Brandon Scheid’s Take On Wing Surfing

Anyone that follows @brandonscheid on Instagram might have noticed that his feed has been chock full of wing surfing clips this summer.  That had us scratching our head as to what the 5x winner of the Triple-S Invitational is doing out of the park and into the swells on windy days in the Gorge.

REAL: Heard you have been quite the preacher about the Wingy Thingy these days.  What’s up with that?

Brandon: Yeah that’s right, I’m telling anyone who will listen and even some who won’t all about wing dinging.  I am absolutely obsessed with the wing.

REAL: Really?  How was it learning?

Brandon: When I first learned to wing, like most people I started on a large SUP. I got the SUP thing dialed in over a couple days.  Quickly, I realized that if I could not downsize my board, this sport was not going to be for me.  The big board was just too clunky. 

Before I disregarded this new windsurf/kite stepchild sport all together, I put the time in to learn to ride a much smaller (40L) board. This took a fair amount of struggle and some long swims to learn.  It made me realize that for me the more wind the better for the small board.  

REAL: Seems like the Gorge is a killer spot for winging. How are the session?

Brandon: Winging really starts to shine in The Gorge when the winds hit the mid to upper 20’s.  Not only does this make small board water starts more reliable and easy, it also stokes up the rolling river swell.  The swell after all, is the real reason I wanted to wing in the first place. 

REAL: Right?! Isn’t gliding swells amazing?

Brandon: I have been hydrofoiling for a long time with the kite, and I have always dreamed of flying down the swell like the SUP foilers, unrestricted by the wind direction and my kites lines.  Finally now with the wing, I can get out on the really gusty windy days and “tow” myself into the swell and fully depower the wing.  It has allowed me to actually draw legit foil surfing lines on the marching river swell, something I’ve never had access to. Additionally, I can now go to spots on the river that were previously un-launchable with the kite.  Just pump up my wing, grab my small foil board and hop into the macking river.  

REAL: What else has you fixated on the wing these days?

Brandon: The other big reason I got into winging, is to suck.  I am a firm believer in continual life learning, both for physical improvement as well as neural regeneration.  Being bad at something is the best, you can learn so much so quickly.  I am addicted to being on a progression curve, and I am very stagnant in some of my other activities.  It takes a ton of effort to see progression in those sports.  However, with something new like winging, I see rapid progression every session, and that feels good.  Then going back to a sport I have done forever like kiteboarding, I find myself pushing through plateaus.  Forever the frothing student is a good place to be!

Check out more of Brandon Scheid in action on Instagram @brandonscheid.

For more info on wing surfing contact a REALpro at 252.987.6000 or REALpro@realwatersports.com.