Fanatic Sky Air Premium - Inflatable Wing Board

Fanatic have released their new inflatable Sky Air winging boards and we are excited by a few interesting additions to the board.

Firstly, Fanatic have introduced a tail runner on the bottom of the board which allows for early release of the water. This means that you get up and flying quicker on the foil as the inflatable board doesn’t ‘suck’ down on the water too much.

Secondly, there are three foot straps which means you can ride either stance and still be comfortable.

Lastly, we are excited but the handle on the bottom of the board too. This really helps when carrying the board and the foil and balances out the wright.

All of these features on an inflatable board makes for comfort and ease of use. Read on to hear about the designers thoughts on the product.

With the launch of Fanatic’s latest development in Wing Foiling – the Sky Air Premium inflatable Wing Foiling board, Fanatic shaper Sky Solbach and Product Manager Daniel Aeberli explain more about this new travel package.

Coming from Maui riding and designing highly defined shapes with precise rockers, rails and bottom contours – what does this new addition have to do with your popular Sky Wing shapes we all know for Wing Foiling?

Sky: Haha – good question! Of course the bottom shape and the rails aren’t comparable to a composite board. But there’s several things you can do to bring the behavior as close as possible to that of the solid Sky Wing shapes. We’ve tuned the rocker line and added many features to give the Sky Air an easy take off and to make them feel very rigid and responsive under your feet and at the same time make them forgiving for touch downs, which saves entry level riders from falling off and re-starting all the time. Ultimately the benefit of these boards is that you can fold them in half and pack your entire setup in a nice compact bag for traveling – which is something the composite boards cannot compete with. Of course the iSUP material itself is super durable and perfect for beginners/intermediates, keeping damages to a minimum whilst offering a soft and safe surface vs a more fragile composite board.

That sounds interesting – can you tell us more about the sizing and the features you’ve mentioned?

Sky: The Sky Air Premium will be available in 3 sizes for now; a 5’4” with 103l, a 5’8” with 120l, a 5’10” with 150l and we’ll add a smaller 5’0” a bit later in the year. Since I’ve mainly tuned outline, rocker and volume, I’ll let Dani talk about the features, as he’s put all his years of experience producing inflatable SUPs in here – and more.

Can you tell us something about the features and construction of these boards?

Dani: Sure! The team and I tested quite a few inflatable boards for foiling and our conclusion was, if we do it for Fanatic, we need to do it properly and not just make an iSUP with a foil box, as our impression of simple designs with a box or tracks only in the tail wasn’t really satisfying to say the least. Designing a really solid carbon plate that stabilizes the entire area between the foil and the front foot was a game changer in the process. We combined this with our most rigid inflatable technology and Sky’s latest outlines plus extra nose rocker. Still, we were missing the easy release, so we’ve added silicon rails to reduce the drag around the tail of the board. Footstrap inserts for 3 straps and last but not least the essential feature of a bottom handle, round off the riding sensation on the water and the comfort on land.

You market it as a travel package – how’s the bag and what’s included?

Dani: Correct, we have designed a bag that works as a backpack, but also has wheels. The bag is big enough to fit your entire setup of board, foil, one or two wings, your wetsuit and the pump. The board comes with a double action pump which has a gauge that shows the pressure from 3 to 21 PSI, with two green areas, one around 6 PSI for your wing and another one around 15 to 18 PSI for your board, so you don’t need to carry two different pumps. Multiple adapters are included, so you can use it for your Duotone wing as well as the majority of other available Wings on the market. We’re also offering a triple action pump “Wing Edition” as an optional accessory for quicker and easier inflation. This pump has two gauges and more precise PSI readings, especially for your wing where it is critical to not over-inflate.