Oliver shines at Foiling Week 2026

Foiling Week at Lake Garda was such an incredible experience for me, not only because it was my first proper race, but also because it was such a great social event. Everyone there was super friendly and passionate about the sport. I also had the opportunity to meet some of the Sabfoil family, who helped me out by giving me a new foil front wing and mast just before the competition. 

It was a challenge adapting to fresh water for the first time, as well as getting used to the new Sabfoil mast and stabilizer just before the race. The profile of the new mast BlackBird 85 is faster than my mast Kraken 83P, and this changes the feelings and you need to get used to managing the turns at higher speed. 

The level of competition was incredibly high. The other pump foilers were so fast and strong, each with their own refined techniques that had clearly been developed over years of practice.

In total there were four races. We each had two attempts per race, with our fastest time counting. On almost every race, both of my attempts ended up being nearly identical.

All of the races were timed runs because there was only one dock to start from. That meant everyone got creative with their strategy, whether it was reaching an arm forward just before the finish line or making full use of the empty race course. My runs were consistently around two seconds behind the leader and about one second ahead of the rider behind me. I chose to use a larger front wing than most people because I wanted to play it safe at my first event, but I was surprised to find that the Razor PRO 975 was actually the fastest foil off the start for the first 40 metres.

A big thank you to everyone at Sabfoil and Foiling Week for such an amazing experience, and congratulations to everyone who competed. I'm super stoked to have finished 1st in Youth and 4th in Open. It was an unforgettable week in the beautiful town of Malcesine, and I can't wait for the next one.