Rider & Words: Tom Court Photos: Sam Scadgell Location: Secret Reef, Isle of Wight Date: Saturday January 11th, 2025
Never let it be said that Tom Court doesn’t do his homework when there’s the promise of a solid swell inbound to his little corner of the UK. And with the Fliteboard Ultra L2 in his arsenal, the waves came thick and fast…
The past winter was a patchwork of crazy forecasts, it feels like the days of the prevailing and reliable southwester storms that used to barrel into the UK’s south coast are gone. When I look at this change through windsport glasses, it is hard to have less reliable, more short-term forecasts. However, as bad as it can be, it has also lined up some rare wind directions alongside the long-range ground swells that have marched across the Atlantic from the rolling hurricanes that were hitting the Eastern Seaboard. This was one of those forecasts, a super long-range ground swell, combined with a rare wind direction that lined up for the perfect foiling reef on the south side of the Isle of Wight.
Every big day comes with a significant amount of forecasting, planning and prediction that will eventually determine the location, the timing, the conditions that you can score and eventually the type of equipment that will be best to make the most of the time on the water. As the wind didn’t come in too strong and it was bang offshore, combined with the long-range swell, it put the new Fliteboard Ultra L2 setup at the top of my list to make the most of what nature was delivering. Once the forecast was only a day out, it was time to select the spot, choosing my favorite hidden reef – hard to access, remote and difficult to ride but perfect for this day…
💎 Premium Content Ahead! 💎 *You will receive our weekly Friday Pump newsletter, plus the latest features, gear tests and giveaway announcements. The L2 is the set-up in the Fliteboard line up that is set to separate the wave-riding-specific eFoils from the rest of the range. After riding Nazaré a few years ago on the original Fliteboard Pro, it has been my goal to have a setup that works seamlessly with the conditions. The combination between the Marc Newson designed 80cm mast, the ultra-thin fuselage coupled with a newly design folding prop and re-shaped conical foil wing shapes marks this setup apart from the rest and finely tunes it for use in the waves. Coupled with the Nano Battery, this whole setup weighs 18kg full loaded, so it's light compared to the older 30kg models. Featuring the latest carbon molding technology, and meticulously designed extras, there isn’t much to improve on paper. The only thing left to do was put it to the proper test and, arriving at the spot, I could see that wasn’t going to be a problem – south side secret reef was pumping! Too hard to paddle, shifting peaks but perfect wave quality, it was the day I had been waiting for. Getting out to the break was of course easy – it’s one of the best things about eFoiling, it allows you to access the most remote peaks away from the crowds. Only a momentary struggle with the shorebreak led into one of the most wave rich sessions that I have ever had, scoring unpowered rides up to about 800m long with often eight or nine wrapping turns. Using the 850c wing, it gave me plenty of speed to allow the L2 to project into the flats on the bottom turns and attack the wave face directly before wrapping a turn back into the pocket. Having so little drag on the folded prop meant that I could easily outrun broken sections, offering the confidence to get deeper on the wave. I spent well over an hour in the lineup, charging down the line of the lefts and rights that were coming through what must have been one of the best lineups on the south coast that day. No one in the water, an empty playground, another dream session courtesy of Fliteboard. After 23 of the longest waves of my life on an Efoil, according to the app, I had totally forgotten about my battery life, ignoring the vibrating controller telling me I only had 10% left, or maybe just intentionally not noticing it. I motored out for yet another wave, riding it to the beach, and I pulled the trigger to get me back to where I had launched from, realizing immediately that it was now in battery saving mode and it was going to be a slow return to the launch spot well over a mile away. After getting as far as I could, it was down to a good old-fashioned hike out. Fliteboard over the shoulder, a smile on my face, I trudged to the van, stoked on the session and even more stoked that these boards are now so light. Mission complete.
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“Only a momentary struggle with the shorebreak led into one of the most wave rich sessions that I have ever had, scoring unpowered rides up to about 800m long…”
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