Surf Foil World Tour (SFT) Show #1 - Introduction to SFT

Transcript:

Luc Moore (00:48.911)
Alright guys, looking forward to chatting about the SFT. Welcome.

Tom Hartmann (00:56.12)
Thanks for having us.

Jørgen (00:58.379)
Thanks Luc.

Luc Moore (01:00.165)
Jörgen, it's the first time we have you on the show, but Tom and I have been, I don't know, talking for what, a year and a half now or our 12th episode. And, my brother's a massive kite boarder. So he's followed the GKA and obviously I was Windsor for turned into winging. So was following the GWA. So excited to learn a little bit more about this brainchild SFT and, and what it's doing maybe for the everyday average rider and the communities out there that aren't competing at that pro level or.

Tom Hartmann (01:07.501)
Yeah.

Luc Moore (01:28.389)
Kind of curious to get a little bit of that backstory as well of you guys. So yeah, anyways, looking forward to chatting about it.

Jørgen (01:37.432)
Yeah, exciting times in any case and the SFT at least is something positive in the world where you always have to struggle a little bit to find the nice flowers between all the venues when you open the papers. So I think the SFT is one of those flowers, yes.

Luc Moore (01:49.872)
Yes.

Luc Moore (01:55.503)
Yeah. Covering a whole bunch of now new disciplines that weren't even didn't even exist back in the day. So it's kind of cool that we have some wake foiling, some pumps, some surf, all those kinds of disciplines. But before we do that, Jorgen, perhaps we could get to know you a little bit more and, and why did you even think about starting these tours back in the day?

Jørgen (02:22.795)
You mean now the SFT with its disciplines.

Luc Moore (02:24.974)
Yeah, but also, yeah, but also I'd like to maybe just briefly touch on the fact is that you also started some other ones as well. it wasn't just SFT, but

Jørgen (02:36.407)
Yeah, that's true. mean, like Tom and like you and everybody who is very much involved in the water sport from which angle so ever, we all have history in water sport which goes back to the childhood. And I was doing windsurfing when I was a child and then later on when I was 18 plus, I was competing in windsurfing. Then I started kiting.

And actually I was always connected to the water and tried to be in the ocean as much as I could. And that brought me sooner or later into the situation that after working as a lawyer, I found my way back to the world of water sport. And so I founded the GK.

the Global Kite Sports Association, which is an industry association representing the interests of the kite producing brands in the world. And out of that GK Association, the GK Kite World Tour was born. in 2000, the association was founded in 2014 and then the World Tour was founded in 2015.

And that was and is a very successful tour in all means. From the events, from the quality of the events, from the media coverage worldwide. think when it comes to wind-driven water sports, the GK is a top-shelf world tour.

And then in 2019, I was sitting in a very tiny little car in Cape Town with the CEO of Duotone and the owner of F1. And we were talking about this new sport, wing foiling. At this time, even no name existed for this kind of sport. There was different names and wing surfing, wing foiling.

Jørgen (05:00.048)
around the fourth and they had their concerns that this board will yeah, will interest the masses or will be successful, but that we need to do something new. And I was a kind of windsurfing background, so no, I think that it's very interesting, but we need to create something completely new because

windsurfers will not be happy to be considered as part of the kite surfing world and the Ottawa Round. And so I said, yeah, but maybe we should use the good momentum of the GKA Kite World Tour to support and build up a Wingful World Tour on its own, completely. And that was the plan then at the end of 2019.

Luc Moore (05:36.135)
Mm-hmm.

Jørgen (05:57.969)
And then 2020, the governments worldwide decided to lock up their countries, which made the start of the tour very difficult. But we were nevertheless able to run few events during those difficult times. We spent a lot of money for fulfilling all these restrictions and medical

Luc Moore (06:04.97)
Mm-hmm.

Tom Hartmann (06:11.778)
you

Jørgen (06:28.117)
safety nurse, et cetera. And it was very funny. I moved at 2020 to escape from the very harsh and very restrictive policy in Germany to Mauritius, where I still live today. And going kiting and going winging was, even when there was a lockdown here, very visible. So I started an hour then...

Luc Moore (06:45.413)
Hmm.

Jørgen (06:56.533)
I hid with my surfboard somewhere and I took a foil because there was a bay close by which was... There was no one, no police, no one you could have a look We called it Corona Bay but that was obviously has a proper name. The right name is La Combus. And so I came into surf foiling and I was completely hooked by it.

Luc Moore (07:13.399)
Yeah.

Jørgen (07:23.899)
then you know if you do the sport yourself as I do wing falling and kiting I say yeah that is super exciting and then you get asked by more and more people in your close community we should have a competition we should have to do this and that and because we have this platform of the wing fold tour and the kite wall tour and all the experience and all the context to event organizers to media distributors to tv broadcasters

I said, okay, it is maybe a chance to plug in that discipline in the existing grid we do have from those two other world tours, which are quite successful. And I discussed this with Tom and Tom said, yeah, that's super niche, we are super busy and yeah, he is right, for sure. And then...

He said he came with the opposite idea, if I'm not completely wrong. said, yeah, but we have to take more disciplines. I said, okay, not only surfoiling, we need also, you know, there are too many disciplines. We have to keep them all, you know, because we don't know in which direction it goes. And I said, pump foiling is very exciting because we can bring the sport closer to the people.

Luc Moore (08:28.299)
Hahaha

Luc Moore (08:38.741)
Yes, yes.

Luc Moore (08:48.906)
Mm-hmm

Jørgen (08:50.31)
And that is always interesting also for event organizers who are depending on sponsors to make the event happen. And having an event run in the harbor of New York or in the canals of Amsterdam or in the harbor of Hamburg or whatever makes it obviously much more attractive to event organizers because

Luc Moore (08:57.421)
Mm-hmm.

Jørgen (09:19.636)
there are more people gathering and delivering a high athletic show. And another advantage of that sport is you're not that much weather dependent as you are with windsurfing, kiting, wingfoiling. Yeah, and that is how it all started then. we, and I, we would have started the tour already in 2023, but we were simply too busy.

We were so busy with the kite wall tour and the wing fold wall tour and I said, it's still a young sport and we like to see in which direction it goes. And our general spirit is to, if you build up a tour like this and I made the same experience with kiting and then with wing folding, you work together with enthusiasts. You work with people together who are so stoked and happy to have

Luc Moore (09:46.828)
Alright.

.

Tom Hartmann (10:03.758)
No.

Jørgen (10:15.311)
a professional competition can battle each other but appreciate their friendships nevertheless. that good vibe is I think very convincing to many event organizers, sponsors and we can feel it right now with the Surf for the SFT Tour. As we did it in kitesurfing, I'm not saying that it's...

Luc Moore (10:19.852)
Mm-hmm.

Jørgen (10:44.147)
or banished in kitesurfing, but it is on the level where the riders take it sometimes as serious as a Champions League football player is taking it. So then obviously sometimes the competition becomes very serious and it's always serious, but at surf falling we are very much at the beginning. Sorry for my long introduction.

Luc Moore (10:56.712)
Mm hmm. That was good. So Tom, that was that was your idea to bring in all these different disciplines in the SFT. Like, how did you guys decide which ones to to bring in? Like, obviously, you were busy enough as it was. So

Let's take on five more.

Tom Hartmann (11:28.686)
Well, basically yes. now, I mean the basic concept I think is coming from the fact that still, as Jürgen said, all these sports are still young and are still quite niche-y. And if you base everything on just one of the disciplines, it's even harder to raise attention for these kind of sports. And then the second thing is that...

Jørgen (11:30.075)
Just...

Tom Hartmann (11:56.579)
There is so much connection between these sports. You know, have so many people like ourself, like yourself, like people that are into foiling, they don't do just one of those. Maybe they do one main thing, but they always use a chance to also, you know, people that pump foil, if they can go on a downwind, they go on a downwind. And I see that more and more, you know, the events we do that are having multiple disciplines that...

Luc Moore (12:06.08)
Mm-hmm

Tom Hartmann (12:19.766)
the athletes that do e-foil love to jump on the pump foil and the other way around if they have the chance to. it, yeah, I mean the general idea of the SFT is to bring more attention to foiling sports. And so if you can battle them, bring them together and...

Luc Moore (12:25.21)
Mm-hmm.

Tom Hartmann (12:38.888)
As we are, let's say, on the competition side, not so weather dependent, they're very easy to plan. And if you have a two or three day schedule, the luxury thing that we were not used to have on the wind sport tours before is that you can more or less plan a weekend out like a soccer game, like a soccer tournament, a tournament. can tell a month before when you're going to start, when you're going to finish, when is your prize giving. And this is really helpful also for the organizers to have a good program.

Luc Moore (12:44.083)
Mm.

Tom Hartmann (13:09.592)
And yeah, so that's why we choose at the moment these five sports that we think represent the majority of the non-foiling, non-wind powered foiling disciplines, that's how we call it. But I think foiling is still a dynamic environment that will develop and who knows in two years,

where foiling is taking us and which kind of disciplines we're going to see and how it's going to develop you. At the moment I see people putting foils every year on new things. Might it be boards? Might it be boats? Might you know, motor boats, sail boats, surfboards. And I think there is still a lot to come. So I don't think it's going to maybe stick with the five disciplines. Maybe it's going to be less and some going to...

come together into one or maybe we're going to have even more. But I think this is the recipe also, you know, different, let's say in a kite tour and in a wing fold tour, obviously you also have different disciplines, but they are still done on a fairly similar equipment. And in the SFC, obviously it's also fairly similar equipment, but for sure you have an E-Fold that's, you know, that's powered by an engine.

Luc Moore (14:19.875)
Mm-hmm

Tom Hartmann (14:31.072)
and then you have a pump follower that's powered by his own legs and then you have a downwind person who is...

Luc Moore (14:35.144)
Mm-hmm.

Tom Hartmann (14:37.676)
basically powered by the waves he's riding, as well as the surf foiler. So there are different ways to move around on the foil and I think that's the beauty of it. I think that's what I like about it. As Juergen explained, got into... I mean, the first time I tried a foil was in 2017. And to be honest, the first time I did this was in the windsurf event and it was in north of France. It was on an SUP foil that I was super keen to try and I hit that thing on the second wave right in my face and it needed stitches in my...

Luc Moore (14:41.74)
Yep.

Tom Hartmann (15:07.76)
in my face and I was like I'm never gonna touch a foil in my life again you know and now it's kind of my daily business you know and it's kind of funny because when yeah in 2020 yeah we had the Mauritius lockdown you know and it was the time I had tried wing foiling before but it was a time to really spend more time on it we got so hooked into

Luc Moore (15:12.263)
Yeah.

Luc Moore (15:32.167)
Mm-hmm.

Tom Hartmann (15:35.031)
Obviously, wing foiling was that thing that was happening at the time. But at the same time, know, as Keane, there was no wind, you want to surf foil. And then you see a guy on the SUP foil, want to try that. And then you see people towing behind the boat into a wave and surf foil. then you, there are so many, many possibilities to move around on the foil on the water. And that's the beauty of it. And that's the concept. I think it's the more events we do, think it's also discretion.

get asked actually often but it's also I think the people actually really appreciate that and really see the versatility of that sport being presented you

Luc Moore (16:16.649)
And your first year is looking amazing for how many events you guys have planned. And can we talk a little bit about potentially the organizers that are working with SFT maybe versus GWA or GKA? Cause I know this is attracting a lot more community based people because anybody can kind of compete on the SFT right now. Is there anything you guys want to mention about that?

Jørgen (16:41.87)
Yeah, maybe I'll start and Tom can complete it because Tom is the one who is at most of the events or actually at all the events at the Tour Manager. Generally spoken, as I said at the beginning, have completely and not comparable level between the GK and the GWA and the SFT. The GK and the GWA, we have dozens of

TV contracts which needs to be fulfilled. are with video content in Europe with each event on over 11 million public screens on bus stations, train stations, etc. We are all over the world on sports channels with 26 minutes highlights, summaries of each event. And there is a big industry behind it whose

like to see the sport being promoted. And that is a big difference as well. Kitesurfing is known to the general public as windsurfing is. Wing foiling slowly goes there. When I talk to outside sponsors, mean the industry is really doing great and sponsoring riders competing at the events.

Luc Moore (17:53.158)
Mm-hmm.

Luc Moore (18:07.921)
Mm-hmm.

Jørgen (18:08.205)
but they do not have the financial capacity to sponsor the events, sponsor the prize money, all the people working at the events. So you have to go for crowdfunding or you find sponsors who are, yeah, blue ship companies, we have no connection to the sports, car manufacturers, whatever. And you need to explain to them what it is they like.

Luc Moore (18:32.144)
Mm-hmm.

Jørgen (18:37.871)
or they are asked to put their money on. And in kitesurfing there's no need to explain what it is about. There are no young people, beach, the people are in the good mood, sunshine, that is what the people are doing when they are not being in the office. It is a synonym for work-life balance and it's a good vibe, etc. etc. When you come with a surf foil discipline, they don't have a clue what you are talking about.

Luc Moore (19:06.509)
Mm-hmm.

Jørgen (19:06.785)
and you have to start explaining to them what it is. And then you have to tell them and convince them why they should rather invest their money in this particular sport and not in beach soccer, mountain biking or whatsoever. And coming from that point, the financial resources of the FOIL, the SFT World Tour,

are not comparable with the GK and the GWA, even if we can use our experience and the context we do have. And that consequently leads to the situation that we are, that the SFT can be considered at the startup with high potential, the big potential with these

With all the context we do have the experience and the manpower. But it is for an event organizer as well much more difficult to acquire the financial resources to run an event. And it is very very often a misunderstanding from the writer's side.

I'm not talking about the SfT now, I'm talking about general, the writer side or the public side that, yeah, you can run an event more or less out of nothing, but you want to have it professionally. You want to appreciate what the writers are doing, what they're achieving. So someone needs to pay judges which are internationally trained. You need to have a water sports photographer. You need to have

Luc Moore (20:35.536)
Mm-hmm.

Luc Moore (20:46.032)
us.

Luc Moore (20:56.313)
Mm-hmm.

Jørgen (21:01.537)
videographers with tons of very expensive equipment. You need an editor and then you need to send it out within a couple of minutes so that the news are not from yesterday. And all this costs a lot of money. And it goes without saying that on the SFT at the moment we go step by step and growing with the event organizers. Grass-road on the grass-road level, we have some events

Luc Moore (21:15.398)
Yes.

Luc Moore (21:25.936)
Grassroots.

Jørgen (21:31.659)
which obviously do have another financial background and they can afford all that, what we like to achieve at some other events by slowly but surely building it up. But what we can say is that since we started with the SFT and our first event was the indoor World Cup taking place at the Boat Exhibition

in Düsseldorf, Germany in January, we are overwhelmed by emails from event organizers all over the world who like to run events at this new tour. And what makes me very happy, I was fighting since 2015 to run a proper water sport event in the USA.

Luc Moore (22:27.408)
Mm-hmm.

Jørgen (22:28.017)
and in Canada as well, so let's say in North America. And it was not possible. I was running one event in Hood River, financed more or less by ourself, the CART event. But now with the SFT, most of the requests coming from North America running an event. And that is very interesting because we have to see, I do have all the statistics about

products being produced, sold in which markets and we can say that Europe is the biggest market in general when it comes to water sport and within Europe, strange wise, Germany was a very small and short course and the long winter and then followed by France, which is understandable and then on the third place,

Luc Moore (23:22.661)
Mm-hmm.

Jørgen (23:27.181)
It's North America, in particular USA. So in other words, it is for the foil market. It's a very important market. And I think that is what also some of the brands have realized that the Tour is a very, very good vehicle to transport the information and to bring the people into the sport.

That is what we always do at our events as well. We invite everyone who comes to the event to try it or herself and then to get hooked to it.

Luc Moore (24:04.729)
Mm-hmm.

To want to try to learn to bring in community to bring in family all of that stuff I think is super important when you're launching something grassroots It's the passion that's gonna drive it forward and and in the u.s I can see that makes sense because you have e foiling you got wake foiling which could be two massive engines there because you got some really big lakes and a lot of water systems there as well and If people are looking at that enjoy a bit of motor they enjoyed a bit of NASCAR

Jørgen (24:09.662)
No.

Yeah.

Luc Moore (24:36.798)
that why would they not enjoy a little bit of this foiling on the water but using some some power behind it, which I think is super fascinating because we hadn't seen that yet. And there's an entire demographic of people who who are not wind people, but they like some motor. So that could be or really curious and interested to see where that goes. Because the e foiling was really exciting to watch in Pensacola, like the boys put on a really good show.

Tom Hartmann (24:54.296)
Yeah.

Luc Moore (25:03.786)
there and that was exciting to see them going from like flat water conditions to windy small swell and just to figure out how to maneuver that and and like wake foiling as well. Like we see these are big boats. They love to play out there. It's like a whole little group and family that go out together. These boats are not cheap, by the way, but but the US, Canada, all that kind of stuff. That's a prime market for for that as well.

So I'm excited that stuff's coming our way. It'll be a little easier for me to drive to come in to come to these events. Not a 20 hour flight.

Jørgen (25:38.608)
Definitely.

Tom Hartmann (25:38.699)
you

Jørgen (25:45.118)
No.

Luc Moore (25:46.882)
Well, Tom, did you want to talk a little bit about, just briefly touch on those five disciplines and I know they're on the website, they're on our website, they're on your website, but maybe just give a quick overview of what they are. Maybe for people who are just tuning in and learning about the SFD today for the first time.

Tom Hartmann (26:06.272)
Yeah, sure. Well, yeah, first of all, also, I just want to add to what Jurgen was just saying, that I think the difference as well, you know, in the SFT, it's a thing that just started this year. It has a more Pro-M, I call it Pro-M approach, because it's not only addressed to professionals, because in these sports, compared to kiting or to wing-falling, it is not the situation yet that you have.

big group of full-time professionals that do these sports for a living and do nothing else than traveling around the world competing on events paid by their sponsors. I think it's a platform that can create this job maybe for people and high-level riders, athletes to be professionals.

But we are as well reaching out and having a lot of people participating that are just absolute enthusiasts about foiling. And they just like to share this passion with mind-liking people that really want to be together. And this is what I see. We have done five events this season already where I really see this community being

Luc Moore (27:07.533)
Good point.

Tom Hartmann (27:29.88)
getting really strong throughout these events because obviously, as I said, all of these sports are still pretty niche. It's not that everybody around the corner is doing it. There might be people that in their region, in their hometown, in their spot, they're the only ones who maybe do it. But when they get to an event, they meet up with a lot of other people that have the same mindset and share their passion. And I think it's also great to see them connecting. And I've seen so many friendships already.

being established just for these events that we had done and meeting people from other places. And I think that's a beautiful way how this community can get stronger. That's what we want to build. That foiling is including people that are passionate about it. And it's really our idea, having a mix of events that are, some of them might be

integrated in already existing water sport events that have a water sport audience, but as well bringing events to people that are maybe not yet into these sports, but get attracted by seeing these kind of sports because they don't know them yet. And you can run not all of the disciplines, but a pump foil or e-foil, a wake foil that are not wind dependent on certain weather conditions. You can basically run them in any place with water that is deep enough for a foil.

Luc Moore (28:33.228)
Mm-hmm.

Tom Hartmann (28:58.926)
And just recently at the last event that we did in Sicily, for example, I really liked the concept of the event, which was giving the opportunity to a lot of people to join the event actively and get in touch with the sport. So it was not just watching a competition, it was called Water Experience, so people could really try out not only the foilsports, any type of water sports, e-foiling, wake, wing foiling, windsurfing.

Luc Moore (28:59.008)
Mm-hmm

Tom Hartmann (29:28.762)
SUP and there were hundreds of people making use of it, know, to have the opportunity. People that have never done this sport before and they were really, I couldn't believe it, you know, we were not we but the people who were providing the service, let's say they were opening up at 9 in the morning and the people were lining up already to get their chance to get on any of those sports and that's beautiful, you know, I think that's sort of was a really

Luc Moore (29:34.537)
Hmm

Luc Moore (29:48.834)
You

Luc Moore (29:55.307)
Yeah.

Tom Hartmann (29:58.531)
great experience to see that because it was not only for them and then they were watching the pros obviously doing the competition but it was kind of not just watching it was being involved and also getting new people into it and now getting to the... sorry

Luc Moore (30:04.182)
Yep. Yeah.

Jørgen (30:11.045)
Maybe? No, No, no, sorry. Go ahead. I just want to... No, no, go ahead, Sorry.

Tom Hartmann (30:20.61)
Now I just wanted to get over now to the discipline, so if you want to throw something in here, feel free.

Tom Hartmann (30:30.638)
So the SFT is the idea is to cover non-wing-powered foil disciplines. And at the moment we have this based on five legs, I would say. And this is pump foiling. So this is now, I would say, the strongest regions or communities are built in in lake areas where people don't have waves to surf. And we can really see that

on these events where we had pump foiling integrated so far that at least half the people that are doing pump foiling and are really good at it as well. But even if they start with it, are people that have not been on the surfboard before. So these are new people that actually tap into the foil market because they are fit people. Of course, it's technically, it's not that easy, but it's also not that difficult. And once people start to try to actually realize with the new equipment that's on the market, it's not so hard to learn these foilsports.

Luc Moore (31:10.305)
Hmm.

Tom Hartmann (31:26.99)
But they might be cyclists, ice hockey players and have strong legs and they get on a pump for it, but they've never been on the ocean or let's say, been on the ocean, but never surfed before. Then we have surf foiling, is obviously a development of surfing and people riding waves. But also here, you suddenly open up surfing swells that don't break. We were running, for example, a toe-in event in Cape Verde.

Luc Moore (31:53.422)
True.

Tom Hartmann (31:56.631)
suddenly you open up spots where you would never surf because you can't take off on the wave but you can do it on a surfboard with a toe-in assist of course or any other assist or surf foiling waves that are not good enough for shortboard surfing but for surf foiling they are sufficient. Downwind is a very popular discipline within the foiling community but is definitely something that requires a bit of

basic foil knowledge I would say. So this is the third discipline, downwind foiling. Be it with an SUP, be it with a power wing, be it with a prone, some people do it with foil assist as well. There are different ways how people practice downwind at the moment. But downwind has I would say the challenging part when it comes to the inside that the logistics are a bit harder because it's always not, we did a bit of downwind in our event in Leucat because we had really strong wind conditions, it was too much wind for pumping.

Luc Moore (32:25.472)
Yep.

Tom Hartmann (32:53.838)
So we use jet skis to bring people upwind and get them riding waves over a certain distance downwind, but not a very long distance. And then we have the efoil discipline that is, you know what I would say, has its special market as well. There are people, you know, with, who have big yachts boats who have efoils as a toy, but there are more and people getting into it that actually love to do efoiling only and not because they own a yacht or because they have too much money.

Luc Moore (33:22.88)
Hmm.

Tom Hartmann (33:23.51)
And it also gets more accessible. mean, we know these eFoils are not cheap, but actually seeing now how many brands are starting to launch products in the eFoil market really shows, I think, the potential of it. And it's also something you can do everywhere. You don't need any specific weather conditions. It's good fun. It's probably one of the easiest ways.

to enter into the foiling sport. So it's something you can, without any other foil experience, you can start to try that and learn how to fly on a foil with an e-foil. Maybe easier than any of the other, definitely easier than a pump foil probably.

Luc Moore (34:07.296)
Yeah, that's what I heard.

Tom Hartmann (34:08.922)
And so this is a great tool and a great discipline, I would say, to really attract new people into the foiling sport. then wake foiling is something that kind of developed out of wake surfing and surfing for those people who not on the ocean, but they have a boat. And I would say I would compare it probably to wake surf mainly, you know, but of course...

top athletes show already crazy tricks, crazy moves, but it's just, I think, wakeboarding a new way of enjoying riding behind a boat without being pulled by a rope and just surfing on the wave behind it, which is a completely new experience. And that's why you see also a lot of links between them. There are so many links between these voiding disciplines because people that pump foil on the lakes in Switzerland.

Luc Moore (35:06.303)
Yeah

Tom Hartmann (35:06.498)
What they love to do is wake thieving, they call it. So they just jump on the dock, you know, pump out because they see a boat coming along and get on the back of the boat on the wake and just wake for the boat. So, and again, you kind of mix these two disciplines. So that's why I think, you know, there is so much cross links between all these foil sports that we want to treat them as a whole. And as I said, these are the five disciplines we are running right now, but I'm pretty

optimistic that it's not going to stay like that, that the disciplines will evolve and new things will come. We're going to tackle it for sure.

Luc Moore (35:37.054)
You

Luc Moore (35:40.99)
Yeah.

Luc Moore (35:45.437)
Well, I think for all of us out here who are in the pro-am category, more amateur category, I want to say thanks guys for like taking the time to create something that's a grassroots level that'll allow more of that interconnectivity. I think that's amazing. Like you were saying before, Jorgen, when we're trying to just stay positive with everything that's going on in the news, this is something that helps us get through the day and helps gives us energy and helps change, it changes lives. And not everybody wants to bite.

that and take that on and do that and you guys do. And so I want to say a thank you for all of us to you guys for giving us that space to kind of keep competing at the young age of 40s and 50s and whatever, right. But before we wrap it up, because we're at 36 minutes so far, how did you guys connect? And how did how did you finally decided that Tom was the right man for this?

for this job. runs events. He's an amazing, like when you see him on, he's focused. He gets his work done and he runs a good event. So like, how did you guys meet? Just to wrap things up today.

Jørgen (36:57.669)
Yeah, we met at the closing party of Honeywise, the first World Cup I was running in Mauritius. The first Kyde World Cup. And at the closing party there was this huge guy with a big beard. I said, how this guy coming up here? So we start talking and I said, well, yeah, okay.

quite small, standing next to it. At this time, the GK Kyle World Tour was a little bit more developed, but it was in second year of its existence. A lot of volunteers were working on it and it was still a kind of grassroot project at this time as well.

Luc Moore (37:28.862)
You do.

Jørgen (37:55.933)
stuff was not even stuff my friends who were working with me on the GK Card World Tour they had proper jobs and they had other jobs and we just gathered to run make the events happen and I was the only one who tried to besides the regular jobs I had or the regular job I had at this time to build up this tour and our tour manager at this time then yeah

Luc Moore (38:07.315)
Hmm.

Jørgen (38:25.271)
He was busy with other things and had his strengths and other disciplines. He is our main commentator now. And so I was looking for a tour manager. And then at this time I was talking to my friend Heimer Heis, it's very well known in the kites scene. And he said, yeah, you remember this guy from Mauritius? He is running a windsurf tour. Maybe we should ask him.

Luc Moore (38:50.997)
.

Jørgen (38:55.14)
Then I called Tom and he said, I run another tour and have my business in Mauritius. I no, Tom, don't worry, it's not a lot of work, we just have a few events. Give it a try. He said, yes, and since then he's from time to time remembering me. Do you remember when you said it's not a lot of work?

Luc Moore (38:56.23)
You

Luc Moore (39:05.617)
Hahaha!

Jørgen (39:18.756)
Now I'm sitting late night and day working. So he got sucked into it and now I'm happy working with him for many many years. It's a good partnership and I think we have both our different ways sometimes to manage things and I think it's very complementary and positive for that what we are doing.

Luc Moore (39:26.853)
There you go.

Tom Hartmann (39:34.168)
Yeah.

Luc Moore (39:45.469)
I think and what are you Tom like 7 to 215 you put you fill a room when you walk.

Tom Hartmann (39:51.971)
Well, I don't know an inch, I'm 194. We have a bit different sizes, yeah, but now it's true. it's funny, you know, at the end, often how things come together and, know, what you make of it. I think we have a really fruitful partnership. And as Jürgen said, when he kind of offered me or told me about, you know, doing some of these kite events, I wasn't like...

Jørgen (39:52.26)
Okay.

Tom Hartmann (40:19.284)
straight away into it, have to admit. I was busy with running a windsurf tour and my business here. But I really liked the vision that Jürgen had of where he wants to bring the tour at the time. I really felt like he has the right approach and I think we share a lot of that vision.

Luc Moore (40:33.084)
Mmm.

Tom Hartmann (40:42.808)
Then in that first year I kind of said, well yeah, I have some slots in my calendar that actually fit to the events you want me to run. yeah, here I am now. Like you said, it went pretty quick and maybe a bit quicker than I expected to be fully wrapped up into all this. But I mean, in the end, know, I like to do things 100 % if I do them.

Luc Moore (41:04.668)
You

Luc Moore (41:12.028)
Mm-hmm.

Tom Hartmann (41:12.686)
When you're passionate for something and you know like these sports and I'm running events since more than 15 years before I managed the windsurf tour for over 10 years. it kind of felt natural to take on other projects and you need to have also, always need bit of change in your life as well, keeps you being motivated.

Luc Moore (41:37.506)
Yeah, definitely. Well, we're looking forward to seeing how this tour develops and we're looking forward to covering it and talking to you guys more about the behind the scenes and then attending some of these events that you have around the world. So thanks a lot for joining us today. And we are looking forward to your next one that is coming up soon, which is going to be, let me see if I can find it here. Atlanta.

Right? June 13th to 15th. It's going to be the Atlanta foil fast world cup. that's going to be what your second one in the U S isn't it? Yeah. After Pensacola. Yeah. There you go. That's going to be fun.

Tom Hartmann (42:13.718)
Yes, yeah.

Tom Hartmann (42:19.874)
Yeah, absolutely. No, no, we're looking forward already. It's great to connect with the US foiling community. This is what I loved in Pensacola about all the people that joined us there, actively as participants. You could really see the fire in them. Everybody was so just amped to be in the water as much as they can, no matter what toy they would use. It's a great vibe over there. Looking forward to it.

Luc Moore (42:47.611)
And we can tailgate, have some beers and have some burgers and then go foiling. What could go wrong?

Jørgen (42:54.697)
Yeah.

Tom Hartmann (42:54.712)
Hahaha

Luc Moore (42:57.517)
All right, guys. Hey, thanks a lot for joining us again. And I'm sure, well, we're going to be talking soon. So thanks for joining. All right. All right, guys. Yeah. All right. Bye everybody.

Tom Hartmann (43:04.482)
All right. Thank you, Luke, for having us. See you soon.

Jørgen (43:04.758)
Thanks Luke. Thanks Luke.

See you soon, bye bye.