We are extremely proud and excited to share with all of you the news that the Starboard iFoil has been selected as the 2024 Olympic Equipment, replacing the RS:X equipment after the 2020 Olympic Games. The iFoil concept is the fruit of many years of windsurf foiling equipment development, but developing the equipment to running a successful Olympic Campaign are two very different stories.  The story of our iFoil proposal has, above all, been one of great teamwork with a common goal of making the future of windsurfing more exciting and sustainable for the generations to come.

While big changes like this one are always daunting, it has been very encouraging to see especially some of the most successful RS:X sailors pushing to help bring about this Olympic windsurfing revolution.

The Olympics is the sporting pinnacle and the iFoil project also goes beyond the Olympics. We’ve seen foil racing unite PWA racers, Formula Racers and Olympians. Next for us is to go mainstream.

With iFoil equipment appealing and affordable not only to professionals but also the weekend windsurfer, our next goal will be to create a foil racing platform at the local level.

In the meantime, to get all of you as excited as we are about this change, we would like to introduce to you some of the key players of the iFoil campaign and try to answer some of the questions you might have while we are at it.

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Remi Vila, you have campaigned and developed windsurfing equipment for the Olympics since 2002. As the chief designer of Starboard’s racing boards and the iFoil 95, you led the technical choices for the iFoilpackage. You needed to achieve foiling from 6 knots while keeping the equipment as simple as possible. What were your ideas in selecting each item and what are their design highlights? 

For the iFoil to become the official Olympic equipment, it was a long journey which started as far back as 2002 when we made a proposal to replace the Mistral. To be able to achieve this goal now with the iFoil is simply amazing. (Actually, one of 2002 prototypes was similar to the iFoil concept – see photo below).

During the last 3 years, we have been developing boards delivering the highest possible racing performance for our riders on the PWA world tour. Starting from there, the key was to improve the early take-off. We wanted to make it possible to take-off before planing and were able to achieve this with our revolutionary very-deep side-cutaways: reducing the wet surface and thereby minimizing water suction.  At the same time, our design was developed to be as aerodynamic as possible so that when the board flies, it feels smoother and more stable when you hit the gusts.

The most difficult part was to make an affordable top-end full carbon package that can race from 6 to 35 knots whatever the sea conditions may be. Different racing formats will be used for light and super-light winds and more classical course racing formats will be used from 8 knots to medium-strong winds. But our next challenge was to provide a way to decrease power for stronger winds without having to change the sail size. The solution was to keep the same wings but reduce foil power by moving back the front wing with the 95 Plus fuselage. By simply adding one fuselage to the package we were able to extend controlled flight in winds up to 35 knots (on moderate sea conditions). For additional safety and to make sure that we cover particularly wavy conditions we added the fin.

We ended up with an affordable package that brings high levels of performance in every condition and can race in all conditions.  During the World Sailing Olympic Trial in Torbole in September, the iFoil proved that it was suitably tailored to meet One Design demands. So between the different components like the fuselages 115 Plus and 95 Plus with their multiple tail wing trims, fin plus regular rig trim, you have many different trim settings to play with and to fit your style and body weight. Let’s bring the fun again to the Olympic scene and beyond.

A prototype from Starboard’s 2002 Olympic Proposal.

Gonzalo Costa Hoevel and Svein Rasmussen after the official announcement at the World Sailing Conference in Bermuda.

Svein Rasmussen, you are not only the owner, founder and CEO of Starboard but also have represented your country at the Olympic Games in 1984 and won the Mistral World Championships in 1983. Bringing innovation and quality to the world of windsurfing has been your mission statement since the founding years of Starboard, but while Starboard’s designs are currently leading the Constructors’ titles in the slalom and wave disciplines, revolutionising Olympic Windsurfing must still feel pretty incredible even to you. What are your initial feelings about this accomplishment? 

It’s been good fun to work with such an amazing project started by Tiesda You. The depth of this campaign goes beyond those who we usually hear about. When Sarah Kenny the Chair of the World Sailing Events Committee, spoke up on behalf of windsurfing at the World Sailing mid-year meeting in London, she created a chance for the sea trials to be held in Torbole.  Dina Kowalyshyn, head of the equipment committee at World sailing was instrumental in persuading nations worldwide about her findings that the iFoil concept being the best choice for the Olympics.

I would not have been here at Starboard today if it not for the co-inventor of windsurfing, Jim Drake, so cheers to Jim for having created Windsurfing in the way we know it, he would have been stoked to see us all fly. At times I felt in between “Mission Impossible” and “Groundhog Day”  but with so many good spirits fighting for bringing Olympic windsurfing to the front line of our sport, it was in the cards that us underdogs could make it, as long as we are united. On behalf of our Tiki brand, I thank Jean Louis Colmas from New Caledonia, the creator of our Tiki spirit.

What is your message to all the young sailors who are just getting started with the RS:X or moving through the BiC Techno class?

I hope that RS:X riders will enjoy the transition to foiling and that the level of excitement will make the journey of windsurfing an even better one. Techno riders can keep on enjoying windsurfing and be sure that it’s only getting better as they grow into the Olympic class.I ended my Olympic carrier in 1984  when we were told that we had to use div 2 boards for the next  Olympics in 1988, that was after having been sailing the Windglider without a harness for 4 years. Now that we have cutting edge gear to ride in the following Olympic games it has never been a better time to get into competitive windsurfing.

Tiesda You, you are the founder of Starboard Foils, brand manager for Starboard Windsurfing and the lead designer of the Starboard Race foil that made foiling in the Olympics a possibility. Having tried, tested and developed Starboard’s foiling equipment we would like to know: what is your favorite feature of the iFoil Equipment?

I agree with Marina on this one: it’s so easy. Foiling is silent and smooth so it’s not physically pounding on your body. Yet from just 6 knots, you are already flying and racing. iFoil is also easy by virtue of its simplicity: with one board, one sail, one boom, one foil, one fin, you can race with your friends every weekend or go for gold every quadrennial. There’s never been such a uniting opportunity in windsurfing so in the long run, that’s the most exciting part about the iFoil project. On a personal note, to see the Race foil win the PWA title, then the World Championships and eventually the 2024 gold medal will be immensely satisfying. Definitely a highlight of my design career.

Tiesda You and Per Andersson developing Olympic board prototypes in Pattaya 2002.

What is special about the iFoil foil?

The iFoil foil is an upgraded version of the Starboard Race Plus. Like the Race Plus, it uses our patented High-Efficiency Foil Geometry, which means that the front wing is positioned further forward to allow the tail wing to run at a much more streamlined angle. Having both wings more aligned with each other gives you more speed and a lot more control in high winds. For light winds, there’s a tail wing angle adjustment system that allows you to increase tail wing angle, giving you extra power when you need it. It is also supplied with our new iFoil 95cm mast, which is an extra-stiff version of the standard 95cm mast. It’s built from a fusion of 44 layers of ultra-high modulus carbon. It gives the highest level of control. As Remi mentioned, there are two fuselages in the box: the 115 Plus fuselage and the 95cm version. The iFoil foil set is available in both Carbon and Aluminium versions, where the aluminium version is recommended for the Youth division.

The first Race foil, with the breakthrough long fuselage concept and the upwind/downwind racing geometry: the founding concept that made foiling in the Olympics a possibility.

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Hi Ben Severne, your brand “Severne” has been one of the first windsurfing brands to develop foil specific sails and was at the forefront of foil sail development from the very beginning of foiling.  For the iFoilpackage more concretely you have created the HyperGlide Olympic one design Sail, which is a one size sail to match all wind strengths. What were the most important design aspects while developing this very specific sail? What are your initial thoughts and feelings about windsurf foiling becoming the new Olympic class? 

Gonzalo Costa-Hoevel, in recent years, we’ve known you mainly from racing on the PWA slalom world tour and, of course, as the first official PWA Foil World Champion in 2018. While you have been one of the lead testers and designers in the iFoil equipment development, from board, foil, fin and sail, you have also taken on a prominent role in campaigning for this Olympic Campaign. What have been the challenges you have faced in the last few months and where does iFoil go from here?

The last two months were very intense and very different from what I am used to. I had to get out of the water and enter the politics world!  We had the sea trials in Garda where we presented all our equipment. We had been working very hard on this equipment and we knew it was all very good but now it was going to be scrutinized by a lot of racers and World Sailing-appointed experts. After their positive evaluation, our next and final step was the World Sailing meeting in Bermuda where everything was going to be decided. I’ve never imagined that on a 10 day trip to Bermuda I would have never left the hotel! I assisted in all the meetings I could and learned a lot! I talked a lot to the MNAs providing information and explaining to them why foiling was the way to go. So the meeting was successful, we passed all the votes in a very good way and now we have foil in the Olympics! A lot of work coming up, structuring the class and organizing the calendar for next year. iFoil will be big!

World Sailing President Kim Andersen and Gonzalo Costa Hoevel shake hands after a successful campaign in Bermuda.

Dorian Van Rijsselberghe, being double Olympic Gold Medallist on RSX, people wondered why you would support the change? Your letter to World Sailing changed everything and it was an eye-opener for many, World Sailing called to Sea Trials after it. Please let us know how important is this for you and how does it feel to be one of the key players on this important change in windsurfing history. 

The reason I supported the change is that I felt that windsurfing needed it. As a sport, if we want to stay in the Olympic Games, the change just needed to happen. We need to adapt, we need to be sexier, we need to go faster, and the foil achieves this.I’m very happy that we managed to put in a strong group effort to get foiling in. And I’m stoked that my letter made it possible for World Sailing to open up to look to new options and beyond the horizon of what they knew. So being part of all that was very nice. I’m glad I was able to help and push the sport in an exciting new direction.