Wing failure

It had been a pretty good day and the wind was showing 12 knots as I headed out to the Launch Pad. I set out the Fanatic Stingray 140 with the 99cm front foil. I took the 6m Echo wing out and remarked to myself about how nice and light it is vs. windsurfing rigs.

That's not right?

I worked my way upwind with the wing and had some short foil runs between tacks. I was getting the lower end of the wing stuck in the water a few times and heard it sliding/scraping against the side of the board. Then around the 3rd time I was pulling the wing up along the side of the board I heard a pop and I fell in the water. The wing had ruptured; likely from the sandpaper-like non-skid on the board. It may also be due to the fact that I'd left it inflated to 6 psi for the last week? In any case I got lucky that the bladder didn't explode, just the outer housing.

Drying out the broken wing.

I let some pressure out of the wing and floated back downwind to the dock, sadly put the wing into the locker. I got out the 6.5 and headed out with that sail and had a wonderful 20 km wind foil session. It was my first time getting to the swells out past Wedge Island this year. Even though the waves were small it was fun. My speed was slow and I did have some decent jibes. The trick on the jibe seems to be commitment to keeping the carve instead of easing and wobbling half way through. My two downwind 360 attempts didn't work with the cambered sail - need to save that move for my freestyle gear.

My 20 km / 1.5 hour session.

Closeup of 2 tacks and happy with my speed on 2 out of 4 jibes.

Foiled over a shoal and headed back to see how deep it was.
The foil was touching my knee when I stood on the shoal,
so just enough to go safely over that one...

The weather was 13c air, 14c water and I was super warm in my 5/4 wetsuit, hood and booties. I didn't really need the gloves.

12-14 knot winds

So I'm going to try repairing the wing with Tenacious Tape? Or I'll start searching for a true wingman or woman who does kite repairs in the city. I can't help play and sing Mr. Mister, Broken Wings as I write this though.