Tell us a little bit about yourself, how long have you been foiling and where are you from?
I’m a longtime surfer originally from Belgium and currently in Siargao, Philippines. I started foiling in June 2018 and it wasn’t love at first site :)
After a little break I went full time around march 2019 and I’ve been hooked ever since. Overall I love all ocean watersports and it’s amazing foiling can be practiced in all disciplines as surfing and kiting and now also wing foiling and downwinding (and foil driving !!)
What sparked your interest in Foil Drive?
It was David De Vries that showed me the first assist system back in 2020. He was taking so many waves on his sup and loved it. I tried as well and understood this was an interesting tool. Back then I thought I’d only use it for sup, or at a later time in life. With the assist plus and it’s more powerful capabilities, I got interested again also using it for coaching and e-foiling. Once we got the units in Belgium, it became clear this was going to become more than what we expected and we couldn’t take it off our boards anymore!
What was the learning curve like with Foil Drive?
It felt very natural to me. Watching Dominiks YouTubes and his explanations made total sense. That being said I had been e-foiling a bunch before and get around well regular foiling. I first learned how to get up in very small conditions and then use the ollie to get pumping. After that I did a couple of light wind winging tests and taught a couple of friends how to e-foil. Once I got to Siargao, it made total sense to tackle some bigger swells, and get assisted into waves that otherwise would be hard to catch or get to normally. Then when the Gen 2 arrived, it blew my mind with its again more powerful capabilities and the ease of setup and use.
What is your go to Foil Drive setup and why, and what’s your weight?
I’m using the Gen 2 assist max 15cm power battery on a 50 liter midlenght appletree skipper. On the 27liter it worked perfectly as well.
For surf I’m on the sk850 and for bigger waves and downwind I use the sk8 550 and eagle 790 from F-One
Tell us about which type of foiling you’re most in to, what’s a standard session out foiling for you?
There has been episodes! I started prone foiling as much as possible, winging when its windy and recently I really enjoy sup foiling when its small and if there is proper downwinding, ill take this as well.
With the foil drive ill go out to places where it’s exposed and bigger waves pass through. It’s amazing not having to take any boat to get to the spot, take a couple waves, and make my way back to shore e-foiling, no problem.
What is your next adventure with your Foil Drive?
I’ll go around the Philippines and explore challenging conditions where it’s big and not great for regular surfing.
Foildrive is massively widening the conditions we can think of and ride!
Who would you think would benefit the most from having a Foil Drive
Everyone, it’s actually interesting some of my friends would like to try that aren’t surfers and I believe you can get them into the basics of e-foiling pretty easy in flat water and then transition into small uncrowded surf (still need to try this). It’s a great tool for coaching all levels and really anyone can benefit from being assisted in any foiling discipline.
I’m based in the southeast of the Philippines on the island of Siargao, which is the mecca for surfing in the country. It’s known for its world-class wave named Cloud 9.
I used to shortboard the wave a lot until I discovered foiling. Now, I actually miss out on some people I used to encounter there. But the foiling in the area is so good! There is a wide variety of spots around that work with all kinds of swell and wind directions, and we get wind also to go wingfoil and kite. Some spots are world-class wingfoil waveriding, I’d say. But you have to embrace the conditions as they are presented. It’s never consistent, and it can change very rapidly.
Now that I have the foildrive on the island, it opens up so many more possibilities, and I’m able to face those challenging conditions better, in performance and in safety.
For me, I love to explore the spots that are too hard to master as takeoffs are too steep or the waves travel too fast. Also, for downwinding, it’s challenging without an assist, as there are heavy currents and open ocean around. We will explore more of that in the months to come.
In this video, I’m riding an open ocean big wave spot I’ve been looking at for some time. On the Sup without an assist, it’s somehow possible, but I really enjoyed being able to launch myself into the sets on my 27-liter prone board with the foildrive. It’s so fast and challenging, and I felt very safe having the drive as an assist.
Lucky to have my buddy Guy Vanryckeghem there to capture it on the FPV drone and be able to show this to the foiling community!
You’ll see in the video I’m still on the assist plus. The box is mounted next to my front foot for a minimum weight effect on the smaller board. It limits you in prone paddling, but you honestly don’t need it as the drive can navigate you to where you need to be for take-off. That being said, my gen2 is on the way, as obviously it will perform much better, but the assist plus still gets the job done very much as well 🙏.
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