DYNAMICS: The Pace of Progress

The pace of wing-foiling has been pretty relentless, with innovation and rapid development seemingly appearing from one issue to the next. So, how does someone at the forefront of design handle this constant evolution and ever-moving targets? We caught up with Eleveight’s CEO & Product Manager, Peter Stiewe, to find out just that.

Hi Peter. Firstly, please familiarize us with some of your greatest hits that you’ve brought to the foilsphere…

I still feel quite young as a designer in the sport so mentioning my ‘greatest hits' sounds a bit like my prime time is already over! Jokes aside, my design process was greatly influenced by my 20+ years experience in product design for kites, bars and boards.

Since the beginning, my WFS wing design has been based on a boom. My experiences as a windsurfer, as well as a developer of many different kite bars, made it clear to me that a boom is the most suitable design for our wings. I think our first boom was well received in the market, and I was very happy that my vision of the sport also matched the customer demands in a time where we had many other options.

I also worked to create more canopy tension and efficient panel cuts for a sort of flatter profile. I knew from kite design how important it is to have a clean aerodynamic profile for performance riding, and our sport developed so quickly in performance and style that nowadays nearly every company works with more canopy tension.

Our first in-house development of the RSF range was also a milestone. It was my first own development, and after working with foils for over 10 years, it was very exciting to develop a product from scratch. Our unique teardrop and smart force connection is something that I worked on a lot, and I was very pleased when we finally had it in production and receiving great feedback from the market.

You’re well placed to witness the obvious (and not so obvious) technical innovation that occurs within the foil market. Firstly, why would you say we have seen so much change since foiling hit a relatively mainstream market?

Change is the nature of development and progress, and from my experience, the first 10 years of a new sport are also the ones that are very innovative. We can see a similar development in the first 10 years of the kite industry, where now the curve of change flattens a bit more and we see more incremental changes.

The first years of wingfoiling were based on the early adopters; an experimental group that drove product development. We at Eleveight liked the sport straight from the beginning and invested heavily in R&D as a result. After a while, the mainstream market had some traction and we as an industry saw the potential for the new sport. The increase in popularity also increased the amount of brands. More brands equaled more competition, and as a positive outcome, we see more innovative product developments.

Meanwhile, the general rider performance also increased and moved into different styles such as freeride, pump foil, wave, prone etc. A more mature market had more specific product needs, and these products are quite often the driving force of innovation, having a great overall impact on all products.

How does someone in your position deal with that in terms of development?

I like a good challenge, and product design is a constant challenge. Over the last few years in particular we saw so much progress, and as an ambitious rider myself, I want to develop products that are the state of the art. For sure the development and production process isn't easy; sometimes we release a product while I am already working on new prototypes and implementing new ideas, but that is the nature of the beast.

At Eleveight we work with a small and ambitious team and that helps a lot in the development process. The sharing of ideas is easy and efficient, we are very quick to bring ideas from the drawing board into a sample product and owe thanks to our established and long-term relationships with our suppliers.

We also have our own vision, and my experience in product design helps a lot in relation to the production process and raw material selection. Some of the so-called new things are not so new, and in some instances, I already burned my fingers with some designs or materials. That also gives me a bit of calmness in this fast-moving development environment.

And then how does a brand with departments such as R&D, marketing and sales manage to keep ahead of the curve when it comes to innovation and offering that to the end consumer?

Innovation always comes from a general vision and also the related company structure. As we founded Eleveight we wanted to create a brand that combines our passion, dedication and experience to produce water sports equipment that is state of the art in performance. All the members in our team, across all departments, are very ambitious water sports enthusiasts and strongly linked to the community. So to spot or create innovations is sort of a natural instinct for us. We are not detached from the sport, we are part of a community, and our driving force for the innovation process is that we want to make better-performing products.

As one of the last family-driven companies, it also makes it very easy to communicate in an efficient and friendly manner. If someone has an idea, our first reaction is not to straight away check the feasibility or the market potential of the project. At first, we get all excited and discuss the implementation. Sometimes this process is very passion-driven, and not always an idea that will make it to the production process, but we do not want to be simple followers; we want to innovate and make products better.

It also helps that we have a very strong family-driven network of retailers and ambassadors. They also give us feedback from their markets, and they spot trends or changes very early. They are also engaged in our ideas and their feedback is very crucial in the development process, so we can offer them new and innovative products that are also based on the customer's needs.

How much do you monitor the competition output, and what’s your secret for keeping up with the latest developments?

As I said before, if you are part of a sports community and work in the industry, then you know your competition and their developments. I mean, most of us developers have known each other for a long time and we also talk about trends together, but to keep up, it also requires a lot of work in the testing process as from an idea to implementation is a fairly long process. I might be old school, but I test all our products and run different review cycles. Our wing product range increased over the years so a lot of testing has to be done to be 100% sure that the final product is spotless in relation to performance and quality. The good thing is that I love my job and to spend time on the water with the team and testing and developing products is my passion.

How do you think recent trends in board design have changed the foil mass market? Midlengths for example?

The board market developed very quickly in terms of shapes but also in construction. Over the last few years the boards became better, easier to use, and much more refined in shape. Nowadays, it is easy to find the right suited board to different riding styles, as well as the rider's weight and skill level. These changes helped to make the sport more attractive to a broader audience and different target markets. But we also have to be careful not to make it too complicated and offer too many products that may confuse the general customer. We saw similar trends in SUP boards or windsurfing boards. In the end, we had too many models which were sometimes too specific.

In relation to the mid-length trend, I see a very positive outcome here. The name comes from the surf industry and the term means a board that is easy to use and offers a lot of fun in the water. Once translated to wingsurfing we have a very versatile board that is suitable for a wide range of intermediate wing foilers. The low wind potential and the high amount of maneuverability particularly make it such a fun board concept which helps a lot of riders enjoy the most out of their session.

Back to wings, what’s the biggest shift you’ve seen here in design terms? How have the new materials available changed the shape of wings?

In the last five years, I think our industry has become much better in the development of raw materials but also with general shapes. We had a great learning curve from the kites which could be used for the wing development as well. Nowadays, wings are much stiffer with more canopy tension and a more aerodynamic profile which allows more efficiency in power development as well as power transmission. I think this is the difference you would feel most if you compare a wing from the beginning to a more modern design. A modern wing is more direct, has more balance and performs much better in higher winds and at higher speeds.

The different new materials also played a crucial role. Aluula is fantastic for the inflatable parts of a wing construction, but other materials like our XTC TEX or XT fabric had a great impact in making the frame structure stiffer and the leading edge diameters smaller.

The other big shift is in the handle sector as soft handles have become outdated and we moved to stiff handle or boom constructions. In my opinion, the boom is the most efficient way for a wing design at this stage. The rider has many grip options, the power transition is direct, it is very suitable for harness lines, and also very durable in construction.

Finally Peter, where do you see the most significant developments occurring in the next year across the broader market?

That is a bit of a crystal ball question and not so easy to answer! One thing is sure, this sport is here to stay and will continue to excite many more people. We are also in the early stage of the development cycle, so we will see many more changes across all products. However, in terms of development, I would say that the hydrofoils will have significant changes over the next few years.

Here we are only at the beginning of what is possible, and I believe that different configurations will push performance further. Also, the board designs are fairly new and I think we will see many more new shapes in the future. The mid-length is only one example of something that is new and innovative.

I also see a big step towards the beginner market. We will see more developments that target schools and beginners to make it as easy as possible to learn the sport.