous versions.
Other notable features of the board include inset carry-handles on both the top and bottom of the deck, a soft but grippy deck pad with plenty of options for strap inserts, and a nice bit of arch support on the tail pad that helps you keep your back foot centered without having to look at your feet.
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Intermediate-Friendly Shape
KT Wing Drifter
Price (62L): $1,495
Weight (62L): 11.8 lbs
Available Constructions: Ultra Carbon Monocoque Construction
Bottom Contour: Sharply beveled rails with dramatic cutouts around the mast
Notable Features: Shaped bottom, increased length and narrow width
Available Sizes (Liters): 34, 38, 42, 50, 56, 62, 72, 80, 90, 105, 115, 130, 160
Pros: Great all-around shape, well balanced
Cons: Notably longer than most “all-around” boards on the market
The Wing Drifter has gained notoriety as one of the most popular intermediate, mid-volume boards on the market. And with good reason, as the board has a well-balanced shape with dramatically beveled rails that makes for an incredibly easy-to-use and high-performing ride. Combined with a fairly narrow deck, the bottom-contour (that features an even deeper cutout around the mast connection area) helps with sharp upwind angles and tight turns thanks to the steep bevels, and the bit of extra length adds some extra stability to offset the shaped bottom.
With Kai Lenny’s shaper Keith Teboul (KT) at the reigns, it’s no surprise that the Wing Drifter has a bit more of a refined surfboard-feel than that of a techy windsports device. That said, in no way is performance compromised as a result, leaving you with the best of both worlds – a flowy all-rounder that’s ready to take on high-performance riding thanks to the narrow width and bottom contours, light(er) winds thanks to the increased length, really just about anything you can throw its way.
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Classic Shape, But Longer and Thinner
F-One Rocket Wing (2023)
Price (60L, Bamboo): $1,519
Weight (60L, Bamboo): 12.1 lbs
Notable Features: Relatively longer and thinner outline than most boards here
Bottom Contour: Mostly flat with a slight double concave
Available Constructions: Bamboo, ASC Epoxy, Carbon
Available Sizes (Liters): 40, 50, 60, 75, 88, 105, 120, 140
Pros: Thinner and longer shape provides great connection to the foil without sacrificing volume and stability
Cons: None of the interesting new features that have shown up recently in wing board design
The Rocket Wing is a tough to categorize board. In the smaller sizes, it’s a high-performance machine, great for freestyle riding, and even capable of some use as a prone-board for foil-surfing. Sized up, it’s awesome for beginners with a bit of extra width and length over similar-volume models from other manufacturers. The increased length and width also results in an overall thinner deck, providing great responsiveness and board-feel in comparison to other similarly-sized boards. This board just feels good underfoot, whether you’re riding the 40L version as a sinker or the larger sizes as a beginner/SUP board.
The Rocket Wing V2 comes in three different constructions including Carbon, Bamboo, and ASC Epoxy construction. The carbon construction is super light and surprisingly durable. Carbon boards, in shooting for that low overall weight, sometimes use less or thinner layers of epoxy in the construction, and can be easy to ding. While not as durable as the bamboo or ASC epoxy constructions, the Carbon Rocket Wing is certainly sturdy enough to last you for years, presenting a great balance of low-weight and durability compared to some other carbon-constructed boards we tested.
Of note, the 2024 Rocket Wing V3 boards just dropped this month. We’ll be updating this review to include the new boards as soon as we are able to clock enough time in the water with them.
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Innovative Design
KT Ginxu
Price (62L): $2,128 (on sale for $800)
Weight (62L): 13.5 lbs
Construction: Full PVC sandwich, Carbon Monocoque construction, S-Glass fiberglass
Bottom Contour: Beveled rails, dramatic step-bottom towards the tail
Notable Features: Chopped/recessed bottom in the back for better foot-foil connection
Available Sizes (Liters): 26, 32, 39, 46, 54, 62, 72, 82, 92, 105, 120
Pros: provides the benefit of a thinner board while maintaining buoyancy/thickness
Cons: Cut out on back doesn’t help with takeoff (as far as we can tell), a bit wide for the length
You won’t be finding any other board on the market that looks like the KT Ginxu. At least not for the next 20 years. Why? Because KT loved the step-bottom design of the board so much that they patented it. So the story goes, KT team rider Kai Lenny was looking for a board that would give him a better connection to his foil, be less sticky when touching down, and had a low swing-weight. With a seemingly impossible task in front of him to bring all three competing design elements together, Keith Teboul (KT) thought outside the box of traditional foil-board construction, and came up with the step-bottom design of the Ginxu.
While we haven’t spent as much time on this new design as we would like, after our first impressions testing this board at the AWSI expo in Hood River, we were seriously impressed with the wild-looking new design. With a bit of a wider outline, and room to go as thick as needed on the forward two-thirds of the board past the rear cutout section (since it won’t affect the board’s foil-sensitivity), the volume of the board is preserved while the thickness of the board where it counts (where the foil connects) is greatly reduced. That has the board feeling and performing like a much lower-volume board while up on foil, which is also aided by the shorter and wider design, reducing the swing-weight. The 62-liter board we tested felt more like a sub-50-liter board.
Despite the mostly-flat bottom contour through the rest of the board, we were also impressed with the rebound-ability of the board when touching down (a major selling point of the new design), thanks to the lack of surface area on the bottom of the board that hits during brief touchdowns. However, in our (limited) testing we did not experience a palpable improvement in initial take-off compared to similar wing boards, which is one of the many claimed benefits of the step-bottom design. It’s also worth noting the slightly wider design than most foil boards, which packs in the volume lost with the step-bottom, but can also lead to a decrease in performance with sharp and radical tacks and maneuvers. This downside is reduced by the steeply beveled rails, and it’s certainly reassuring to know that if the board is good enough for Kai Lenny, it likely won’t be holding your winging performance back, either.
check price on REAL Watersports
Great Bottom Contours
Jimmy Lewis Flying VM
Price (60L): $1,899
Weight (60L): Not listed
Available Constructions: PVC sandwich with carbon reinforcement
Notable Features: Bottom contour designed to reduce “stickyness” when touching down
Bottom Contour: Hull-shaped with “nose keel”
Available Sizes (Liters): 60, 75, 85, 95
Pros: Bottom contour really does what it claims, narrow width gives solid performance
Cons: 60L board was a little corky at 4’8” x 22″ x 4 3/8″
The Flying VM from Jimmy Lewis was one of our favorite boards in this test. The 4’8″ 60L board just felt good, with a wide and flat deck, smartly contoured underside with a well-defined “nose keel” and beveled rails that made for great control, surfability, and rebound when touching down. The “foil feel” wasn’t the absolute best given the slightly thicker amount of board between you and your foil at 4 3/8 inches thick, but it wasn’t a dealbreaker and really only noticeable in comparison to much thinner/lower-volume boards, anyways.
We found the board can be harder to start in rough waters thanks to the corkiness and reduced width. However, it does have great trackability on the surface of the water and in light winds, thanks to the shaped bottom and despite the relatively short length. The rebound-ability was definitely one of our favorite aspects of this board as we found the shaped nose really does help direct the board back into the air when it hits the surface of the water without as much drag as we found in some other board shapes.
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Compact and Capable
Duotone Sky Series (Sky Free / Sky Style)
Price (65L): $1,999 (SLS construction)
Weight (65L): Not listed
Available Constructions: SLS (carbon/high-density foam), Original (bamboo/carbon sandwich)
Bottom Contour: Flat with beveled rails
Available Sizes (Liters): Sky Free: 95, 105, 115, 125 | Sky Free SLS: 95, 105 | Sky Style: 75, 85 | Sky Style SLS: 45, 55, 65, 75, 85
Notable Features: Recessed deck, extra volume in the nose, footstrap inserts, Sky Free has a handle on top and bottom of board
Pros: Predictable and comfortable riding experience in a compact, optimized package, SLS construction is very lightweight and durable
Cons: Nothing special going on with the design or bottom contours
Duotone’s range of wing boards just got revamped this season, ditching the old “Fanatic” title to merge with Duotone as a single brand for wings, boards, and foils. And while the boards received some new additions like the downwind board and some re-categorizations, not a ton else has changed. The boards did receive beveled rails on the underside, an upgrade to reduce the surface area in contact with the water in getting up to speed, and the volume distribution was tweaked as a result, but the overall shape remains the same – predictable, easy-to-use, and well-loved. The original Fanatic Sky Wing has been one of the more popular beginner-intermediate board shapes in the US, and it doesn’t look like that will be changing anytime soon.
The boards in Duotone’s “Sky” series have a few different names, but they’re all basically the same design, with the exception of the Sky Start, a 155L beginner board, and the Sky Surf, Duotone’s prone/advanced wing board, which we take note of below. As for the Sky Start, while this may be a great board for a wing school taking people out for their first time, we wouldn’t recommend this to an individual to purchase as you’ll (hopefully) very quickly outgrow such a beginner-oriented board. The two we’re focusing on here are the Sky Style and Sky Free, which are basically the same board except for the different sizes which are offered, a tad more rocker and a pulled-in tail on the Sky Style, and added volume in the nose on the Sky Free.
The Sky Free is the name for the larger sizes of board, ranging from 95L to 125L. The 95L and 105L sizes are also offered in Duotone’s SLS (strong, light, superior) carbon construction that makes for a lighter board. The Sky Style ranges from 45L to 85L, but only the 75L and 85L boards are offered in the non-SLS construction. While we can see Duotone’s argument that a smaller board will benefit more from the weight savings of carbon, it does present a bit of a challenge to the advanced-but-budget-conscious rider in choosing a Duotone board for their setup.
check Sky Free price on MacKite check Sky Style SLS price on MacKite
Closed-Cell Foam
Omen Flux
Price (60L): $1,770
Weight (60L): 10.9 lbs
Available Constructions: Full carbon layup/closed-cell foam core
Bottom Contour: Semi-displacement hull with large bevels
Notable Features: Closed-cell foam construction, fin-style carry handle
Available Sizes (Liters): 36, 40, 48, 60, 72, 84
Pros: Super lightweight and rigid boards with advanced bottom contour/design
Cons: Not the most durable construction, but closed-cell foam means no repairs needed for minor dings, not a ton of footstrap-placement options
As I’ve mentioned elsewhere in this article, the world of board design in wing foiling is still figuring itself out, testing out new and unique concepts, and generally making our job as reviewers much harder. It used to be that the goal was to make boards as short as possible, and stuff them full of volume. Now, we’re seeing that there’s a bit more nuance than that, and that length isn’t the anathema it once was. F-One and Appletree are at the forefront of the length-revolution, and the Appletree/Omen Flux wing board is an excellent example of such a design. While certainly an all-around shape, especially in the larger-volumes, the Flux is geared towards making light-wind winging fun.
The handle is an interesting one, consisting of a rounded surf fin that can be inserted into a twin-tab fin box in the bottom of the board, which Omen describes as a “low-drag handle,” but I’m sure it can’t hurt the trackability of the board in light wind or underpowered conditions.
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Functional Features
Armstrong Wing FG Board
Price (58L): $1,750
Weight (58L): 10.3 lbs
Available Constructions: Carbon PVC sandwich
Bottom Contour: Double concave with some nose-keel
Notable Features: Deep deck-concave, comes with a board bag
Available Sizes (Liters): 34, 40, 48, 58, 70, 80, 90, 105, 120, 135
Pros: High-performing all-around shape, very light
Cons: Board is quite tippy in the smaller sizes
Some boards on this list lean into surfboard-inspired design choices with fluid curves and rail lines, while others fit more into the function-over-fashion techy windsports “aesthetic.” Armstrong’s Wing FG foil boards certainly fall into the latter category, and while they may not look like anything special, as we all know it’s how the board feels underfoot that really counts. And these boards do not disappoint – you can tell that lots of thought has gone into the design, with a strong preference for high-performance riding.
Notable features include a recessed deck with a low-profile but grippy deckpad that has raised edges and a raised back-foot arch area to assist in foot-placement, a narrow outline with steeply beveled rails and a decent bit of keel-shape in the nose, and long foil tracks that extend to nearly halfway up the bottom of the board, allowing the rider to place their foil in a much more central position than most wing boards, reducing swing-weight while riding.
check price on REAL Watersports
Classic Design
North Seek 2024
Price (58L): $1,449
Weight (58L): Not listed
Available Constructions: PVC sandwich with carbon reinforcement
Bottom Contour: subtle tri-plane
Notable Features: Very middle-of-the-road shape, double mast-tracks
Available Sizes (Liters): 48, 58, 68, 78, 88, 98, 108, 118, 138
Pros: Solid all-around performance, competitive price
Cons: Nothing special in terms of design
The 2022 North Seek boards were about as standard as they come — classic boxy outline, flat bottom, some nose rocker, a bit of a concave/recessed deck, and a fairly middle-of-the-line volume distribution. The most interesting design-element was the double foil tracks on the bottom of the board, giving you a very wide range of options for mast-placement over other boards on the market. There is also a raised bump running down the middle of the deck that is a nice reference-point for front-foot positioning.
The 2024 Seek follows in the footsteps of its predecessor, with a few more refined features and design elements than before. The double foil tracks carry over from the 2022 version, as does the front-foot deck bump. The deckpad is one of the best we’ve tried – grippy but with low-profile traction that doesn’t tear up your knees or wetsuit.
The bottom now features a subtle tri-plane hull design, with the center of the board extruding slightly from the rest of the board for a reduced surface-area on touchdowns. While it’s not the most dramatic difference, it is nice to see North pick up the trend towards more shaped bottom contours that is becoming more and more common across the industry. Another major pro of the Seek is the hybrid-carbon construction, producing a fairly lightweight board without the high price-point usually associated with a carbon-construction board.
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Updated, Classic Design
Cabrinha Code V2
Price (60L): $1,551
Weight (60L): 12.3 lbs
Available Constructions: Bamboo/EPS with carbon stringer
Bottom Contour: Slight nose-keel, beveled rails with deep cutout at tail
Notable Features: Solid all-around shape, beveled rails
Available Sizes (Liters): 60, 72, 86, 100, 114, 130
Pros: Solid mix between interesting design concepts such as a “nose keel” similar to the Jimmy Lewis Flying VM and classic wingboard styling, very stiff and durable construction
Cons: Twin tracks did not play the best with other manufacturer’s t-bolts/nuts
Cabrinha’s second iteration of the Code wingboard picks up where the V1 version left off, basically taking the general shape and design elements and dialing them up. Slightly beveled rails? Now they’re really beveled, and have a deep cutout in the back around the mast area for faster releases when getting up on foil. However, the overall shape of the board has been preserved, with a rectangular shape and squared off nose.
The board feels great underfoot, and has a super solid “Hybrid Carbon” construction consisting of layers of fiberglass, a layer of bamboo on the deck, and a few different carbon stringers strategically placed throughout, making for a very stiff and fairly durable board. It is a little heavier than wing boards of comparable size and shape, but not by a lot. The biggest downside was that we found the foil tracks could be a little troublesome when mixing and matching with other manufacturer’s foil hardware – the board comes with inserts in the foil tracks made to work with Cabrinha foils, which need to be removed if you’re going to use a foil from a different manufacturer. When inserting the foil hardware for a Slingshot mast, we found the tracks to be a bit sticky and tough to operate.
The board we tested was the Cabrinha Code V2 (2023). The V3 (2024) is set to be released May 25th, and we will update this review when we’re able to get hands on and spend sufficient time on the new board.
check v2 price on Green hat kiteboarding check v3 price on MacKite
Wide and Flat Shape
Slingshot Wing Craft V2
Price (60L): $1,789
Weight (60L): 11.86 lbs
Available Constructions: Not listed
Notable Features: Out-the-back foil tracks, very short and wide shape relative to other boards
Bottom Contour: Flat
Available Sizes: 50, 60, 70, 80, 105, 120, 140
Pros: Wide outline and flat bottom is great for stability
Cons: Completely flat bottom presents some downsides, not the best for upwind/racing given the wider profile
The Slingshot Wing Craft V1 was, for a long time, one of the first and best wing foil boards for beginners, with a wide, stable outline, flat deck, solid durability and a few performance features such as beveled rails and a slight double concave on the underside of the nose. The Wing Craft V2 continues in the same vein, doubling down on the short and wide M.O., cutting a couple inches off the nose and packing that volume into a completely flat bottom without beveled rails, and an even wider outline.
Other changes include a more comfortable deckpad and out-the-back foil tracks on the 80-liter and smaller sizes of the board. The deckpad is an upgrade for anyone, beginner to pro, forgoing the diamond-shaped traction popular on surfboard traction pads for a corduroy design that is much softer on the knees and feet, a huge boon for beginners. One of our testers learned to wing foil on the Wing Craft V1, and he recalls bloody toe-knuckles and chewed-up wetsuit kneepads as a result of scrambling to his feet over and over again on the original diamond-groove traction. The out-the-back foil tracks are another nice upgrade, letting you keep your hardware attached to the mast for more efficient setup/disassembly.
The bottom contour we found to be an interesting choice. While there is no doubt that a completely flat bottom will be great for stability, Slingshot further states that the flat bottom and hard rails will help the board get up to planing speed faster for an earlier takeoff. We found this claim interesting, given that most of the industry has been moving towards a more hull-shaped design on the bottom of wing boards to help the board cut through the water and reduce “stickyness” where the surface-tension of the water keeps the board glued to the surface. Hard, if not impossible to say which design works better, but on first blush we’ve got to surmise that the Slingshot flat bottom will likely perform better on the surface of the water in terms of stability and building up speed, a hull-shaped bottom will perform better on touchdowns, rebounding back into the air. We discuss the pros and cons of bottom contours more in our Buyer’s Guide towards the end of this article.
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Sinker/Surf
When it comes to wing boards, anything, really, can be a sinker board depending on the board’s literage and the weight of the rider. Many of the “all-around” boards we have listed above can be sized down to “sinker” size. However, some boards are uniquely designed with deep-water starts and high-performance riding in mind.
These boards tend to cross over quite heavily with wing and foil boards designed for use in the surf – both winging into waves and paddling into them from a prone position. Surf-oriented wing boards have more curve/rocker on the bottom of the board to better fit into the curl of a wave without touching down or digging in, and boards designed more for use in prone foil-surfing tend to have a longer, narrower outline for better paddle-ability as you get into the wave.
With that in mind, here are some sinker/surf foil boards that we’ve particularly enjoyed riding.
Wide Range of Available Sizes
F-One Rocket Wing S (2023)
Price (54L): $1,519
Weight (54L): 11.2 lbs
Available Constructions: Bamboo, carbon
Bottom Contour: Flat with some rocker and beveled rails
Available Sizes (Liters): 20, 24, 32, 36, 42, 48, 54, 70, 80
Notable Features: Concave deck, lots of extra volume in the nose, narrow width
Pros: Great shape overall, nose and bottom contours really well optimized for sharp turns on waves, etc., lots of size options
Cons: Extra volume up front makes the board a little less balanced front-to-back, can be off-putting when starting in rougher waters
The Rocket Wing S is F-One’s prone/high performance wing board, with a focus on riding waves (the S stands for “Surf”). The board features a shaped but high-volume nose, recessed deck, and beveled rails, making for a high-performance wave-riding machine. Furthermore, thanks to the wide range of sizes, this board is capable of far more than just high-performance winging and wave-riding, and can accommodate a wide variety of rider weights as well. That said, this wouldn’t be our first choice for a beginner, even though the board is available in an 80-liter version. We’ve had the opportunity to try this board in a few different sizes, and in every case we were super impressed with the balanced and intuitive ride the board delivers.
High-performance characteristics such as a concave deck and a high-volume nose round out this board’s notable features. The extra volume in the nose adds extra volume without making the board thicker (and less responsive to the foil) and helps guide the board to the surface of the water when deep-water starting. It was also the only con that we noticed in our time testing the board – in the larger sizes, where your waterstarts will be close to (or at) the surface of the water, the extra volume in the nose takes some getting used to, requiring that you shift your weight further forward on the board to stay balanced. Not a huge deal, but in rougher waters it can take some getting used to. The narrower width of the board also isn’t doing you too many favors there, but the narrowness is a worthy compromise that we’d make any day for a high-performance and wave riding machine such as this one. Neither are as much of a con as they are something to be aware of.
Stable and Compact
Slingshot Flying Fish V2
Price (32L): $1,178 (sale price $499)
Weight (32L): 9.65 lbs
Available Constructions: EPS with carbon reinforcements
Bottom Contour: Flat with slightly beveled rails
Notable Features: Wide, flat design, some kick in tailpad
Available Sizes (Liters): 32, 35, 39
Pros: Compact shape with a bit of extra width for improved lift when deep-water starting
Cons: Not a ton of size variety
The Flying Fish is Slingshot’s offering in the prone/sinker board department, and without a doubt, the board does not disappoint. The shape is fairly flat, without much rocker, and without many of the newfangled design elements we’re seeing more and more of these days like a recessed deck or dramatically beveled rails. However, we found the simplicity and surfboard-esque shape to be very comfortable and predictable, both in starting and in riding. The lack of a recessed deck also makes this board much more useful as a prone-foil board, as well as for wing foiling, giving the rider a nice flat surface to paddle on.
Being so wide and low-volume, the board is also quite thin in comparison to most other foil boards in this review. That’s hugely impactful on the foil responsiveness, and this board does not disappoint being one of the most sensitive and reactive boards we tested for this review. The biggest downside to the board is the sizes it is offered in. Only offering sizes up to 39 liters definitely limits the board’s potential for heavier riders looking for such an advanced style of board. However, for advanced or lighter riders, the Flying Fish delivers great performance in a budget-friendly package.
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Ultra High-Performance
Duotone Sky Surf SLS
Price (35L): $1,899
Weight (35L): Not listed
Available Constructions: Duotone SLS (carbon/high-density foam)
Bottom Contour: Flat, with rocker and beveled rails
Available Sizes (Liters): 25, 35
Notable Features: Narrow width (< 20 inches), deep beveled rails, shaped nose
Pros: Predictable and comfortable riding experience in a compact, optimized package
Cons: limited sizes offered
As mentioned above, Duotone’s range of wing boards just got revamped this season, ditching the old “Fanatic” title to merge with Duotone as a single brand for wings, boards, and foils. The Sky Surf boards are the smallest of the new Duotone line, available in two sizes for high-performance winging, light riders, and prone-foiling. Other than the Sky Start (a 155L beginner wing board that we honestly don’t recommend for personal purchasing), the Sky Surf is the most different from the other two boards in the Duotone lineup (the Sky Free and the Sky Style).
The design features a more pulled-in nose than the other boards, more dramatic bevels on the underside of the board, and more rocker, all the better to fit into the pocket of waves. Only being offered in two sizes of 25L and 35L, the board is certainly geared towards the most advanced riders, and groms pushing the advancement of the sport. The narrow width makes for incredible performance riding at the highest level. Features like a grippy and low-profile deckpad, a slightly recessed deck and inserts for footstraps round out this high-performance machine. If you’re looking to push the boundaries of the sport, this board won’t hold you back from doing so.
check price on MacKite
Wing Foil Boards Comparison Table
| Board | Price | Sizes Offered (Liters) | Construction(s) | Notable Features |
| Naish Hover Wing Foil Ascend Carbon Ultra | (62L): $1,429 | 42, 52, 62, 72, 82, 92, 102, 112, 122, 142 | Carbon/Wood Vacuum Sandwich | Raised arch on tailpad for back foot placement |
| KT Wing Drifter | (62L): $1,495 | 34, 38, 42, 50, 56, 62, 72, 80, 90, 105, 115, 130, 160 | Ultra Carbon Monocoque | Shaped bottom, increased length and narrow(er) width |
| F-One Rocket Wing 2023 | (60L, Bamboo): $1,519 | 40, 50, 60, 75, 88, 105, 120, 140 | Bamboo, ASC Epoxy, Carbon | Relatively longer and thinner design |
| KT Ginxu | (62L): $2,128 (on sale for $800) | 26, 32, 39, 46, 54, 62, 72, 82, 92, 105, 120 | Full PVC Sandwich, Carbon | chopped/recessed bottom in the back for better foot-foil connection |
| Jimmy Lewis Flying VM | (60L): $1,899 | 60, 75, 85, 95 | PVC Sandwich with Carbon Reinforcement | Bottom contour designed to reduce “stickyness” when touching down |
| Duotone Sky Series (Sky Free / Sky Style) | (65L): $1,999 (SLS construction) | Sky Free: 95, 105, 115, 125 | Sky Free SLS: 95, 105 | Sky Style: 75, 85 | Sky Style SLS: 45, 55, 65, 75, 85 | SLS (Carbon/High-Density Foam), Original (Bamboo/Carbon Sandwich) | Recessed deck, extra volume in the nose, Sky Free has a handle on top and bottom of board |
| Omen Flux | (60L): $1,770 | 36, 40, 48, 60, 72, 84 | Closed-Cell Foam/Full Carbon Layup | Closed-cell foam construction, fin-style carry handle |
| Armstrong Wing FG Board | (58L): $1,750 | 34, 40, 48, 58, 70, 80, 90, 105, 120, 135 | Carbon PVC Sandwich | Deep deck-concave, comes with a board bag |
| North Seek 2024 | (58L): $1,449 | 48, 58, 68, 78, 88, 98, 108, 118, 138 | PVC Sandwich with Carbon Reinforcement | Double mast-tracks, ridges on deck for intuitive foot-placement |
| Cabrinha Code V2 | (60L): $1,551 | 60, 72, 86, 100, 114, 130 | Bamboo/EPS with Carbon Stringer | Beveled rails and shaped bottom-contours |
| Slingshot Wing Craft V2 | (60L): $1,789 | 50, 60, 70, 80, 105, 120, 140 | EPS with Carbon Reinforcement | Out-the-back foil tracks, flat bottom |
| F-One Rocket Wing S (2023) | (54L): $1,519 | 20, 24, 32, 36, 42, 48, 54, 70, 80 | Bamboo, Carbon | Concave deck, lots of extra volume in the nose, narrow width |
| Slingshot Flying Fish V2 | (32L): $1,178 (sale price $499) | 32, 35, 39 | EPS with Carbon Reinforcement | Wide, flat design, some kick in tailpad |
| Duotone Sky Surf SLS | (35L): $1,899 | 25, 35 | SLS (Carbon/High-Density Foam) | Narrow width (< 20 inches), deeply beveled rails, shaped nose |
Getting after it at Hood River. Photo: Will Sileo//The Inertia
How We Tested The Best Wing Foil Boards
This review is a continual work in progress as we work to get our hands on as many wing boards in the industry as we can to review, and as the red-hot foil market continues to pump out new designs. For this first stab at covering the category, we spent the summer and fall testing more than 12 different wing boards from the top manufacturers in the business at Crissy Field in San Francisco, on alpine lakes in Idaho and Alberta, Canada, at the foiling Mecca of Hood River, Oregon, and in light-wind conditions along the Southern California coast. We’re continuing our testing now as the 2024 spring season kicks back into gear here on the U.S. West Coast.
The boards listed here are our top picks, the ones that sang under our feet or we found to be particularly useful for a given application. With new shapes and designs dropping all the time, stay tuned for updates to this article as we get the latest and greatest wing foil boards under our feet to give you our thoughts.
Some of the boards we tested for this review on a sunny testing day at Crissy Field. Photo: Will Sileo//The Inertia
Best Wing Foil Boards Buyer’s Guide
Different Types of Wing Foil Boards
Beginner/SUP Wing Foil Boards pack the volume. These boards tend to be upwards of 90 liters in volume, with wide decks and flatter bottoms to give newer riders a stable platform to mess around on. They share a lot of similar characteristics with SUP-foil boards, and many can pull double-duty for SUP-foil and learning to wing. They are also useful in lighter winds, however, longer, narrower boards (similar to a downwind foil board) will perform much better in light winds for riders advanced enough to deal with the tippy-ness of a narrower deck. While it may be tempting to try and start out on as small of a board as you can to avoid having to buy an intermediate-sized board for as long as possible, you definitely don’t want to shortchange yourself with too small of a board that will keep you from progressing in the early stages of your winging development. Our Beginner Wing Foil Gear Guide dives more into those details.
All-Around Wing Foil Boards are exactly what they sound like, middle of the road designs aimed at excelling in a wide range of conditions. For those who are looking for a one-board solution, this style of board will be your best bet, and a majority of the boards in this review fit into that category. These boards tend to be fairly short, often less than 5 feet in length, with plenty of volume packed in from tip-to-tail. Volume-wise, these boards generally run from 45 to 90 liters, depending on the weight of the rider. For example, a 45-liter board, while right on the edge of being a sinker for most riders, would be a great all-around size for a smaller grom.
True “Sinker” Boards are also exactly what they sound like – boards that are small enough in volume for the rider to sink them below the surface of the water. What sinker boards may lack in volume, they make up for in performance, with thin decks for the ultimate connection to your foil. Their relatively small size gives them incredible pump-ability and performance in general, however, seeing how sinker boards, well, sink, you’ll need to learn how to do a deep-water start to use one. Sinker boards also share a lot in common with surf-foil boards, though a dedicated sinker wing board will tend to run a bit shorter and higher volume than your average surf-foil board.
Other Types of Foil Boards include the aforementioned surf-foil boards, smaller boards geared towards prone-paddling in and popping up on a wave that share a lot of characteristics with “sinker” boards. They also tend to have a bit more rocker to help the board better fit into the curve of a wave. SUP-foil boards (which share a lot of characteristics with beginner wing foil boards) are designed for stand-up paddling into a wave with wide and stable shapes. Downwind foil boards are a new class of boards that have popped up in the past year or two, being long, narrow, high-volume foil boards made for gliding from one bump of swell to the next on high-aspect foils. They are also gaining popularity for use in light-wind winging, as their length and narrowness provides great trackability on the surface of the water, perfect for building up speed to get up on foil in light winds. Kite foil boards and pumping foil boards forgo as much volume and length as possible for maximum efficiency and maneuverability.
Longer downwind-style boards are becoming popular for light-wind winging. Photo: Cory Diamond//The Inertia
Foil Board Construction
There’s a few different ways to construct a foil board. The first two main categorizations are hardboards and inflatables.
Inflatable foils boards are best suited for traveling and beginners. In terms of travel, an inflatable board packs down to the size of a backpack, however, pumping up the board becomes an additional step in setup: something to keep in mind. Inflatable boards also don’t collect dings the way a hardboard will over time, a huge boon for travel and beginners alike, but should you somehow pierce their rhino-hide skin, they are much harder to repair.
Beginners will also benefit from the high volume nature of inflatable boards, and the fact that they hurt less when you fall on them. And with modern inflatable-board technology, inflatables are able to be pumped up to very high pressures, making them quite rigid and with a surprising amount of performance. That said, you will always be taking a step down in performance and how reactive your foil is when choosing an inflatable over a hard foil board. Inflatables also do not allow for the nuances in board design discussed in this article such as beveled rails, bottom contours, etc. Due to the nature of inflatable board design, in going with an inflatable you’ll want to choose a board of much higher volume than you would a hard board.
Hardboards are the industry standard when it comes to winging. They perform the best, are the simplest to deal with in setup, the list goes on. Hardboards tend to be constructed similar to a surfboard, from a foam core wrapped in some type of material like bamboo, fiberglass, or carbon fiber, and then laminated with resin. With an emphasis on light weight and stiffness, as well as all of the forces being exerted on the board through the mast connection box, sometimes these boards are constructed from a more sandwich-style epoxy construction, or have sheets or strips of carbon fiber running through the board to increase rigidity and durability.
Carbon Fiber is by far the lightest-weight and most expensive construction, but not all carbon fiber boards are constructed the same, and you may even find a fiberglass board from one manufacturer matches the weight and performance of a carbon fiber board from someone else – so don’t let the label of carbon fiber goad you into throwing gobs of money at a product. Don’t get me wrong — carbon fiber is no snake oil, but it’s also a label that has been widely applied to a range of similar-but-different board constructions.
Fiberglass and other laminate boards (bamboo is sometimes used) are a bit heavier, but often a good bit more durable, than their carbon counterparts.
AppleTree Foil Boards are made with a light closed-cell foam/carbon construction that doesn’t let water in when it dings. Photo: Will Sileo//The Inertia
Board Shape
The wing industry is really just getting the gear dialed. Which, with the benefits of modern technology and a wide-open playing field to try new designs, has lead board design in a few different directions. At first, shorter was seen as better, and the idea was to stuff as much volume into as short of a design as possible. Unfortunately, that idea didn’t totally hold water, with manufacturers realizing that many wingers could benefit from longer, narrower, and lower volume boards, for a variety of reasons. The industry has since come around to the idea that while volume provides a nice easy summary of (roughly) how big a board is, it in no way captures the intricacies of a boards shape, and how its length, width, and thickness work together. Here’s our attempt at breaking these vastly complex topics down without absolutely boring you to death.
Thickness: thicker boards float better, but too thick without enough corresponding length and width will be “corky” sitting too high out of the water, unstable, and hard to start on.
Also, a thicker board moves you further away from the top of your mast, reducing the responsiveness of your foil. More and more board manufacturers are turning to recessed/concave decks where the riders feet are, to lower the center of gravity and get them closer to the foil while maintaining volume along the rails or in the nose, depending on the board. The KT Ginxu attacks thickness from a different direction, with a large cutout on the bottom of the board where the mast connects to reduce the thickness of the board where it matters the most.
Narrower boards make for more radical turns. Photo: Cory Diamond//The Inertia
Width: wider boards are more stable, important for beginners and the rest of us, to some extent. However, the added drag from a wider board means you’ll need more wind to achieve liftoff, and doesn’t allow you to heel over as hard when going upwind, resulting in less efficient upwind angles. This matters a lot for wing foil racers, for obvious reasons! Turning is also affected by the width of a board. Especially in lighter winds, as you shed speed through a turn, a narrower board will allow for tighter turns without accidentally catching a rail. The downsides of increased width in turning and upwind performance can be mitigated by a longer mast, but only by so much.
Tucker, MACkite’s wing foil guru, and one of the most knowledgeable people we’ve ever chatted with on the subject, shared that he sees 23-inches of width as a threshold for wing boards — any wider and they tend to feel more like a SUP with lots of stability but a decrease in turning and upwind performance. Any narrower and the board will feel more like a prone foil board with decreases in stability and corresponding increased performance.
Length: “Swing weight” used to be anathema to the wing board manufacturer — everyone wanted to go shorter and shorter to eliminate that supposed decrease in turning performance. However, the industry as a whole has since realized there’s plenty of other factors that are equally, if not more important than swing weight, and that aspects such as thinness and the shape of the board’s nose (how well does it slice through the wind?) can help to make up for a longer board. Furthermore, the benefits of a longer board (ease of takeoff, etc) have proven to be far more impactful than the decrease in performance that comes from “swing weight.”
Nose Shape: this one actually has a lot to do with length and swing weight, which is why we’re tacking it on here. A board with a trimmed-down and pointier nose will cut through the wind better than a board with a flat nose shape, making for less “swing weight” and easier turning.
Some subtle nose-keel on an Appletree foil board. Designs like these help a board rebound back into the air after touching down on the surface of the water. Photo: Will Sileo//The Inertia
Bottom Contour: it’s also well worth paying attention to what’s going on with the underside of your wing board as there’s a couple of key characteristics that, while they might not be “make or break” aspects, can certainly make a difference depending on what you are looking for.
A completely flat-bottomed board tends to provide the best on-water stability, great for beginners, intermediates transitioning to a smaller-size board, and to an extent, freestylists who want a small but stable platform to land on while doing aerials. However, that flat bottom tends to be “stickier” than a board with some contour to it, with the added friction requiring a bit more power to get up on foil, and sticking more when touching down and making it harder to ride out of tricks.
Boards like the Jimmy Lewis Flying VM or the Appletree/Omen Flux have a hull-shaped bottom that cuts through the water like the bottom of a boat, making for less sticky touchdowns – the product page for the Flying VM claims that the shape will “re-direct the rider back up onto the foil with little or no drag when they touch down,” and we have to admit there is a palpable difference between a flat-bottomed board and a board with a shaped hull. However, it’s worth keeping in mind that any sort of hull-shaped bottom will be tippier and less stable than a flat-bottomed board.
KT’s Ginxu board has a stepped deck in the rear of the board, for a better foil-to-board connection. Photo: Will Sileo//The Inertia
Furthermore, when combined with a thinner and longer board outline, a shaped hull provides incredible light-wind performance. Over the past year, light-wind boards have shifted from looking more like a SUP board with a wide and stable outline to the longer and thinner downwind foil boards that are becoming wildly popular today. This shape allows a foil board to “track” and build speed while still on the surface of the water, so riders can get up on foil in extremely light wind conditions.
Some boards also make use of beveled rails, which reduce the width and surface area of the bottom of the board relative to the width of the deck. This is great for turning and upwind performance (see: width) as well as reducing friction for less sticky takeoffs and touchdowns. Just be aware of the decreased stability due to the thinner-width bottom of the board.
Recently, a few board designers (notably KT and Cabrinha) have been experimenting with strange and interesting board shapes around the back of the board/foil mast connection area. KT’s Ginzu has a stepped deck in the back, narrowing the thickness of the board between the rider’s back foot and the top of the mast, providing a noticeable increase in sensitivity. Cabrinha’s Code, along with the beveled rail system mentioned above, has a much narrower area around the mast, making for much less area in contact with — and sticking to — the surface of the water when the back half of the board is all that’s touching, similar to the beveled rails on the KT Wing Drifter.
Board-thickness makes a huge difference. Here’s a 32-liter Slingshot Flying Fish V2 next to a 60-liter Wing Craft V2. Photo: Will Sileo//The Inertia
What Size Wing Board Is Right For Me?
Ah, the classic question. While volume doesn’t tell you the whole story of whether or not a board might work for you, it’s a fairly good approximation. If you’re asking this question because you’re new to the sport, we wrote a whole article, just for you, on the Best Beginner Wing Foil Gear. To sum things up, the general rule for your first wing board is your weight in kilograms, plus 20-40, equals the volume of wing board you should aim for. More like +20 for younger, fitter riders with prior boardsports experience, and more like +40 for older and less experienced riders. From there, you’ll want to size down incrementally as your skills progress.
However, there are a lot of other factors to choosing the right volume wing board besides just your weight. Riding conditions play a big factor – if you ride somewhere with a lot of wind (say Crissy Field in San Francisco, or Maui), you’ll be able to go smaller. If you ride somewhere with lighter winds, a bit of extra volume will go a long ways to ensure you make it up on foil consistently and without too much effort.
For example, Will Sileo (5’11”, 150 lbs), the lead gear tester for this review, tends to ride boards around 50-60 liters at Crissy Field. There’s plenty of wind, letting him use a smaller board, but Crissy Field is also a notoriously difficult location for winging with large tide swings, tons of chop, unpredictable weather, and commercial ship traffic. With that in mind, he sizes up a bit more than he would for a similar high-wind location as a safety precaution. The thought of trying to deep-water start a 30-liter sinker board with a cargo ship bearing down on him is a regular component of his deepest darkest nightmares.
Foil/Mast Connection Style
There are two main ways that a foil connects to a foil board, and it’s certainly worth making sure your board will work with the foil you have or are considering purchasing before you buy! Those two connection styles are the Deep Tuttle Box and the Twin Track System. The Deep Tuttle Box is a bit outdated at this point, however some specialist foil manufacturers (such as Mikes Lab Foils) have held true to the older design. A board with a Deep Tuttle Box has what is basically a fin box (like on a surfboard) that is much deeper and has extra reinforcement to withstand the forces that come with operating a foil. The twin track system is the go-to at this point, with a system of nuts and bolts threading into a pair of tracks on the bottom of the board.
Footstraps are a critical feature for those looking to get airborne, but they are also extremely useful for wave-riding and achieving better upwind angles. Photo: Will Sileo//The Inertia
Additional Features
While volume and shape of the foil board should be your main deciding factors, it’s definitely worth considering the other aspects that make up a foil board.
Strap Connection Points
Do you plan on using straps on your foil board? They’re pretty awesome, giving you more leverage for recoveries and wave riding, and they’re fairly essential for sinker boards or taking to the air. Most boards these days come with inserts for straps, however a few of the larger sizes of boards on this list don’t come with strap inserts (such as the 105L+ sizes of the 2023 Rocket Wing) so it’s worth double checking your board has this feature if that matters to you.
Carry Handle
Almost every board on this list has a carry handle, most have it on the bottom of the board, but some like the Naish Hover Wing, have a handle on both top and bottom. The smaller sizes of a lot of boards on this list like the F-One Rocket Wing and Duotone Sky series forgo the carry handle.
Ventilation
Similar to a surfboard, you may think that ventilation is the last thing a foil board would want. However, due to the lighter, stiffer, and higher-volume construction of foil boards, ventilation can be pretty crucial. With so much air inside of the foam of a foil board, if left in the sun or a hot car that air can expand dramatically with the heat, potentially damaging the exterior of the board. You can really trust your manufacturer on whether it’s necessary or not depending on the construction and volume of the foil board, but it’s worth noting here that a vented board will have a small plug (usually located somewhere on the deck) that lets air in and keeps water out, and its generally best to leave this plug inserted unless performing repairs and trying to drain water or something of the like.
Three different boards with three different deck-pads. From left to right, the Slingshot Wing Craft V2 uses a soft corduroy, the Jimmy Lewis Flying VM has a diamond-foam deckpad, and the F-One Rocket Wing has a grippy but low-profile deckpad. Photo: Will Sileo//The Inertia
Deck Grip
What’s directly under your feet can make a huge difference when foiling, especially if you are not using footstraps. Deck grip is actually a lot less straightforward than it looks, as it’s solving for a couple of different issues at the same time. Not only does it have to be grippy, but that grip needs to be durable (so it will last) and comfortable, so it won’t tear up your knees and feet or the material of your wetsuit if you wear one. This is especially important for beginners who spend a lot of time getting back up on their feet. The ridgy, diamond grip-pattern made of a softer foam material (popular on surfboard traction pads) was very popular for wing boards, but it seems the industry is moving away from this pattern as it does not deliver on the comfort side of things. Instead, board manufacturers have been moving towards a lower-profile (less big ridges) but grippier material instead of the soft foam that provides a grippy surface to keep from slipping off of, without the discomfort.
Recessed Deck
A recessed deck cuts away at the thickness of the board beneath the riders feet, allowing a manufacturer to pack in more volume without making the foil feel less responsive due to the added thickness. Boards with a recessed deck often have that extra volume somewhere else, evident in the nose design of the F-One Rocket Wing S. That redistribution of volume can be a double-edged sword. The benefits of a thinner board are undeniable (when it comes to performance) but the redistribution of volume can take some getting used to. For example, in testing the F-One Rocket Wing S we found ourselves shifting our weight forward during waterstarts to offset the increased volume in the nose. Not necessarily a downside, but something to keep in mind. This was also only noticeable in boards with a dramatic volume redistribution, a slight bit of deck-concave without significant volume elsewhere is unlikely to produce such an effect.
What About Custom Wing Foil Boards?
While there are plenty of awesome pre-manufactured wing foil boards on the market, there are also plenty of incredible custom shapers ready to make you the board of your dreams. What are some of the pros and cons of custom-manufactured wingboards? Well, pros certainly include the ability to dial in ones own dimensions and a shape that matches the riding style you are aiming for. Custom is as custom does.
However, as with anything made to your own specifications, you’re likely looking at a bit of lead time from ordering to actually getting your hands on the board. And while you may be able to dial in custom shape and design, it’s a toss-up as to whether your shaper will have the tools and necessary components at their disposal to add on the sort of high-tech features we’re seeing crop up on boards today such as deeper concave decks, experimental bottom contours, and the like.
Certified ripper Ken Adgate tears it up on one of his custom foil boards. Photo: Will Sileo//The Inertia
Should I Get a Board Bag for my Wing Foil Board?
Yes, without a doubt. Wing boards are a pricey investment, and in being designed for lightness and stiffness, they are fairly brittle and easy to ding. The exterior is often made of tough fiberglass, carbon fiber, or another laminate material, but impacts with hard edges – say, the doorway of your apartment, or the edge of a foil mast when dropped from waist-height (can you tell we’re speaking from experience?) – can do some damage. And if a crack develops that’s deep enough to let water in, the light foam inside will suck up water like a sponge, hurting your board’s performance without a doubt, and requiring time out of the water to dry before repairing. Rather than letting that happen, a padded boardbag provides critical impact protection, keeping your board in the water and performing at its best, and protecting your investment in the board should you choose to sell it down the line. We’ve reviewed surfboard boardbags here, and there’s also plenty of wingboard-specific boardbags to choose from as well.
Return to Top Picks | Return to Comparison Table
Editor’s Note: To complete your setup, check out our guide to The Best Wings for Wing Foiling, and stay tuned for our Best Foils review this summer. If you’re just getting started winging, here’s our Beginner Wing Foil Gear Guide. Need a wetsuit? We’ve reviewed those too. For more gear reviews and features on The Inertia, click here.
The Best Wings for Wing Foiling of 2023
