What you should know about the different disciplines

Tycho is competing in two different disciplines; the original Slalom FIN class and in the Slalom FOIL class. In the youth & junior these are two different disciplines, since 2024 also for the adults, races are no longer mixed anymore.

Windsurfing FIN

Wikipedia Says:

Windsurfing is a wind-propelled water sport that is a combination of sailing and surfing.[1] It is also referred to as "sailboarding" and "boardsailing", and emerged in the late 1960s from the Californian aerospace and surf culture.[2] Windsurfing gained a popular following across Europe and North America by the late 1970s[3][4][5] and had achieved significant global popularity by the 1980s.[6] Windsurfing became an Olympic sport in 1984.[7]

Windsurfing is a recreational, family friendly sport, most popular at flat water locations around the world that offer safety and accessibility for beginner and intermediate participants.[8] Technique and equipment have evolved over the years.

Windsurfing on the Fin is considered as the 'real original' windsurfing, the board is skidding over the water (also called plaining) and the fin is cutting through the water.

Surfing on the fin feels more lively and thrilling for the rider because the board is bouncing over the chop. It is very demanding for the body, especially the knees and upper legs are challenged.

Due to it's nature of gliding through the water, surfing on the Fin requires a minimal wind speeds of around 12-15kts. With big boards and sails it is possible to race but ideally the wind should be at least 18-25kts to have spectacular racing.

Foil Windsurfing

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wikipedia Says

Windfoiling (or foil windsurfing) is a surface water sport that is the hydrofoiling evolution of windsurfing, as well as typical sailing boats and sailing hydrofoils. It uses similar equipment to windsurfing with a normal or slightly evolved rig on a normal or specialist foil board.

Foil Windsurfing is a relatively new discipline in the sport, there were some early test in the 70's and 80's but the form as we know it today evolved since the early 2000's. In 2002  the development of a new Olympic class started (in 2024 the first  IQ-Foil Olympics took place) and from there the evolution started. IQ-foil due to its nature of being a uniform class, is hardly evolving but the PWA or IFCA approved foils on the other side evolve continuously very fast.  This results in stiffer, smaller, lighter, better controllable and early foiling race machines (unfortunately at a price). 

The whole idea of the Hydrofoil is low drag and low drag means less resistance in the water and that means suitable for high speeds in light wind. Foiling races are possible from very low winds like 8-10kts and can go up to 20kts for full speed slalom racing.