Inside the Mind of VAYU Board Shaper Lutz Graichen
Board Shaper Lutz Graichen brings precision and instinct to every VAYU board. His story is one of feeling, craft, and constant evolution.
How does a sports scientist end up shaping boards?
For Lutz Graichen, it was never about following logic. It was about following a feeling.
Lutz has been building boards for more than fifteen years, and today his ideas define how VAYU boards feel on the water. We sat down with him to talk design, craft, and what really matters when creating a board that connects rider and sea.
Finding the feeling
“My approach when shaping or designing a wingfoil or windsurf board is that I want to do it one hundred percent right,” says Lutz.
“It starts with one question: who is this board for and what conditions is it made for? For me this process is about feeling, not formulas. I like to create something that you can actually feel on the water because the board is our only real connection to the surface. The rest is just marketing.”
That simple idea, shaping through feel, runs through every board Lutz builds.
From windsurf boards to wings
Wingfoiling first came into his world through German windsurf legend Steffi Wahl, who asked him to shape her a wing board.
“Through Steffi the gap to joining the VAYU family was not that big,” Lutz says. “Now I enjoy creating new ideas that come from foiling. But I commit one hundred percent to each process. If I am building a wing board, I build only that.”
The craft behind performance
After shaping hundreds of boards by hand, Lutz knows what works.
“It is not about reinventing the wheel,” he explains. “It is about creating the best board from what you already know. I try to change small aspects that still make a big difference. Rocker line, thickness, rail shape. People talk volume, but the details are where a board’s character lives.”
Always evolving
Wingfoil boards have changed fast over the past few years, but for Lutz the process of refinement never ends.
“The shapes we used over the last few years are being redefined again. The sport is still young and evolving. You can line up five boards from five brands and they will look similar. That just means we have reached one apex in time, not the final one.”
The moment it clicked
Lutz remembers when it all began. Listening to Ulf Landwehr, Fanatic’s former prototype shaper, talk about building boards on the beach.
“After each conversation I went back to the car and wrote down what he said. Then I thought, I can do that, and started building my own. Halfway through I realized I really wanted to understand the whole process. I went to Portugal to work with him for three weeks and saw everything. It was not a rational decision. It just felt right.”
That impulse still drives him today.
From Germany to Sweden
Lutz now lives in Sweden but keeps his workshop in Rostock, Germany.
“I like the separation,” he says. “Two weeks in Rostock, I build four to six boards from start to finish, from morning until late at night. Then I go back to Sweden to test with the team and adjust until it feels right. Some steps in shaping simply cannot be interrupted.”
Precision meets intuition
Fifteen years after founding Windflüchter, Lutz added CNC precision to his craft.
“I like to work with details and small changes I know will work instead of starting from zero. The CNC machine makes it easier to be exact. Even tiny adjustments can change everything.”
The evolution of foilboards
“In the early days I was unsure about short, high volume shapes,” he admits.
“At that time, around 2020, foils were mostly low to mid aspect and did not need much take off speed, so those short boards worked. But with high aspect foils becoming the norm, efficiency is key again. Boards need to adapt. The goal is always to get on the foil as fast as possible.”
Building for everyone
Can one board work for all disciplines?
“Yes, but with limits,” he says. “A board that is okay in waves and okay for freestyle will never be truly great in either. Still, I try to design boards that balance performance with range. Something that feels alive for experts but still works for ambitious riders moving up.”
Still curious
“Wingfoiling and foiling in general are still changing every day,” Lutz says. “That is what keeps it exciting. The process never ends, and there is always room to improve.”