First Day Wing Foiling at Crissy

I've been waiting for the right wind conditions to start my wing foiling season in San Francisco, and finally got the opportunity today. The iwindsurf.com forecast initially had very favorable winds (as reported on Friday), but showed less favorable SW winds on Saturday morning (NW winds are best).

I loaded up the Tesla Model Y with all my gear (having assembled the Foil with the Armstrong 1250 front wing) earlier that morning. We started our drive to San Francisco at around 11:00, arriving at Crissy Field at 12:30. The skies were clear (unlike other parts of San Francisco), but the wind was light, and there were no wing foilers out. It was not exactly a favorable sign.

After finding a nice place to park (with a lawn nearby for assembling the foil and wing), we strolled to Chestnut Street for lunch. We stopped by our favorite Cracked & Battered eatery, but it was quite busy.

We were quoted a 20–30-minute wait. Worried about missing the wind, we briefly considered another restaurant, then returned and learned we would be seated next.

After sitting down outside (on barstools), we ordered the following items:

Boris: fried chicken & waffle, coffee
Inna: 3 pieces of fried chicken, 2 eggs over easy, coffee

The chicken was amazing, and the waffle was also fantastic. Inna generously gave me an extra piece of chicken, as I was extra hungry.

After lunch, I walked back to Crissy Field, while Inna waited for my message. If the wind was unfavorable, I would return to Chestnut Street, and we would continue exploring San Francisco together.

When I arrived at Crissy, I saw a few wing foilers on the water doing well, and felt the wind picking up. I decided to rig up and messaged Inna that I would try winging today.

I rigged the following wing foiling gear:

Duotone Slick SLS 5.0 wing
Armstrong 1250 front foil
Naish Hover LE Carbon Ultra 95-liter
Dakine harness
GoPro Hero 11 Black Mini cam

I had a wonderful one-hour session, blasting along. The wind was up and down, quite gusty, and the flooding tide was strong. I had a fantastic opening day of the season, though I felt a bit rusty.

Here is a GoPro Hero 11 Black mini video of my session:

I finished around 16:00, de-rigged, and loaded the gear back in the Tesla Model Y. I messaged Inna, who was strolling around Fillmore, and we decided to meet up at the Milos Meze Restaurant on Chestnut Street, where we had made dinner reservations for 17:00.