The Lowdown: SFT World Tour

Sound the new world tour klaxon! From the team behind the GWA Wingfoil World Tour, a new multi-discipline foil tour has appeared, with its inaugural event successfully taking place at the recent BOOT water sports trade show in Germany, as seen to the left here. To find out the scope and remit of this new tour, we spoke with its Managing Director, Dr Jörgen Vogt.

Hi Jörgen. Firstly then, what initially spurred you to start the SFT World Tour? 

I had the idea two years ago, and three main reasons were driving me to it. Firstly, bringing board sports and water sport entertainment closer to places where a good number of people and consumers are – in other words, to cities. Secondly, making surf competitions more plannable for athletes, event organizers, and sponsors, meaning less dependence on weather conditions. Most of the SFT disciplines are not dependent on wind, for example. Thirdly, I see big potential in all foil sport disciplines. I do all the foil sports myself. Two years ago, I was not sure if I was contemplating the idea of running a foil world tour only from my own water sport bubble. Since then I’ve become more certain that there are a lot of athletes who are very keen to compete on a tour, and that we can open new doors for board sports on water by running the SFT. The success of the indoor competition we just ran at the BOOT show in Düsseldorf, Germany, is very promising.

How does the tour structure work? There are multiple foil disciplines right?

The SFT World Tour stands for Surf Foil World Tour. In the beginning, I had the idea to call it the Foil World Tour. But then I thought that hardly anyone outside our sport knows or understands what “foiling” is, and that it would be difficult to market a tour with only “foiling” in the name.

It doesn’t matter which foil discipline we talk about; they all have in common that a board is used, which has a shape similar to a surfboard and is used in water. That’s why my partner Tom Hartmann and I decided to call it the Surf Foil World Tour, even though we run non-surfing disciplines under the SFT World Tour umbrella.

Under this “umbrella,” we are aiming to run different and independent world tours: the SFT Pump Foil World Tour, the SFT Wake Foil World Tour, the SFT Surf Foil World Tour (including prone and tow-in), the SFT E-Foil World Tour, and maybe the SFT Downwind Tour.

My plan is to build up all the tours together with existing events, if they are interested. I think it’s important to keep the spirit and uniqueness of each event and discipline. At the moment, we are looking for managers who are experienced and enthusiastic enough to become division managers of the respective disciplines.

What events do you have lined up so far? And are any pre-established events that the SFT has been able to align with?

All events and updates can be found on www.surffoilworldtour.com. We are working constantly on confirming new events. Among these are many pre-established events and also new ones.

You’re also the CEO of the GWA (Global Wingsports Association) which has an established tour in place. Will there be alignment with some of the GWA tour stops too? 

Yes, it makes perfect sense to bring surf foil (prone and tow-in) competitions together with established GWA Wingfoil World Cups. Sometimes, however, it works the other way around. For example, I am close to signing a contract with Abu Dhabi for a big water sport festival. In that case, I convinced the event organizer to include wingfoiling by ensuring them a podium via the SFT, even in the unlikely case of no wind. I am convinced the Abu Dhabi World Cup event will be a huge opportunity for all wingfoilers, pump foilers, and e-foilers.

What does it take to create a world tour such as this, and how does one come up with the basis for a competitive structure?

It needs a lot of extra hours of work, sleepless nights, and well-structured planning. The GWA Wingfoil World Tour, the GKA Kite World Tour, as well as the GKA and GWA associations require my full attention. That’s why Tom and I are searching for people who are interested in building up the SFT World Tour with us.

The experience we’ve gained with the GWA Wingfoil World Tour and the GKA Kite World Tour over the last 10 years helps a lot, of course.

Where do you start with the judging criteria for such a new discipline? Will surf judging be the bare bones?

We’re working on it. But as I mentioned earlier, we will not necessarily have a binding rulebook that must be implemented by every event. For example, an existing event might run an SFT discipline like pump foil, but in a different format than other events. It wouldn’t make sense to tell them they can only join the SFT World Tour and benefit from international media distribution if they implement “our” rulebook.

The sport is so young and develops so quickly that I’d like to go the same way we did with the GWA Wingfoil World Tour, developing competition formats and rulebooks together with riders, event organizers, and brands – if they are interested – over time. 

You highlight sustainability as one of the key mission values of the tour. What initiatives will be in place to make this tour an eco-conscious one? 

Protecting our playground, the ocean, should come naturally when you do water sports. That’s why we focus strongly on keeping the environmental footprint of each World Cup event as small as possible. For example, event organizers are required not to use plastic bottles or utensils at the events. We always do beach clinics and seminars. At the GKA, we’ve been able to run events with 100% carbon compensation. Each event and location is different, and so is the action we take on this.

If you could choose anywhere, where would the dream locations be? 

For pump foiling it would be the canals in Amsterdam, for e-foiling definitely Miami Beach, for surf foiling there are just too many but New Zealand has a great community and excellent waves, and so do France and Portugal of course, for wake foiling it would be Toronto, and for downwind foiling it would definitely be Hawaii.

For those looking to compete in the SFT World Tour, where do they start out?

The best thing for now would be to check out the SFT World Tour webpage. If you have detailed questions, send an email to the World Tour Manager.