James Casey mentioned this website about a year ago, and seemed genuinely stoked that it existed. I guess this caught me off guard as I had imagined this as a pretty niche appeal side show, but I suppose it does add a sense of formality and voice to what was until now just instagram and videos.
I mean I guess that is how he sees it, the behind the scenes on my side is that I wrote the previous post with my laptop balancing on a pot in front of the stove while the extractor fan overhead kept our baby asleep in the sling. I posted the blog as soon as she woke up, hopeful for nothing more significant than a typo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIn6OeHINyU
It made me think that perhaps I’d entirely underestimated it. I am as stoked as anyone to have the privilege of participating in the birth of something new, the earlier you got into it, the more land up for grab in terms of influencing direction, and the more fun to be had.
So with that said, here is the manifesto
- For the community - literally the point of this is to connect people and get them stoked, I’m interested in people’s unique stories, runs, locations, ambitions and insights, and want to find a way to broadcast these. Reader’s wiv.. ahem foils, their travel stories, progression hurdles. Obviously a big part of this foiling scene is the professional riders and their professional endeavours, and so that will be the main stay. I also want the community to help guide the content. Engagement helps as it gives some signal, but if you have something to say and are willing to put in the time to write and edit (easier than ever before with Notion AI plugin), get writing and send me a rough draft.
- Anti-commercial - I have a day job, and I hope for my day job and my foil passions to stay the hell away from each other lest the one pulls the piss out of the other by getting too close. For this reason I can confidently say that I created dwfoil.com for sating my own obsession and interest. Foiling is absolutely the most expensive hobby I’ve ever done, and buying myself a brand new Progression 140 (paid retail, support your local) was an absolute indulgence, but I maintain that independence of opinion is worth the price.
- Humble - If the generic foiling podcast proved anything to me, it is that you can reach and entertain an audience with your opinions far before you gain competence (<3), I am early in my DW journey, but that is a perspective that I hope is relatable. I’ve found it bloody difficult, frustrating to find the conditions, lacked the time to make it happen and have mostly resigned myself to winging downwind until I get back to Cape Town to break through from shitty no-hope beginner to suffering dead-tired beginner.
- Inclusive - Without getting into it, I think the beauty of foiling is that I’m sincerely very stoked when I see someone paddling over with what might be a foil under their board. Having surfed my entire life, I’ve never ever felt anything other better than bristly indifference when paddling out into a lineup. Fuck surf culture, it is honestly the biggest pile of imploding self importance. Surf pros, surf contests, surf trips, surf equipment, all so desperately played out and now being picked over by private equity. Dead scene. Wheeew great to get that off the chest. The condition with which I stay involved in foiling is probably that while people are stoked to see each other and share the joy of the ocean, I’m in. To this end, inclusive of anyone willing to put in the effort, especially minorities, especially those from different cultures, different agendas.
- Stoked - Broadly, I think the probably the biggest risk to foiling is that it gets too commercial and is captured by some or other governing body in the way that WSL ruined pro surfing, and apparently SUP racing has equally been ruined by squabbling politics. There is goldilocks “just right” level of commercialism, where people running events can make enough money to keep running them, sponsors justify sending equipment and teams on tours, and regular punters get an entry fee that feels reasonable. My time in downhill skateboarding showed me the “too cold”, with too little money and not enough formality leading to sketchy events and imploding governance. SUP racing seems to have ended up on the other extreme with too much in the mix, including Olympic ambitions (and other shitty vibes in [sup racing](https://www.facebook.com/jeramie.vaine/posts/pfbid02b6D2123JK1rMWhgGeN8Pn6ffixx2PzoYhkKL8njBu4FdYYdEWgGsyLJP2Q7uFMTEl?comment_id=1004023461004996&__cft__[0]=AZW4ff2sfJjwqOp-6GT7E63AHlXxtHWyECUimZ1JcJTwaZRdBAhH-Ii9R1D53zmHribCKqFuGOUU-iRuigUUzFBUFrtaeFP4JydvTn_5u8eQ-rc5b7R5T6tbXc9VyHNRtH91iDLTw--g9fyQe0X89b9r6R5uVt6p54Ko0mS4xZSuig&__tn__=R]-R)). I would guess that currently nearly all competent downwind foilers are ex-shit-hot SUP racers who got bored and bailed (eg Olivia Piana, James Casey among others). This means they will know what the warning signals look like for over-commercialistion and hopefully help steer things. My sense from listening to both of them is that they are more motivated by the general froth than the individual ambition (or at least a new balance, both are clearly world class competitors). My personal ambition with is to get good enough to reliably enjoy it, and then travel to interesting locations to do it. A formative experience for me was the downhill skate “euro tour”, a string of 6 to 10 races in Europe every summer. If we can get something like that running, I’d be stoked to attend it. SUP has this, and it seems like an enviable goal.
Why write this
Or why dwfoil at all. To me spending more time in the ocean is pretty compelling
Submissions
I asked Lewis Samuels if he wanted to do a foil zine, he said he would love to but currently too busy (or at least is too busy), so that leaves me approaching my second tier options, literally anyone who isn’t shy about calling a foil a foil. Send me your ideas. Please!
ps - Lewis’s interview on Progression Project was really good, insightful stuff, well wroth a listen.
https://soundcloud.com/progressionproject/110-lewis-samuels