In the Wingpassion calendar for July 2025, Gregorio Pugliese was pictured riding a big blue wave off Cape Verde. With his new sponsor Vayu, the Italian is now fully focused on racing. More than enough reason to interview him.
When and how did you start wingfoiling?
I started wing foiling in august 2020. I was teaching in the local Windsurf school at that time. One day I accidentally destroyed my windsurf slalom equipment in a light wind and wavy day. So I started to search some new equipment to buy, but in the meanwhile some wing foil equipment arrived at the school. I was the one meant to learn and start teaching it. So i learned and I started teaching.
Did you have a background in water sports?
Yes, I started windsurfing when I was 12. I tried multiple sports before to meet windsurfing but windsurfing became my first true sport passion.
Where is your home spot?
I live in a port city called Livorno, and it’s definitely not the most famous spot of the world, but we have a nice community of water sports enthusiasts and we can have literally every type off conditions.
Can you make a living from wingfoiling?
Fortunately wing foiling is a growing reality and there are a lot of things to be done in the system, from content creation, R&D and coaching
What else do you do?
I study what I’m more interested on, and I coach
You compete in both racing and freestyle/surfing at the World Cup. Which discipline do you enjoy more and why?
I competed in every discipline since the first World tour event started to appear around, and I had a blast training and competing in every one. At the moment I’m competing in racing and I love it.
In racing, you use a double-layer wing from Vayu. How does it differ from a normal wing?
Yes at the moment I’m competing with the vayu double skin X Race wing. The main advantages on having a full double skin are:
more control specially when overpowered and less drag which translates in more speed,
Do you even stand a chance with a normal wing?
At the moment a rider that often performs in top 10 could struggle to arrive top 20 with single skin in a wing foil racing world cup competition but talking about Gwa looks like that for the type of courses they use to run, there are much more chances for single skins.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of a double-layer wing?
The advantages are control and speed increased, the only disadvantage that I can think about is the fact that water can get inside the chamber if you are not careful, and that’s a bit uncomfortable, but then I found only advantages for racing.
Do you have a special tactic for freestyle or in the waves?
I just try to enjoy it at best
Do you have any tips for crossing the surf with wingfoil equipment?
If we talk about crossing shore breaks, my best tip is, avoid shore breaks they are not friends of wing foil gear
What does your training look like? Do you have a special fitness plan?
My fitness plan change in adaptation of the performance needs, this year in wing foil racing for me was important to understand what was the effort about and what needed to be the training to perform at the best.
I have a special training plan, but is a secret. (laughs)
Have you ever been injured while wingfoiling?
Yes, I did , i injured myself 3 times.
If so, what was your recovery process like?
I had two long injuries, bone edemas to both feet.
First time it happened in 2022, as I didn’t know what bone edema was. I kept riding for 5 months. I was feeling pain during some landing and a lot of pain during some others, but all my next trips were booked so as the bones were not broken I decided to keep training. Bad decision, the bone edema calcified and took me 5 month of total inactivity and extremely painful physiotherapy to recover.
Second time after the best wave trip of my life in Mauritius, around beginning of September last year. It was my last session on the island and wanted to send the biggest off the lip of my life. The waves were big and a moment of hesitation costed me a bad landing on a bomb and another bone edema. This time on 4 different bones of the front foot.
I believe that everything comes for a reason, so even if it feels incredibly depressive to wait for months to be able to shred again. I always tried to enjoyed the process, and get the most out of the time that a injury let you gain.
What helped you? Keeping my mind busy studying or working on some projects
What are your favorite conditions for wingfoiling? Depends on the discipline, for waves, side off wind and 2 3 m waves for racing 12 knots, and choppy water
What is your favorite setup?
I really have one for every condition
Are you involved in equipment development with your sponsors? What is your focus?
In every development project, the focus il always to create improvement on feeling performance and design of the products, but when I go out testing I used to focus on feeling when I test free ride stuff and performance when I test pros equipment
What does a typical year look like for you?
I use to adapt my programs to the work needs, so really depends on the job to do.
When are you where and why?
In the past years I was focussed on freestyle and waves, this let me travel to and discover many places like Mauritius, cape verde, south africa, and so on, but I don’t have a yearly routine.
What do you think the future of wingfoiling looks like?
Future of wing foiling looks brighter and brighter. The incredibly and increasing efficiency of the equipment, is allowing the people to discover new spots and catching enthusiasts form all over the water sports world. I believe there are strong possibility to see wing foil becoming olympic in time for Brisbane
Will the parawing play an increasingly important role?
I still didn’t put my hands on one of them but lets see, might be that with some technological progression, parawing and winging could be together the new frontier of water sports.
What is your ultimate tip for learning to jibe?
Learn to ride toe side first.
Gregorio, thank you very much for the interview!
Click HERE to visit Gregorio Pugliese’s Instagram account.
