Foiling Week 2024: from Youth to Re-generation for 2025

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Christopher J. Museler - New York Times Sailing Corrispondent - FW Content Creator and Moderator of most FW Forums ©Martina Orsini/We Are Foiling Media
Initially considered something of a dangerous discipline, foiling now has no boundaries: you strap on your helmet and... 'Boom!' suddenly you are speeding through the air with the hallmark whistle in your ear. Travelling at speeds of 20-30 knots becomes the norm and allows for all the necessary safety measures.
In a rapidly changing world, even university research is shifting towards the increasingly innovative and technological sphere of foiling: it is becoming increasingly common for naval engineering students to become interested in sailing and are choosing to advance their academic career in aerospace engineering. A cultural change in no small part due to the foiling revolution.
The speed that foiling allows has prompted the World Sailing-recognised classes to develop new course solutions to make the racing more spectacular, hard-fought and technically varied. New formats designed to be exciting and make the rankings immediately clear, especially in the final battles for a place on the podium.
It’s really two fold:
Like I wrote above, it’s all there for us to capture, and like all watersports, you can tie in threads with any industry: art and science, manufacturing, environmental and social causes, human endurance etc. Certainly, just one great shot or clip brings everyone in, it’s up to the media gurus to take it from there and open peoples eyes to this wider experience, like coming up over the peak of a high sand dune and finally seeing a vast sea and horizon, and you want to jump into the white water immediately!
You need excellent visual creatives and focused journalists to work together on presenting this, like before but you need to have an open mind and observe the people and see where they take you. Start with the immediate “learning something new” experience of the rider. And how Foiling breeds a constant learning comfort. ALWAYS progressing and happy to stumble. You capture that first, then EVERYONE can relate to being “new” at something. At that point you have your audience and you can start building the story and introducing them to technicalities and deeper ideas, take them with you!! Unlike sailing in the past, with its life-long journey of fine tuning, foiling demands an open mind and healthy body…the world is looking for this freshness…start there!