Foil RunAlpha
Upwind Courses

Put your upwind pace to the test.

Ride the same Course to track your progress and compare with other riders. The gates stay fixed. Each attempt uses its own session wind to measure how quickly you gained ground upwind.

Course time is a calculated comparison time. It expresses your Upwind VMG over the fixed Course distance. Your actual gate-to-gate time is shown separately as raw time.

Two public attempts · same fixed Course

250° wind · 3:50 Course time · 6.20 kn

259° wind · 5:05 Course time · 4.68 kn

Swell City to Hatchery Point · 734 m · Course direction 257°

Two public attempts on the same fixed Upwind CourseTwo observed public tracks cross the same fixed Bottom and Top gates. One Session has a measured wind direction of 250 degrees and the other 259 degrees. A straight direction arrow passes through the geometric center of each track. The arrows do not represent rider routes or moved gates.TOPBOTTOM250°259°
Same Course, different Session winds. The gates start and stop both clocks. Each straight arrow points upwind for its track. The gates stay fixed.
The wind makes a difference

Same gates. Different amounts of upwind ground.

These two attempts crossed the same Course under winds measured at 250° and 259°. A small wind shift changes how much of each crossing counts as upwind progress. Raw time alone misses that difference.

Upwind VMG measures progress into that session’s wind over the full attempt. Tacks, slow patches, and backslides all stay on the clock.

From gate crossing to Course time.

  1. 1.

    Cross the gates

    The track must cross the saved Bottom and Top gates. Those actual crossings start and stop the clock.

  2. 2.

    Check the wind

    The selected wind must fall inside the Course’s allowed direction range. Attempts outside it do not rank on that Course.

  3. 3.

    Measure upwind pace

    Project the movement between the actual gate crossings onto that session’s selected wind, then divide by the full gate-to-gate time. That is Upwind VMG.

  4. 4.

    Express it as a time

    Course time is the time it would take to cover the fixed distance between gate centers at that VMG. Higher VMG means a shorter Course time.

A real example: 734 metres at 6.20 knots VMG gives a Course time of 3:50.

Upwind VMG = upwind progress ÷ raw time

Course time = fixed Course distance ÷ Upwind VMG

Course time and VMG give the same ranking. Raw gate-to-gate time stays available so you can see how long the crossing actually took.

Conditions still get a say.

Each attempt uses one selected wind direction. Wind speed, current, water conditions, equipment, and changes during the crossing still shape your result. Compare attempts in similar conditions. Ranking requires supported gate crossings and wind evidence. Crossings are interpolated between GPS samples, with a small tolerance at the finish.

Make a Course from your ride.

Open a climb or run in a saved session and choose Create course from this climb/run. Place Start and Finish, set the Course wind range, and check that your source session completes the Course before saving.

Ready for another go?

Find a Course