Anyone who thinks of windsurfing as prehistoric "stand-up sailing" may rub their eyes in amazement when they see the Olympic fleet: "They're really fast - and they float above the water!" In 2024, the iQFoil material will enter the Olympic stage and will come with a foil - this wing lifts the board a little out of the water and enables higher speeds, even in light winds, thanks to lower water resistance. This should make Olympic windsurfing more exciting and attractive.
Windsurfing is part of sailing at the Olympics and is categorised as a "boat class". Not to be confused with the original surfing or surfing, which will be an Olympic sport for the first time in 2024. The sailing competitions will not take place in Paris, but in Marseille. All boat classes and therefore also Olympic windsurfing have the "one design" principle in common, which means that the equipment is identical for all starters. In addition to the manufacturers Starboard and Severne, who developed the material, the Patrik brand also offers approved boards and sails in the iQFoil.
More about Olympia and iQFoil:
- iQFoil: The Olympic windsurfing equipment in detail
- From courses to medal races - the mode in iQFoil
- iQFoil in self-experiment - Meeting with the monster
- Sebastian Kördel on material and preparation - "The pressure is extreme"
- Theresa Steinlein - Interview with Germany's Olympic starter
- Sail, foil, mast: how to trim the iQFOil material
The iQFoil material consists of the board, the rig (with sail, mast, boom and accessories) and the foil, which is attached under the board. All components are described in detail in the article below! The name and spelling iQFoil is based on the naming of Starboard, where several product lines have similar names.
The iQFoil board
- Length: 220 cm
- Width: 95 centimetres
- Volume: 196 litres
- Weight: 11.25 kg
- Thickness: 16 cm
Short, wide, angular - that's how the iQFoil board looks at first glance. The current version of the thick ship is a little narrower than the original board to make it "easier" to transport by air. Although 95 centimetres wide is still anything but handy, it fits easily through the usual scanners at the airport. In addition to the version shown here, there is also a board just 85 centimetres wide for the youth sector. There are clear steps in the underwater hull at the tail, these "cut outs" are designed to promote early take-off. Officially, the board and regulations also allow a fin instead of a foil - however, this quickly proved to be uncompetitive.
The iQFoil rig Severne HGO
- Sail size: 9.0 square metres (men)/8.0 square metres (women)
- Luff: 554cm/522 cm
- Boom: 232 cm/220 cm
- Battens: 7
- Camber: 4
- Mast: Apex 530/490
- Boom: Enigma 210-250
The Olympic windsurfing rig was developed by Severne to match the iQFoil board. As is usual with foil sails, the boom is relatively short in relation to the mast length (luff). With 9.0 square metres for the men and eight square metres for the women, the iQFoil fleet is generously equipped so that racing is also possible in light winds. However, if the wind is stronger, smaller and lighter riders in particular are at a disadvantage due to the large sail areas. The class has reduced the sail area accordingly for the 2025 season, but this will have no impact on the 2024 Olympics.
The iQFoil foil
- Front wing: 900 cm2
- Back wing: 255 cm2
- Fuselage: 115 or 95 cm
- Mast: 95 cm
The iQFoil is based on one of Starboard's first race foils. The front wing and back wing (also known as the stabiliser) are the same for all athletes, but there is a choice of two lengths for the fuselage (the bracket to which the two wings are attached): The 115 cm long version for course races and the 95 cm long fuselage for stronger winds and rough courses. In addition, each starter has several plates at their disposal with which the angle of attack of the rear wing and thus the handling characteristics and trim of the foil can be changed.
How the equipment will be allocated at the 2024 Olympics
At the Olympic Games, everyone competes with identical equipment - at least in theory. In practice, however, there are unavoidable manufacturing tolerances in most pieces of equipment that the top riders can feel out. Away from the Olympics, athletes with a lot of support or a corresponding budget can, for example, buy ten masts in order to pick out the best one and then use it. Other riders, on the other hand, only have the opportunity to try out one or two masts.
For this reason, the Olympic starters are provided with their equipment, with the exception of personal items such as harnesses, helmets and buoyancy waistcoats. The equipment was drawn by lot, the foil, sail and mast were already distributed to the national committees after the last qualification regatta. Boards and booms were distributed on site in Marseille in July. In contrast to other iQFoil events, the Olympic material does not bear any brand logos or lettering, but instead standardised country stickers.
History: Windsurfing at the Olympics
Windsurfing has been an Olympic sport since 1984, it is one of the sailing classes and is not listed as a separate sport. At the time, it was not without controversy, as conservative sailors viewed the young sport of windsurfing with a great deal of scepticism. "Putting a board under the sails of a yacht is about the same as replacing the chassis of a car with roller skates," said elitist sailing circles in view of the "stand-up sailors". The Ostermann Windglider was chosen as the first Olympic board, much to the chagrin of patent pope Hoyle Schweitzer and his windsurfer. Stephen van den Berg from the Netherlands won the gold medal in Los Angeles; women did not yet compete.
Because Windglider had been taken over by Bic and the French had discontinued production of the Olympic board in the meantime, a new board had to be specified for the 1988 Seoul Games. The choice fell on the Division II displacer from Lechner, initially with a rig from North Sails, then in 1992 from NeilPryde. From 1992 onwards, the board was no longer swapped between the starters on a daily basis.
The Lechner also followed the Mistral One design for the 1996 Olympics, a contemporary race board including rig. The class had already existed for many years, and a correspondingly large number of athletes still use the board today. In Germany, Olympic windsurfing made it into the limelight thanks to Amelie Lux's silver medal at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.
In 2008, the Mistral One Design was replaced by the RS:X, a complete set of board and rig developed by NeilPryde. At 2.86 metres, the board was almost a metre shorter than the One Design, while the rig was based on the NeilPryde V8. One of the aims was to be able to race in both light and strong winds. With fourth place in London 2012 and sixth place in Rio 2016, Toni Wilhelm was one of the most successful German starters on the RS:X.
Even before the 2020 and 2021 Olympic Games, it was clear that the RS:X material would be put to the test. Several manufacturers applied with different concepts and the choice for 2024 and 2028 fell on the iQFoil from Starboard, which took up the foil trend that was still quite new at the time. In contrast to rather tough light wind races on the fin, the foil enables exciting competitions and relatively high speeds even in light winds.
At the time of development, the iQFoil was closely aligned with the material used in the PWA World Cup, the highest and most prestigious competition in windsurfing. Many PWA pros tried to gain a foothold in the new Olympic class at the beginning of the iQFoil era, including Germany's Olympic starter Sebastian Kördel. Athletes from traditional sailing also came to iQFoil, including Theresa Steinlein.
