The burgeoning sport of wing foiling has inspired a new crop of luxury hotels dedicated to guests looking to take to the air.
My forearms are throbbing, my feet are cramping and my eyes burn from the salty sting of the Atlantic Ocean. And yet I’m oddly euphoric, high on the rush of flying above the water, propelled by the wind. Around me, wings launch 10, even 20 feet in the air, like fireworks lighting up the sky. My wing zips around beneath them, my board barely hovering two feet above the sea – nowhere near as high as I’d like to be, but there’s still time. I’m not on a surfboard, or a kiteboard – and as a longtime addict of surfing and kiteboarding, I can say this is an altogether tougher challenge to master – but I can recognize the feeling coursing through me.
Welcome to the world of wing foiling, the new obsession of the global adventurer, the high-net-worth adrenaline junkie and those who have tired of windsurfing and are looking to level up. The sport has been adopted by everyone from legendary waterman Kai Lenny and former Olympic skier Julia Mancuso to pioneering big mountain snowboarder Jeremy Jones and Michael B Schwab, the surf-obsessed son of brokerage billionaire Charles Schwab.
“It’s the closest sensation to flying you’ll ever feel,” Jérôme Schanker tells me when I email to enquire about a stay at La Tour d’Eole, his hotel in Dakhla, Morocco. Set on a 30-mile-long spit of sand nestled between the Atlantic Ocean and the Western Sahara Desert, Dakhla has Goldilocks gusts, plus sun and mild temperatures all year round, making it one of the best spots on the planet for wind sports. Schanker’s windsurfing obsession led him here in 2013. At the time, he was working as a financial broker in London and spent his holidays chasing the wind. After spending one week on the beach in Dakhla with just his windsurf board and a tent, he knew he’d found his wind-sports paradise.
See also: This Norwegian Adventure Itinerary Rewards the Fearless
Born in Paris, Schanker’s grandmother was behind the creation of Relais & Châteaux, an association of the world’s finest hotels and restaurants. He long harbored dreams of building a luxury hotel devoted to wind sports. “Back then, people thought windsurfing and kiteboarding were sports for crazy people,” he said. “The luxury market didn’t cater to this crowd. But I asked myself, ‘Why shouldn’t a watersports holiday be as luxurious as a ski holiday?’”
Ahead of his time, Schanker worked to make his dream a reality. He scouted a 25-acre plot of land that spilled down to an empty beach fronting Dakhla Bay and in 2018 quietly debuted La Tour d’Eole, a 45-room resort whose name is a nod to the Greek god of the winds. My favorite surf spots seem to be getting more crowded, so I’d recently become intent on picking up wing foiling. The recipe for learning is as simple as water, wind and good equipment. I could have tried it in Maui; Hood River, Oregon; Lake Tahoe, California; or the Outer Banks of North Carolina, but I needed something extra.
Dakhla’s reliable weather conditions – the wind blows at 15-25 knots for more than 300 days per year here – wouldn’t have been enough to convince me to fly halfway around the world to learn. But the buzz I’d heard around La Tour d’Eole was. The resort has a dedicated ocean academy developed in partnership with three-time world kiteboard champion, Bruna Kajiya. And its location, fronting an untouched beach, is ideal for progression. Beginners can master the basics in a flat, shallow lagoon nicknamed ‘the pool’ and then advance to the waves on the ocean side. Learning a new sport is humbling, and at the age of 45, I knew I’d need some coddling. Being able to cap a day in the ocean with a massage, a delicious meal and a comfortable bed was well worth a long-haul flight.
Dakhla is an otherworldly place. During my 45-minute transfer from Dakhla Airport, I’m mesmerized by the monotone desert landscape, the mountainous sand dunes and rogue herds of camels along the side of the road. La Tour d’Eole appears like a giant sandcastle built between the ocean and desert. Constructed mainly from Douglas fir, its villas and bungalows seamlessly blend in with the surrounding beige sandscape. The wind is a constant soundtrack. It starts like a barely-there whisper in the morning and slowly builds to an ear-tingling howl. You get used to it, and eventually it becomes like white noise. Nestled within the dunes, the resort’s main area is largely protected, while the ocean academy, located 1,300 feet down a dirt road, takes full advantage of the elements.
The crowd range in age from early thirties to mid-sixties and hail mostly from Europe and the UK. Nearly 70 percent of guests are repeats, Schanker tells me proudly over dinner on my first evening. We feast on oysters plucked straight from the nearby lagoons, Moroccan salads made with ingredients harvested from the on-site garden and a spicy seafood tagine. His chef Ali Timouni, worked under French superstar Yannick Alléno at Marrakech’s renowned Royal Mansour and the mentorship reveals itself in his super-fresh, highly flavorful food.
Trim and tan, Schanker has also been bitten by the wingfoiling bug and admits that the sport is harder to grasp than kiteboarding. “In one week, nearly anyone can learn to kite,” he says. “I nearly gave up on winging. I was so frustrated. But when it clicks, it’s magic.” While most of his clients are still kiteboarders, he sees that situation gradually changing, and in anticipation of the switch, he has invested in top-of-the line wings, boards and foils from Duotone. Most guests rent equipment, which costs around $500 for the week. “In 2023, just 5 percent of guests were wing foiling,” he tells me. “By 2024, it was 30 percent, and we’ll exceed that by far this year.”
Surfing and kiteboarding have long attracted the Elite Traveler crowd, partly due to the cool factor, but largely for the sense of unbridled freedom these sports provide. There is a thrill in feeling as if you’ve tamed Mother Nature, whether surfing a giant wave or harnessing the power of the wind with your kite. Wing foiling is the next iteration of that feeling, and it’s also a sport that takes you to far-flung, unexplored places, away from the crowds.
Once a fringe activity, wing foiling is becoming more mainstream, for various reasons, according to Maui-based wind sport pioneer Pete Cabrinha. The gear isn’t as bulky as windsurf equipment; it’s safer than kiteboarding, because the rider isn’t attached by a harness and lines to a constant power source; you can do it in all sorts of conditions, from flat water to waves, and in winds ranging from five to 20-plus knots; and it’s easier on the joints, particularly the back and knees, as the board floats above the chop of the water. “Wing foiling has already exceeded my imagination of its potential, and that’s a hard thing to do,” says Cabrinha. The hang glider-esque inflatable wing and hydrofoil (or foil) board are not new pieces of equipment, Cabrinha notes. The first wings came on the scene in the early 1980s. “I remember thinking, ‘Wow this could drive like a windsurfing sail, but also lift like a kite,’” he says. “But back then the boards were too heavy to get airtime, and you needed a lot of wind to propel you.”
Engineers were experimenting with hydrofoils in the early 20th century, but they weren’t used for watersports until the 1990s, when sailors started to experiment with them, followed soon after by windsurfers, kiteboarders and surfers. A foil consists of a front and back airplane-like wing. The fuselage connects the wings to a mast that extends below water and is attached to a board. As the wings deflect water pressure downward, the foil lifts the board above the surface of the waves, allowing the rider to glide forward without drag, and avoid those bumps that you later feel in your joints. “The foil has taken over board sports,” says Cabrinha.
See also: These Were the Top Travel Adventures In 2025
Many credit Maui-based windsurfing legend Robby Naish with pairing the two pieces of equipment in 2019. “Suddenly you weren’t just trying to push your board through water,” Cabrinha explains. “The foil had lift, so you were soaring across the ocean. Everyone thought it was a fad, but then Covid happened, people had downtime, and it caught fire.”
Days at La Tour d’Eole revolve around the weather. Each evening the staff send guests the following day’s wind report on WhatsApp. On my first morning the wind is light – tricky conditions for a novice – so I enjoy a leisurely breakfast of figs, fresh baked khobz (Moroccan bread) and amlou, a local riff on peanut butter. At 11am I make my way down to the ocean academy, which feels like the Equinox of watersports facilities. The academy renews its equipment each year, so it always has the latest gear. Each guest receives a designated locker to store their belongings, and locker rooms feature outdoor showers and lovely toiletries.
The academy’s 30-employee team includes nine full-time instructors from around the globe – the best of the best in the industry – plus staff who helm boats to retrieve students who get blown upwind, and ‘board butlers’ who shuttle your equipment to and from the water. My instructor, Pietro Milito, is originally from Italy’s Amalfi coast. When I ask why he’d leave such a dreamy home, he replies simply: “There’s not enough wind.” Like most of the team, his first love was windsurfing and that evolved into kiteboarding. As soon as wing foiling emerged, he transitioned.
We spend most of my first lesson on the beach so I can learn to manipulate the wing and execute essential movements like righting the wing when it flips. Satisfied with my skills, Pietro gets a boat to transport us 15 minutes along the shore to the calm lagoon. He hands me a headset so he can communicate with me as I try to pair the wing with a light stand-up paddleboard. “To attempt to master the foil and wing at the same time is like trying to learn to juggle and unicycle at once,” he says. Before I can graduate to a foil board, I need to show him I can control the wing and maneuver it upwind. “All good things start upwind,” he says. “If you can’t go upwind, you’re going to end up far out at sea.”
I spend the last 30 minutes of my lesson balancing on my knees on the board, only to have my front wing tip catch the water and toss me overboard. It seems I’ve been making the rookie mistake of deathgripping the handles of my wing. “You control the bar with a light touch,” Milito reminds me as we reboard the boat, “like playing piano keys made of air.” I return to the academy mentally and physically exhausted. My screaming forearms are proof that I’ve been overgripping. My core muscles ache from the effort of staying balanced on the board. But I’m determined to fly.
At the adjacent beach club, a fellow guest gives me a boost of confidence. A lifelong kiteboarder, he’s on week two of wing foiling lessons and has only just made it beyond the sheltered lagoon. After a lunch of grilled squid and braised zucchini, I return to the main complex. I pamper myself with a hammam and massage at the spa and a sunset yoga class that focuses on all the muscles I’ve just worked, like my aching forearms. And I sleep deeper than I have in months beneath my soft, Drouault duvet.
Just as Schanker said, at the moment when I feel like abandoning my efforts, everything clicks. It’s day four, and the wind is strong, but I’m able to use my hips to help steer me upwind, finally gliding above the surface on my foilboard. It feels like I’m riding a magic carpet across the sea. I pick up new skills, like pumping the wing in an elliptical pattern, sheeting air to generate speed, but I don’t advance to the ocean, where far more experienced wingers launch off waves and throw tricks in the air. “Always a reason for another holiday,” says Pietro on my final day.
Luckily for me, more high-end lodges have taken note of the wing-foil craze. Namotu Island, a surf mecca in Fiji, has seen its clients shift interest. “With surfing, you spend so much time waiting for waves,” says Namotu employee Ryan Arzy. “Even good surfers who are out for two hours catch maybe five waves that deliver five- to 15-second rides. When you foil, you see a lot more action.” When Philippe Kjellgren, founder of luxury hotel curations PK’s List and Kiwi Collection, launched Voaara, his first boutique hotel on Madagascar’s Île Sainte-Marie, he hired pro wing foiler Willow-River Tonkin to head up the resort’s lessons.
Meanwhile, Schanker has given me reason to return to Dakhla. By the end of 2025, he’ll have added five more bungalows, plus an expansive spa, fitness center and padel court. And he’s acquired nearly 50 more acres to create Domaine d’Eole, a neighboring, 15-villa sister property designed by Studio KO. The acclaimed French design firm will also create his follow-up project, a 50-room La Tour d’Eole fronting a natural reserve in Boa Vista, Cape Verde. “As the sport takes off, I want to keep protecting remote places with similar DNA,” says Schanker. “It ensures people as passionate as I am always have a special place to play.”
Where to learn wing foiling
It’s possible to learn to wing foil in a variety of locales, from Hood River, Oregon, to the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. But these destinations have five-star stays that cater to both newbies and pros alike.
Beran Island Resort, Marshall Islands
Michael B Schwab invested in this island resort founded by surfing’s most iconic boat captain, Aussie Martin Daly. Part of his incentive: to learn to wing foil in uncrowded, pristine conditions.
Namotu Island, Fiji
This storied surf retreat located a stone’s throw from Fiji’s best waves, including Cloudbreak, has recently seen a boom in guests wanting to wing foil. Beginners can hone their skills just off the beach and experienced wingers can take their game to the next level with signature series trips hosted by watersports luminaries like Dave Kalama.
Voaara, Île Sainte-Marie, Madagascar
This boutique barefoot retreat on a secluded beach on Madagascar’s stunning Sainte-Marie island benefits from a dedicated wing-foil program helmed by South African pro, Willow-River Tonkin. “The wind comes straight offshore from the hotel,” he says, “and you can learn just a few hundred yards off the beach in this raw, undiscovered place.”
Salterra Resort, Turks and Caicos
This new property on less-trodden South Caicos Island is an ideal training ground for wing foilers with its steady breeze, shallow, flat lagoons and team of expert IKO wind sports instructors.
Casa Siará, Preá, Brazil
Two passionate kiteboarding buddies developed this eight-suite sanctuary on Brazil’s golden northeast coast of windblessed Preá. The dedicated wind sports school has talented instructors and the latest equipment.
Добавить комментарий