The Generic Foiling Podcast

The plan was to sit down with old mate Jimmy for a 10-15 minute catch up on his new venture with Code Foils - but Liam and James ended up chatting for ages, so we're releasing it as a solo episode. Maybe this is a new side to GFP once in a while, smaller catch ups with interviewees about certain subjects that are hitting the limelight.

The boys discuss:

-The origins of Code Foils

-The team behind the brand

-How he ended up involved

-Foil development

-What he's up to at the minute and got coming up

-Preparing for M2O

-Potential taglines for the brand

-Foil marketing nonsense

and much more...

You'll have to forgive the audio quality on this one, it wasn't intended to be a long episode and James was in an airport terminal! Catch up soon.

genericfoilingpodcast

Code Foils

James Casey

Please welcome Tom Earl onto the Podcast - A member of Unifoils international team of riders and undoubtably the UK's most prominent prone foil surfer.

Freddie was down in Cornwall a couple weeks back and managed to persuade Tom to come for a chinwag over Zoom with Liam back in Devon. We managed a mini session beforehand but Freddie ballsed up the timings and got in at the wrong tide, only to watch Tom smashing a few waves before getting out as the waves dissapeared.....

Tom may have only been foiling for a couple of years but has steadily built a solid following of riders who want to watch footage of his smooth style at his home spot down in Kernowfornia. A competitive surfer ever since he was a kid growing up in the surf mecca of the UK - Newquay - Tom took to foiling naturally, and has obviously been drawn to a more shortboard surf style of foiling. For us, this was great to chat about as coming from a windsports background we have a different angle of appreciation.

This week we got to chat with Charles Bertrand, a naval architect who's worked as part of the foil and board design team at F-One for approx 12 years. Liam talks all things engineering with Charles, learning how they go from a new product brief to a fully working item on the market, while Freddie twiddles his thumbs in the corner not really understanding much of what the other two talk about.

What've F-one got in the pipeline? Where does the company aim to place itself in the market? How does using less HM carbon in some of the front wings can actually become of benefit? We delve into a tonne of rabbit holes.

Enjoy the episode, it's a techy one! Share with your mates and follow us on instagram and facebook for more upcoming info - we did 2 further interviews last week that we look forward to releasing over the coming weeks.

A real mish mash of ideas in this weeks episode, starting with our new section called 'Poems with Proctor'. After last weeks episode with Mike Raper there were major calls for more Poetry to be read out by Liam (not really, but we thought we'd do more anyway). Can you guess which promotional video this weeks poem is from??

We discuss a session in Bantham once more that could've ended a lot worse than it did, but was still very slightly terrifying for Freddie - we all have bad sessions, its just a case of figuring out how to deal with them and stay safe!

Freddie visited Gong last week, and the instagram video released by us caused a few people to get in contact with their thoughts - which we encourage and enjoyed discussing further.

and finally, we're seriously toying with the idea of hosting an afternoon/evenings event later in the year in order to get together with our listeners and have a chin wag about all things foiling. The idea being to offer our listeners the ability to come and chat with some industry folk in a less sales orientated way but an ability to have chats with the brands you want to talk to and to attend a few clinics run by board builders and coaches to hopefully learn some way of improving your kit selection and/or riding too. Obviously beer and food would be involved also. Would anyone be interested? If so, let us know what things you may want to do and even where you think it may be best being held. We're currently toying with the idea of south coast/Poole direction due to the vast majority of wingers down there, but also maybe Exeter/Exmouth (the home of the generic foiling podcast).

until next week! Rate us 5 stars on your podcast platform, follow us on the socials and get in touch there :)

This week we sat across Zoom to chat to Mike Raper - Brand Manager and Co-founder at North Kiteboarding and North Foils, all the way over in Auckland, NZ. Mikes been around the watersports industry for a very long time and has held numerous senior positions within it - initially with the Pryde Group and Cabrinha Kites, and now running the ever successful North Kiteboarding and North Foils.

Liam and I both enjoyed Mikes interview on the Progression Project back in October 2022, and jumped at the chance to have a chin wag with him - although both very conscious that our interview would likely be quite a different style! For anyone who wants to know more about Mikes early days in the Industry and how he got his start, we urge you to go and listen to that episode - its a banger. We tried to come up with a different way of talking foiling with him, delving deeper into the North brand, its kit and the production behind it. A little of summary of some stand out questions you can come to expect....

Give us a share with your mates, tell them all about us - follow us on instagram and facebook @thegenericfoilingpodcast - ping us any messages/questions you'd like!

We're both house sitting in the South Hams for a couple of weeks and its going well for managing to get into the water most days in some very varied conditions. Only one wing session, but a couple of kite sessions and a couple more prone sessions has seen some progression across the board.

Today we delve into these sessions as well as having a natter about a few things:

It's a fun little episode this week - its always nice to sit down together to dissect a few opinions and thoughts on matters within the Industry. Freddie might've gotten a little over excited about a few things and hopes they're not too offensive, but we found them too funny not to include in the edit - if we get cancelled at least we'll know why.

We'll be back very soon with an interview with North Foils Brand manager, Mike Raper. If anyone has any questions for Mike please ping them over, we're really looking forward to it.

Give us a follow on social media @genericfoilingpodcast, rate us strictly only 5 stars on Spotify or whichever platform you listen to, and ping us any messages you may have!

This week we welcome big wave shredder, Professional Hydrologist and juggler of 3 boys Jeremy Wilmotte onto the Podcast.

The Aussie crew started churning out the downwind content a little while ago, and while all the boys put up some awesome footage it was Jeremy's humour within the downwind discipline that caught our eyes and ears. This meant we were always eager to see his next video and commentary on how difficult a discipline it is and watch his progression. We reached out on instagram, gave him some shit and the rest is history. 

A great chat with an incredibly interesting bloke - we delved into everything from his day job keeping human shit out of Australia's waterways, to his background as an ex pro surf photographer and finally riding BOMBS on his foilboards. Among these things we also discuss:

Enjoy this one, we did!

give us a like, subscribe, follow or whatever it is you need to, to make us look awesome to outsiders.

give us an email and message on insta/facebook if theres something on your mind!

Welcome back to a week with Liam and Freddie! We catch up on a busy couple of weeks after our last two episodes released were interviews. Check out Episodes 19 and 20 with Wieger from Appletree boards and Rob Claisse from Progression instructional kite and foil coaching - these were both great chats and very well recieved by those who have listened already.

We've had three wing sessions and a couple of Prone sessions in the time since these episodes were released, and theres plenty to dissect from them!

Liams got himself a blank from the boys over at Swift Foilboards and is pretty dang excited to get it glassed up properly and in the water asap.

We spend some time discussing the safety concerns of surfers around foiling most specifically in Cornwall. Again we're completely out of our depth with the finer details of the discussion, but after some messages to and fro with Tom Earl down in Newquay it became apparent that there may be an issue forming that may explode in the near future. This lead us on to wondering whether we should be reaching out and chatting to those who are concerned at the likes of the RNLI over here in the UK - we wonder what their take is on the discipline so far, and how do we train the public in how to react when they see something new like a foil in the water?

Until next week - we hope everyone gets out in the water! there looks to be wind and swell on the cards over here for the UK while it also stays super cold before spring kicks in....

check us out on @genericfoilingpodcast on instagram and Facebook, and follow us on whichever podcast platform you use!

Rob Claisse is the man behind 'Progression'. Originally a DVD coaching platform assisting many learning to Kitesurf, it now encompasses his 1 to 1 coaching and his foiling vacations and clinics. A master on a kitefoil, rapidly improving on the wing and one of the most analytical and experienced coaches in the game, he is a pleasure to talk to and has a lot of knowledge to share.

In this episode, Rob's passion for the sports and passion for coaching is obvious. He gives us a personal and profressional history, general tips to optimise your attitude to progression and skill acquisition in general as well as specific techniques for gybes/tacks and more difficult aspects of foil riding. He reveals some of his favourite gear reccomendations and much more.

Go give us a like and a follow on instagram and facebook, and rate us 5 stars!!

https://progression.me/

@genericfoilingpodcast on facebook & Instagram

[email protected] for all enquiries and feedback

See you all next week!

A great episode for those of you interested in the nitty gritty side of board design and the best in the business production methodology. Wieger is the Co-founder and head shaper for Appletree Surfboards. In this episode he explains how Appletree set themselves apart from the competition and came to manufacture boards with their vacuum infusion production process and why this is so suitable for both the kite surfboards, for which they first became well known, and PERFECT for any foil board which needs to be light, stiff and durable. 

Wieger talks us through the origins and growth of his company and brand and how the explosion of foiling disciplines has affected the operations and future outlook of the business. Why did they move the entire production process to Portugal and stay in the EU? He details their environmental motivations and successes which Appletree aims to maximise by not only producing their own product in house but bringing production back from Asia for other brands too. They aim to improve the quality of kit on the market overall.

Liam pushes to find out Wieger's thoughts on some argueably marketing driven design features from other brands over the years as well as how he balances the inputs into his brand's designs.....How much do you take into consideration customer demands? how much do you take into consideration pro rider feedback? and how much do you follow your instincts and personal feedback as a designer?

52 min - Discussing Appletrees move to building their own unique foilboxes having invested in their own injection moulding tooling

1hr 17 min - what’s Appletree got coming for 2023?

1hr 19 min - Downwind chat

1hr 28 min - does weight matter in boards?

Go give us a like and a follow on instagram and facebook, and rate us 5 stars!!

@genericfoilingpodcast

[email protected] for all enquiries and feedback

See you all next week!