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EFPT VIESTE : FOILSTYLE

The second tour stop of the European Freestyle Pro Tour (EFPT) 2023 was held in Vieste in southeast Italy and hosted the first ever foilstyle competition, the top three finishers give us their thoughts on the new discipline.

WORDS – Yentel Caers, Steven Van Broeckhoven, Lennart Neubauer // PHOTOS – Freestyle Pro Tour / Protography Official.

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Yentel Caers – 1^st

The EFPT Vieste took an un expected turn for me, as my main focus for the event was still normal freestyle, but with the forecast being not the best we started straight away with foilstyle. Everyone competing in foilstyle was really excited as we didn’t know what to expect and a few days before the event we sat down with the EFPT to make some judging guidelines. Once the heats started, we could see that the level was much higher then expected. Everyone was scared in the beginning that they wouldn’t be able to land moves in the heat, but that turned out to be no problem.

Edge

I’m extremely stoked to win the first ever EFPT foilstyle event. I just got the edge over the other guys as I learned the Pasko a few days before the event and this was my cheat code as it’s a high scoring move. Congrats to Lennart for second place and Steven in third, they where sailing amazing. Also special mention to Tim Gerdes, who was for sure the most stylish rider on the foil. From the crowd and organiser’s point of view, they where loving the show, as every move on the foil, even in super light wind, is so much bigger.

Gear

The gear I was using during the event was a 95-litre JP FreakFoil board, with the new NeilPryde Glide Swift 800 foil and NeilPryde 5.2 and 4.8 Wizard sails. Foilstyle I think will not be as big a game changer as foils in slalom, but it’s amazing on the side as an extra at places where you don’t have so much wind.

Now in freestyle we will have action and results at every event as we can do tow-in in zero wind, light wind foilstyle and when the wind picks up, proper freestyle.

Time

Foilstyle just gives me so much more time on the water and going big in such little wind is amazing. I’m also just using my normal freestyle sail, so if the wind picks up I just change the board and go. I recommend everyone to try it. Just doing carving stuff is also so much fun, and some moves like a Shaka are easier then in normal windsurfing.

Lennart Neubauer – 2^nd

For this first ever foilstyle competition, everyone was still experimenting with their equipment. I used the Starboard Foil X 105 board together with the GTR foil and sail sizes 5.2 and 4.8. This equipment worked really well for me in the light wind conditions, as early planing was of great importance to save energy and time. Foilstyle opens up a whole new dimension for freestyle windsurfing! More and more riders are getting into the foilstyle as it allows you to practice moves in just over 10 knots of wind! We also saw people compete in Vieste that do foil freestyle as their main discipline as opposed to most freestylers that view it more like a supplement to their windsurfing. The competition itself had a really good vibe at the event site. Steven, Yentel and I went drifting with some show cars that were on the beach on the last day of the competition, which was pretty fun ha ha.

Tricks

In normal freestyle windsurfing, sliding tricks are the ones anyone looking to start freestyling would learn first, but in general I would say it’s quite the opposite in foilstyle as with the huge foils under the board, the easiest tricks are funnily enough the ones with the most air, such as switch Konos, forward loops and burners. Most people will enjoy the carving side of foil freestyle just as much though, with tricks such as duck gybes, 360s and duck tacks. With the sport growing so quickly, I’m sure we will be looking back in 10 years from now and laughing about the stuff we are doing now, saying how easy those tricks are!

Solution

For the moment I don’t see foilstyle replacing fin freestyle, but it’s a good solution for extreme light wind days. As soon as the wind is over 18 knots the fin just offers that connection with the water surface that we all crave so much, making it more fun, but that’s just my opinion. Where I do see a great future though is in having separate events for the foil, just like the one in Vieste. That is me saying that coming from Naxos, a pretty windy place in Greece, so I can imagine that for people coming from lakes where its rarely windy, foilstyle might replace the fin.

Advice

My best advice for getting into foilstyle would be to learn carving tricks first like duck gybes etc., just to get a solid feel for the foil and how it behaves while shifting your weight around. Many people might feel scared because of the foil under the board, but I can tell you in all these years I haven’t even got a scratch from it. When bailing from a trick it’s important to keep hold of your boom so that it’s impossible to come in contact with the foil. Now get out on the water and have some fun!!!

Steven Van Broeckhoven – 3^rd

In Vieste I used the 2023 Starboard Foil Freestyle 105 board, it is the same shape as the Foil X 105, but has carbon reflex construction and ideal strap positions for freestyle. In foilstyle it’s important to have a compact board, but still enough

volume to get flying quickly. Also having a US plate system to mount the foil is useful, so we can move the foil forward and backwards. In foilstyle we like to have the foil a lot more forward than normal wind foiling, as we have a very compact set-up with mastfoot backwards and the foil forwards in the box. This helps for rotations and also flying in light winds.

For my foil, I used one from Balz Müller, not a sponsored one, as I could just borrow it. Why? Because I’m still searching for the best set-up, it’s early stages and not all foil brands have invested time for developing foils for freestyle yet. It was also the best foil I could get at the time, but I believe in the coming years more foil brands will come out with foilstyle setups.

I used my normal freestyle sails from Gunsails called the Yeah, and during the contest I used 5.2 and 4.8. The Yeah is not only good for freestyle, but also a perfect sail for foiling; it’s light, powerful and really stable. It gives a lot of lift so gets you up in the air easily with pretty small sail sizes. Even for non-freestyle foilers, the freestyle sails are perfect if you looking for a small and light sail to foil with. They are a lot better then for example wave sails, as freestyle sails have a higher aspect ratio, which suits foiling.

Amazing

I really like to foil on small and light equipment in pretty light winds. There is no need to have 9.0 race foil gear, as now we fly even quicker then foil slalom kit on just 5.2 and 4.8 sails. Even to just cruise around it’s more fun on foilstyle gear than on race stuff I think. And it’s an amazing feeling to perform big power moves in only 10 knots of wind. Freestyle starts to be more fun on the fin though from 20 knots up. For me it’s a big benefit as I can have a lot more fun sessions at home on the lakes, especially in gusty winds.

Foilstyle is a game changer, but I wouldn’t mix foilstyle with fin freestyle like they do with foil and fin in the slalom fleet, because both are great and have different fun factors. The foilstyle is just more fun and spectacular when wind is below 20 knots.

Starting

To get into foilstyle, start with gybes, duck gybes and 360s, then slowly get into jumps. When you have a good level in freestyle then you can easily copy most of your power moves into foilstyle. For all duck manoeuvres, it’s only the duck that is hard; the moves feel similar, but just with more air. The easiest moves to start with are carving moves. For jump moves the easiest and safest move to start with is carving downwind like a 360, then when backwinded, go for a switch Kono.

Fun

The competition was all fun. It was new for all of us to compete in foilstyle and the level of all the riders grew fast during the event. Also for judges it was all new, so we all worked together to make it fair and fun. Before the event we could have all been called beginners compared to the Müller brothers, but in the end it wasn’t so bad and the level looked good. For the next events, the level will be definitely higher and it would be cool to see more people joining in!