Issue date
By Laura Wilson
There appears to be something unusual in the water in the Bay of Islands. Beach-goers have reported seeing scores of low-flying objects whizzing by and coming to sudden dramatic splash-downs, followed by loud shrieks of laughter.
This phenomenon seems to be rapidly spreading. Close observation reveals a tribe of windsurfers/foilers, a mixed-bag of young dinghy sailors, mature sailors who should know better, and folk who last stood on a board in the 1980s when windsurfers covered the Waitemata like flies.
The centre of this outbreak is the Bay of Islands Yacht Club, which for more than 70 years has been churning out sailors in an orderly fashion; age-based clusters climbing the ranks through P-Class and Opti, to Starlings, Lasers and speedy double-handers.
But suddenly in 2021, a collection of sailors of all ages and classes have joined into one uber-group of mad-keen boarders; windfoilers, wingers, and traditional long-boarders zig-zagging in a disorderly fashion from early morning until the twinkly lights of the channel markers go on.
This super-spreader event originated from the persistent nagging of a lone foiler, Chris Fewtrell who, tired of foiling alone, went ahead with a team and organised Foil Bay of Islands, now established as an annual international foiling event at the Bay of Islands Yacht club.
Once he had everyone’s attention, he capitalised by inviting the Holy Treasures of the foiling world, Gary Hill and Ian Young from WindFoil New Zealand, up to the winterless north.
They ran a windfoiling bootcamp on a freezing weekend in May for our gullible youth and other mad keen members. The Treasures thought they might find a buyer or two for some flash IQ foil youth-kits, and were left a little scarred when, after laying out their kit nicely over the lawn, wanna-be foilers of all ages acted like it was a lolly-scramble and snapped up six kits on the spot and began pestering them for more.
Slightly shaken, the Treasures returned to Auckland and provided the rapacious Northlanders with a further three kits... and counting.
The now 30-strong group, calling themselves the Bay Flyers, is boldly claiming it not only has the fastest growing wind’n’wing tribe in New Zealand, but has the biggest sub-tribes of: up-and-coming talented youth (starting from 11 year olds), latte ladies (middle-aged but no-one’s allowed to ask), 1980s speed-demons shaking the dust off their old long boards, and farmers cocky enough to make their own boards in the tool shed.
New Zealand should henceforth consider itself officially put on notice: the Bay Flyers mean business, and are throwing down the gauntlet, challenging any club to prove it’s having more fun, with as diverse a range of ages and backgrounds, and as much burgeoning talent as they do.
Come up and see for yourself, you are welcome any time. Also save the date - Foil Bay Of Islands will take place on February 24-27, 2022. https://www.facebook.com/foilbayofislands
- Sol Douwes, 11, gets up and flying. Photo: Bay of Islands Yacht Club.
