We chat to Ellie Aldridge of the British Sailing Team about her first ever winging event.

Ellie is one of Britain’s top kite racers, she competes at the highest level and did just that at the Formula Kite World Championships in October, placing 3rd! To then see her racing, just days later, at the Wing Foil World Cup was quite astonishing. Having never raced a wing before, but with a professional-level sailing background, we were keen to see how she got on. Here’s her write-up of the event. 

I'm Ellie Aldridge. I am a professional kite foil racer from the UK, campaigning to win the 2024 Paris Olympics, but when I am not competing or training, I am always on the water in other disciplines. A year ago I had a go at wing foiling and really started to love it. It is such a diverse sport, bringing windsurfing and kitesurfing together to create the most accessible new water sport. I love winging because I can go out whenever I want, on my own! In waves, flat water, chop, and always have fun!

I saw there was a Wingfoil World Cup in Campione, Garda that was conveniently timed the week after the formula kite world championships, the most important event for me in my professional career. I was happy to place 3rd in the kitefoil but was so excited to go and race wingfoil, in my first-ever wingfoil event!

I have been winging for 1 year, but because I spend most of my time training for kitefoil, I have not done any specific wingfoil racing training at all! I wanted to compete in the Wingfoil World Cup in Lake Garda to see what it was like and where the level is so far. I loved it more than I thought I would!!

The event was 4 days, first day was long-distance racing with the whole fleet where we raced with all the boys as well. It was great to see where my speed was at and I loved the big starts with so many people winging together. After the first day, we started slalom racing with just the girls, which was so fun! I have never done downwind slalom racing before so I learnt so much. After every race, I improved and learnt something new for the next race. I was figuring out how to go fastest in different directions on the course and getting more comfortable in fast manoeuvres.

On the last day of racing, we did upwind starting, with a reach and downwind slalom all combined into one race course. It is the course we use for kitefoil racing so I was very familiar with it. However I have never been properly racing upwind on a wing before, so again I was learning so much in every race. Still making mistakes and falling in too much! But all the time learning and improving from my mistakes.

By the end of the week I was getting the hang of things and was quite sad it was all over so soon. I finished the event in 2nd place riding the North Mode wings (5.5/4.2m), Sonar 85cm mast, 600cm fuselage, S208 stabiliser, and HA1100 & HA990 front wings. The foil I used was a lot bigger than most of the other competitors, but I felt comfortable and still fast!! I am looking forward to using the new, smaller front wings because I think they will be even faster! I am really happy with how my first-ever wing foil racing completion went, but I will be back better and faster, hopefully, to win next time!

It was a great week of racing and I loved meeting lots of new people from different disciplines coming together to race from many different backgrounds. I can't wait to do more wing racing in the future and see where the sport is going!

Men

  1. Mathis Ghio (FRA), 4.4 points
  2. Alessandro Tomasi (ITA), 5.3 points
  3. Clement Colmas (FRA), 7.0 points

Women

  1. Paula Novotná (CZE), 5.0 points
  2. Ellie Aldridge (GBR), 9.0 points
  3. Ceris Orane (FRA), 9.0 points

Videos

SabFoil 2022 WingFoil Racing World Cup & Open Europeans Day 3
By Ellie Aldridge

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