Arnaud van der Dussen

Questions & Answers

What other water sports do you do and how long?

Windsurf-competition, Kite surf -competition, and Sup wave- competition for a long time. Windsurf foil since 2017. Supfoil since beginning of 2017. Surffoil since end of 2018. Wing foiling when I was in the group of first people that started being foil in Europe. I build my own wing. Now I just wing foil and surf foil.

What do you like about wing foiling?

Freedom. You can do so many different things, freestyle, race, riding endless waves, you can go out with so lite wind and no effort. Easy and fast to get out there, and easy and fast to get everything back in the car. Anybody can play with the wing on the beach, my daughter loves it, or just cruising around the water on a sup with a wing. It's a very accessible sport.

How did you learn and how long did it take you to wing foil?

I already, windsurf foil, kite foil, sup foil, and surf foil before I started winging. So I build my own wing, from a old kite, because there was no wings available, just some pics, from North/Duotone and wings for on ice and snow, so +- 2018 I started building my wing, Wen it was ready, I got on the water, and 5 minutes later I was cruising on foil.

What is your favorite gear combination and why?

Axis foil Black edition, 90 mast, RRD wind wing any size, and 72L 4’7x22‘5 foilairlines board which I build myself!

What was your favorite wing surfing session?

When I organised a wing foil race meeting, just to get together with all riders in Portugal, and raced all day, there was no ranking there was no prize, we just raced for the fun of it.... And I was impressed how many riders were there, and that people you don’t expect like “grandpa kicks some a**!" That was a memorable wing day.

What do you want or believe will significantly improve the wing foiling gear?

I think in wing foiling you can go in so many directions, on recreational level and in competitive level. For me I would like that at competitive level / that there would be racing as well. Racing / course racing or slalom, it’s so much fun, and a bigger group will go racing, because not everyone can do those amazing flips and tricks,. Most people will only dream of one day completing a back flip on wing foil. But racing, can go from a grom to a grandpa that maybe can still kick some a** 😎 Let’s introduce some more racing to this sport.

What tips or recommendations do you have for anyone who wants to start?

Always have lessons, do not do it your self, if you have no background. Newborns to this water sport, get lessons first, do not buy before you have ever made a lift off.

What is your biggest water sport achievement?

Besides national titles in windsurf and kitesurfing and Sup Wave, 4th place on KPWT rankings /kitesurfing