New fast foiling board classes added to Foiling Week Pensacola 2025 line-up

Foiling Week is the premier international foiling event, and the World Sailing Special Event will make its stateside debut in Florida early 2025 when Pensacola will become a hub of innovative foiling technology and thrilling watersports, when the foiling festival comes to the city from 24 February – 2 March.

Founder and President of We Are Foiling Luca Rizzotti on growing the event, “Fourteen classes have been confirmed with many more to be announced soon. We are getting an enthusiastic response from participants and locals already. In just under 100 days, Pensacola will host the North American foiling community for a landmark event.”

Marcus Lynch, High Performance Director of US Sailing Team on Foiling Week coming to the USA, “Foiling Week has established themselves as a global leader of premier events that provide a very important platform to support the development of the foiling era of sailing. We’re excited to welcome their world-class program to North America and support the event’s growth for years to come.

“Pensacola is a foiler’s paradise and the city has graciously opened their doors to sailors flocking to the flat water and strong breeze. We’ve got a community in the US that’s hungry for more foiling events, and US Sailing is proud to support the extension of Foiling Week into the western hemisphere.”

The first high-tech boards to announce their involvement are the X-15 – for the X-15 North America Cup, iQFOiL for the iQFOiL Pensacola event and the Foil Surf Racing League (FSRL), representing wingfoiling, windsurfing and foilsurfing classes. The popular wing foil X-15 features the latest cutting-edge equipment, and the dynamic iQFOiL windsurfing class made its racing debut at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games this summer. The FSRL organises foil surfing endurance races and will be a great addition to the Festival line-up. The boards will foil the waves of the Gulf of Mexico in front of the Pensacola Beach Hilton Hotel.

Billy Bosch, President of Good Breeze Kiteboarding on their involvement, “The Surf Foil Race League is excited to partner with Foiling Week to bring foil racing to the beaches of Pensacola in 2025. We have experienced tremendous growth in foil racing the last five years and are psyched to add our format to the many other foil disciplines at Foiling Week. We look forward to welcoming athletes that have competed at the FSRL before and first-time competitors to experience foil racing.”

Fiona Wylde, X-15 Class Manager on Foiling Week Pensacola 2025, “X-15 Class is very excited to be representing Wingfoiling at the first Foiling Week in Pensacola, USA! The X-15 Class North American Cup will give young wingfoilers the opportunity to race against one another with fair one-design equipment. Big thanks to Foiling Week for bringing this fantastic foiling festival to North America.”

Registrations have also been launched for the ‘open class’ sailing division including the Skeeta, F101, Flying Phantom, iFly, Whisper and UFOs. Earlier this month, the high-performance Moth, WASZP, Birdyfish, A-Class Catamaran and Nacra 15 FCS classes also announced their involvement. The sailing races will take place on the Bay and for some classes, the regatta will be valid for a North American Championships.

The event will not only attract professional athletes, alongside the racing programme visitors will have the opportunity to experience their first taste of foiling, with boards and boat taster sessions hosted by experienced instructors.

During the weekend, the Public Village at Pensacola’s Maritime Park will offer the opportunity to watch close racing, meet Sailing Stars and participants as well as enjoy the city’s Mardi Gras festivities.

FSRL participants can register at:  https://foiloutlet.com/product/2025-fsrl-registration-pensacola-event/
X-15 charter options for Under 19s are available. Find out more by contacting the team here: https://x-15class.org/contact-us/

In keeping with the event’s tradition of dedicating each edition to a socially relevant theme, Foiling Week Pensacola 2025 will be inspired by #regeneration, a global approach to sustainability that aims to end the climate crisis by 2030.

Foiling Week Pensacola is supported by: City of Pensacola – Florida, Escambia County, Pensacola Yacht Club, Pensacola Beach Yacht Club and Sail Pensacola.

Text and images courtesy of Foiling Week.