Paducah said..www.windsurf.co.uk/johan-soe-steps-away-from-pwa-slalom-season-to-chase-iqfoil-goals/"
Johan Søe has officially withdrawn from the 2026 PWA slalom season, choosing instead to fully commit to his Olympic and iQFOiL campaign. The Danish foil specialist often known as the ‘Beast’, has won every slalom event he has entered since 2023!"
Two of the best PWA foilers (Soe and Goyard) are now campaigning IQFoil even with the new 8m sail limitation. There's a whole lot to read into this. One thing that comes up to me is that the PWA limitation on the number of hydrofoil wings forced a trend to larger sail sizes and smaller hydrofoil wings, the opposite of what most recreational riders use. It also dampened development of performance lightweight gear as most of the focus was on smaller wing sizes as opposed to bigger wings that would be used by or influence the gear of rec riders.
For all the chatter about the IQ gear being meh compared to modern designs, it probably is but still can provide a good day on the water. It's a shame that Starboard stopped selling the additional gear (wings and fuses) that were compatible to extend the usefulness of the IQ gear that racers offload.
fully agree. if any more nails were needed in the proverbial coffin, this is it.
while manufacturers (and their influencers) are out there pushing the fin again, ironically neither of the first two big events of the year (IFCA, POS) have managed to pull off much (and in the case of POS, any) official fin racing, both effectively being saved by... the foil! a few levels down, this goes for the rec sailor too: many a session is saved by our ability to switch to foil.
so: the answer cannot be to drop foil development altogether; instead, the lessons learned must be directed at developing ever more efficient, easy to use, low to medium wind foil gear across the whole performance spectrum, rather than killing it or letting it die a slow death on the illusive expectation that the fin will save us. been there...
disclaimers: I love a good fin session as much as the next guy (but don't live in an area blessed by trade winds), and truly hope that all those making the trek to Gruissan will be sandblasted by a good-ol Tram next week so the fins can have their time to shine.
