The KFC III

St Ives Bay hosts some of the best swell in the UK, alongside being able to handle a wide range of conditions – making it an extremely capable event site. Permission to use Daymer Bay already secured, Chris set out to gain permission from each of the dedicated parties along the three-mile beach, from St Ives to Godrevy. It took a while, but it came. Outside viewers might have wondered why the dates were relatively late to be released this year – and these permissions would be why. Going into 2026 with all these in place is an exciting prospect, as brands will have plenty of time to scramble their riders in time (make sure you put 30th September to the 4th October 2026 in your diaries, folks!)

A lovely forecast started presenting itself a good few weeks before the event, making for a lot of chat popping up on the “Wang Lordz” WhatsApp group between Chris, Liam, myself and the Technical Editor of this very magazine, Rich Boughton. There was energy about, but it was swinging furiously from left to right yet it was relatively uncertain where it’d actual end up. As it got closer and started settling into an actual forecast, it became obvious Gwithian would be the spot but that we might be dealing with a little more than just a bit of wind when it came to the weekend. 50 knot winds were looking likely across the entire country on the Saturday – so we would have to get on with some competing well before it hit…

Wednesday was the first day of the competition and we were hoping it’d be a nice mellow start – alas with it being the only day forecast with no wind, Chris was going to have to smash out the entire prone comp in a single day. Two fleets of Elite and Amateur riders would have to be worked through simultaneously, with finals at the end of the day before the wind kicked in and the swell ramped up.

Rocking up to the beach, we were welcomed by a few groans from some who maybe weren’t quite so accustomed to the punch of the Cornish waves. There was certainly some size to it, and I’m glad I wasn’t competing that day at my level! It did have some shoulders to take off on though and was pretty setty, so nobody was completely scuppered. It became clear quite quickly that we were about to see a showcase from the more “size-comfortable” riders. Luke Atkinson had flown over to the UK on his way through to the French downwind races, and was going up against the (Tom) Earl of Crantock and Guy Bridge. Everyone knew this would be one hell of a showdown – and it certainly didn’t disappoint.

Big GB gets knocked out in the semi’s, Luke and Tom go forward into the finals to face off against two lads who are rising through the ranks from their level in 2024 – Will Haslam and Jake Edwards. Add in the wildcard entry of amateur winner Edd Jones, and we really had a showcase for everyone watching from the cliff. Five seconds into the final, Will tacos over his foil, ripping his wetsuit in such a way that both arse cheeks fall out and are on show to every camera and drone in the vicinity – strangely winning the hearts and minds of everyone watching. Cries of “Crack on, big fella” echo around the entirety of the bay. Tom, the competition surfer, takes a deserved win after laying it all out on every wave he could in the 20-minute final. A quick pack down and off everyone trotted to Hayle to get Luke his first proper British pint – none of that Aussie pisswater here!

Thursday brought glory wing conditions – cross-offshore 18mph winds with a 6ft swell. Maybe a little more wind would’ve been nice – even the finest 5m wings aren’t the easiest to whip out the way when you’re trying to escape tight spots – but we were all extremely happy to have wind and great waves. At this point, we’d sussed out that Saturday at least was going to be completely unusable as a competition day – now with Storm Amy quickly incoming. Thankfully Chris’s careful timings and planning on the lead up to the event meant everyone knew roughly what they were doing – or in my case, what they were told. As understudy to beach manager Deano, I was to do exactly as I was told and “Don’t ask any stupid questions, Freddie!”

Many wings were munched that day. The repair side of Rich’s business always does well off the back of the Kernow Foil Classic – as wings are dragged back up the beach and lent up against the judging tower for him to take home and patch back into working order the following week. We go on about how wings are getting better lasting now we’re a few years into materials development – but there’s only so much brands can do. 6ft swell, heavy shorebreak and riders competing for a coveted title of ‘The Best in Cornwall’ with their mates watching and cheering from the beach makes for a difficult playground to negotiate.

Alas, it wasn’t to be a one dayer for the wing event as planned – there were just too many frothers to squeeze in. Chris made it through to the finals for each division, leaving a narrow window in the morning to finish the wing event before Storm Amy had her way with us. The bloke even managed to slip himself into his own competition and left the hard-working beach team to it! Then off to the Sunset Café we went, for our rewards of beer and chilli.

Guy Bridge, Leon Schiel, Andy Houlder, Callum Robertson and Tom Winterton hit the water for the final, with Guy coming out victorious, and fellow Exmouth local Rachel Hooper taking the women’s gold spot and Emma Bridge taking second.

So what does one do with 120 foil enthusiasts who’ve traveled from all corners of the country to enjoy the spoils of the southwest with a 50mph, 6 meter swell storm en route? First, you sort the prize giving out to allow those who’d like to escape the ability to do so before it actually hit – which essentially means heading back to the pub. We clamped the doors tightly at Gilberts to prevent the rain from bothering us too much and had a good old fashioned knees up.

Chris couldn’t safely run anything in those conditions, so despite wanting to run a proof-of-concept downwind race for the insurance company to let him run a bigger event next year, he decided to pause proceedings. Two options were given – some went round to the south coast to see what Marazion had in store where the swell wouldn’t reach, and some of us ran back to Daymer in hopes of a little session when the wind dropped a touch to 45mph later in the arvo. Daymer works well dissipating large swell and the forecasted NW winds are actually the best direction for the spot – so it seemed to make sense. Well, water time was had by all – but more from a survival standpoint. Until that is, the sun started going down, the wind dropped a touch and the lines of swell cleaned up, quickly turning Daymer into the best parawing spot on the planet.

A much lighter day Sunday and downwind paddling was called off. Daymer was still the best option regards condition and so a more freeride demo day for the masses was arranged. Rock up, get on the water and let's all have some fun. Guy Bridge and Liam, of our very own Generic Foiling Podcast, battled it out for the top spot, with the title going to Guy. Liam took second and Harvey Thompson took third.

Hats off to Chris – a lot of time and dedication goes into organizing these events and he seemed to have so many different plans to put into place all at the same time to pull this one off – but he did, again. As someone who travels to many kitesurf, SUP and foiling events around the UK throughout the year for work, I love coming back to Cornwall and the KFC – it is complete. The riding, the likelihood of conditions, the socials and the energy everyone brings with them. Some areas of the industry seem to be maturing slowly, yet some seem to pop up out of nowhere and we all become giddy little kids again. Give it a few more years and I think we’ll all look extremely fondly on the memories of these pinnacle years and on events such as the Kernow Foil Classic.

So next year, get yourselves down and come join in – you’ve got the dates mega early so there are no excuses. If you want to compete – great. If you want to come beach marshal with me – don’t. If you want to freeride with all your mates – perfect!