The Generic Foiling Podcast

This week we welcome Lord and Lady Bridge of Exmouth to our little show. Famous across the county and further afield in the wing/kite industry and incredibly well regarded - nobody forgets meeting Steph and Eric Bridge. From starting a small sailing school back in the 80's in their home town of Exmouth, to now running one of the most successful kite/wing schools and shops in the UK - The Bridges have seen it all. Multiple world titles for Steph in a fledgling kite race scene, followed by guiding their 3 boys (Olly, Guy, Tom) to become some of the best watermen to ever have come out of the UK. We both call the Bridge family friends, (as well as ex employers of both of us) and we thank them for allowing us to invade their house with our aim to get them to sit still for an entire hour and talk to us on record.... Everyone who knows any of the family will know how much of an effort that can be for all of them. We did have to contend with scheduled haircuts mid way through - but Eric did a good job of holding the microphone while sitting in the chair. How I wish we had photos of that.... It does mean that this chat only scratches the surface of their accomplishments, and we'd love to do another episode with them. We are going to have to rethink the recording though as they really only rarely sit down. Enjoy! We're slowly getting back to a more regular schedule of weekly episodes, and we've got some fun trips coming up to spend some time chatting away on mic's about, so keep listening. Theres 68 other episodes to keep you going though, if you've joined us recently! If you like what we're doing, check out https://buymeacoffee.com/gfpodcast to donate whatever you like. All proceeds are going towards funding our trip to the AWSI event in America this september (and the odd beers) we've also still got t-shirts available for anyone else interested!

Freddie's away so Liam has a chat with local boy Jack Salmon. A name that is already likely to be known by UK folk, Jack has the potential to take things further in the watersports industry once he has got his degree out of the way. Not only is he a talented waterman that excels in every discipline he takes his hand to, but he's an energetic creative that also enjoys his time behind the camera and producing videos. I'm sure we'll see more and more from the salmon as time goes on.

Some more childish banter in response to some comments made online recently that we thought needed addressing....... There is some foil chat here though, don't fret. Ken Adgate jumps in with a voice note to give us some answers to questions we've had from listeners about how to engage in flat water wing shenanigans. We dissect how these potential 'party tricks' may actually become quite useful in more serious conditions once mastered. Some more thoughts on the Industry currently along the lines of Gong pushing harder into kiting and what that might mean to the consumer - what does this mean for the local shops? Even more board construction chat! Whats been ruffling Liams feathers this week? Can you guys send us some photos of you in your t-shirts?! we've sent a good few out now, it'd be great to see where they've ended up in the far flung corners of the world

We welcome Wieger back finally, after chatting to him way back at the start of 2023. His best selling Appleslice model is being renewed for the 3rd Version and so it seemed like a great excuse to rope him back in. I'm sure we did discuss the new board at least a little bit but as always its the ramblings in other directions that made this chat so much fun once again. Great guy, great brand - we hope you enjoy this one. And if you haven't listened to the first episode we did with Wieger way back when, its well worth a listen Appletree seems to have gone from strength to strength over the last 12 months and Wieger gives us a run down on how the companies changed in the background and whats been going on. We're incredibly pleased to announce we've booked flights to the AWSI event in Hood River later in 2024, and we look forward to chilling with a beer with the Appletree crew there! If you're enjoying what we're doing and feel up to supporting us in anyway, check out buymeacoffee.com/gfpodcast. All funds are going straight towards our trip as well as investing in any new equipment to make sure we can get plenty content while we're out there!

Ben Rhodes and Stevie Morrison join us this week for a couple beers in Liams flat. They partnered together in the 49'er sailing fleet way back when, winning multiple world championships and representing Great Britain in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. Exmouth locals, they're both now into their coaching of both Olympic kite foil racing and sailing while being well into their own personal foiling journeys - Stevie loves his winging and Ben's got his eyes fixated on mastering Downwinding..... Two great fellas with a lot of good stories from their competitive days - this was a lot of fun to record! If you like what we're doing, check out buymeacoffee.com/gfpodcast - we’re aiming to get ourselves away on some specific trips this year to make sure we have some great people to chat to, and we’d appreciate all the support we can get to bring our ideas to life!

Multiple sessions this week just gone, we've had some great powered conditions to play in! Jezza's traffic light power zones has worked its wonders on Freddie's wiggles on the wave.... Give us a shout on the socials and say hello - lets see your t-shirts anyone who's got them?! Speaking of T-shirts..... we still have some podcast logo tee's from the first drop leftover. More sizes and more Wang Lordz tee's to be printed soon enough again :)

It'd been too long, we've been overdue a good chat with our man over in Aus. Today Jeremy joins us as a co-host of sorts and we catch up on the coming and goings. I'm writing this on Sunday evening and Liam and I just finished a 20 mile running race today, its safe to say my brain isn't quite computing anything yet (neither of us would classify ourselves as runners. I promise this episode with the Big Fella is a good one, i just can't quite remember what the hell we talked about it..... Enjoy!

Kane shouldn't need an introduction - he's been around long enough in the foiling space, producing hugely popular after market rear wings to suit every brand's kit. But now he's working solidly at KT as a designer we were keen to hear plans! Liam and Kane waffle on almost straight away into techy foil designs..... and as always, Freddie brings it back in line for the masses with a mixture of shit chat and bad jokes. Hope everyones well - its been cranking in the UK the last few days, hope everyones been getting out and about! If you like what we're up to and you're keen to support, we're still trying to build funds for future projects and trips (mainly a trip to AWSI at the moment) - check out www.buymeacoffee.com/gfpodcast Reach out on the socials and say hello!

After Ken's episode blew up last week, we're back with a nice chilled Sunday evening chat. Plenty to discuss and catch up on - despite Liam and I spending all weekend together already. Hope everyones well and getting wet frequently! If you like what we're doing, check out buymeacoffee.com/gfpodcast to help us fund trips to the beaches and hopefully to AWSI in the States towards the end of the year. Until next week!

We get into it with Ken Adgate, a man with fingers in many pies. Shredder, board builder, un/official test rider for Ozone and Mikeslab and gas guzzling car dealership owner in the US of A. We've been fans from a far of Kens for a long while, and if you've not seen footage of him riding yet you will be soon enough too. We hit the big time though after Ken listened to a few episodes and actually enjoyed them - he's very picky with his podcast listening it seems. We won him over with our jovial english abuse. He started following us on the gram and is officially the first interviewee who's also a supporter of the pod! Ken teaches Freddie how to tack like a champ, before he gets into some techy board building chat with Liam........ If you like what we do, take a look at www.buymeacoffee.com/gfpodcast - all support is well appreciated and is going towards pushing the podcast further forward!

A Sunday mornings ramble over a few items written hastily into an agenda - as is becoming a fun tradition.

We've been planning to sit down with Olivia ever since she did her world record downwind challenge, but we've never been able to make it work - she's so busy! This week was the week, even having to bail the first time because Liam was caught by the dreaded Covid...... A great chat was had though - as we'd suspected! Olivia runs us through the current goings on in her life including a very fun sounding trip to Tenerife to shoot with the AXIS crew. We catch up on the Downwind challenge she did last year and also hear some rather amusing stories about her time competing on the GWA events.... Another friend of the podcast is made - we look forward to hopefully bumping into Olivia somewhere in the world! If you like what we do, check out buymeacoffee.com/gfpodcast - we're aiming to get ourselves away on some specific trips this year to make sure we have some great people to chat to, and we'd appreciate all the support we can get to bring our ideas to life!

A quick one today, en route back from the beach after a mixed session. As always Liam has things on his mind that he wishes to share with the foiling world, and Freddie couldn't give a damn and is happy to go along with it.....consider this an audio opinion piece. Some potentially dickish things have occurred in the foiling world this past week or two - and we need your help to decide who's the dick! As always - rate us 5 stars on whatever platform you use, leave a sarcastic comment or give us some abusive feedback on the socials. IF you do like what we do...... buymeacoffee.com/gfpodcast is where we're recruiting plane ticket tokens to get us to the AWSI in 2024 to bring yet more content to you from a wider network of peoples. Enjoy!

Ellie is a kite racer. A very good kite racer. She's qualified for the Olympics in July 2024 to represent the UK - which means she takes foiling far more seriously than Liam and Freddie do. This week she gives us a run down of the entire Olympic process - which despite an interest in the Kitefoil racing we were pretty unaware of. She runs us through her background from 49erFX sailing to learning to kitefoil in a rapidly evolving world. Ellie's also been ramping up her wing foil and tow in skills while having down time on her foiling camps in Mexico and Fuerte (lucky lass) and gives us a run through of her...... as well as her plans post Olympics 2024. If you feel like showing us any support for the podcast, you can do that by following us on the socials @genericfoilingpodcast to keep upto date, or financially on https://www.buymeacoffee.com/gfpodcast. We can assure you this is very much appreciated and not wasted on the likes of silly things like beers (despite us repeatedly mentioning this). We've still got solid plans to put this money towards a trip to the AWSI event later in 2024 - where we will hopefully be able to put together a major list of potential interviews. Thats the plan anyway!

A lovely catch up and debrief on the previous weeks shenanigans between Freddie and Liam is very rudely interrupted by Mr FoilDrive Europe himself again - the man can't help but Plug! What actually happened is Freddie enjoyed his time finger blasting on the FoilDrive the previous week so much, that Liam thought it'd be funny to get Dom involved to tell him 'I bloody told you so'....... We discuss our findings of some pretty serious time on the Foildrive and a SUP foil finally before Dom jumps in. Thanks as ever to Rich at KIteBarn for allowing us the opportunity to look after his beloved Cat for a week while he took the family away skiing - where in turn we could utilise his 30 second trip to the beach and epic waves.....! Hope everyone enjoys - give us a follow on the socials and rate us 5 stars on whichever platform you use. If you like what we're doing, we're aiming to keep delivering as much as possible and have plans that might need a little support here and there - buy us a beer or two on https://www.buymeacoffee.com/gfpodcast to show said support - we appreciate it more than you may know!

Clinton Filen is the Brand and Development Director for AK Durables, Freewing and Airush Kiteboarding. That's a pretty sick title. Mike Birt was all excited about his new found fame off the back of Episode 52 and very kindly passed on our details to Clinton in order to get him on ASAP. A great, chilled chat with a very bright bloke in charge of another major player in the Industry. Based out of South Africa, Clinton gives us a run down of the Cape Town scene, while giving us a great background into his beginnings and how he came to be where he is now. He also chats through the AK/Airush/Freewing history and talks through the product range that seems to be hitting the mark right now in foiling as well as the latest and greatest in dog bed design. Give us a follow on the socials, and if you like what we're doing you're welcome to support on https://www.buymeacoffee.com/gfpodcast

A nice steady start to 2024 for us - Freddie needed a gentle chat to ease him in after finding out first hand why everyones so pissed off about sewage outlets releasing straight into the UK's coastal beach towns water.... We've also had numerous sessions over a busy Christmas period while the winds been howling over here. Most notably is the fateful browntown session of Freddies on NYE where he did a sizeable 'wingdingdownwinder' alongside a few SUP foilers and has seen the light! Liams got plenty going on - with more sessions under his belt on the SK8/PhantomS back to back for a comparison, as well as recieving his downwind board blank ready to laminate in the next 1-9 months..... Sit back and enjoy! If you like what we're doing, we're saving for a trip away to AWSI this year to bring more content - feel free to help support at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/gfpodcast. Likewise share with anyone and everyone - follow us on the socials and say hello!

Its Christmas time, so what better way to celebrate than to get the 4 Wanglordz into a hot tub and ply them with beers for many hours? It wasn't all merryment... we surprised ourselves with the amount of legitimate foiling-related chat. Rich and Chris give us the run down on the 'new generation' of foils that are hitting the market that promise huge speed ranges, and combined glide and pumpability that we haven't seen until now. Freddie tells the story of the downwind session with Liam in North Cornwall that resulted in his 3.6m wing getting irrepairably damaged. Many foiling related items get thrown in room 101 and the gang get nostalgic on the past year and beyond. Whatever you are doing, we hope you have a brilliant Christmas and we look forward to sharing more episodes with you in the new year. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Fuck Duotone.

This week we chat with Mike Birt - another OG of the UK wind sports scene. An ex pro windsurf athlete from back when that was cool, to the very first British Kitesurf Champion. He's been working in the industry for a very, very long time and is currently Distributor for Airush, AK, Shinn and Freewing. What better person to start off a little series with a more indepth look at the UK windsports industry. He's been forever known as a straight talker and obviously we thought that would go hand in hand with our little podcast! Hope you all enjoy it, check Mike out at @birtmichael for anyone who isn't aware - we've got the old BuyMeACoffee links up in our bio now and on the website, if you're keen to support and like what we do we very much appreciate it! It certainly makes the 10pm Sunday night editing evenings feel a bit more worth it! catch you next week for our Christmas Special!

Its been emotional, but we've made it to 50 bloody episodes. Back to our roots with episodes like this - hope you enjoy it. We discuss a few of the most recent goings on in the foiling world - most importantly, our Manera Socks R&D work has been delayed until the new year. We won't blame Julien though as he's just as annoyed as us to have to ask Santa for new socks instead of making his own...... HM masts, Foildrive's, Ozone Fusions, Guy Bridge's impressive list of breaking stuff - we ramble about it all! We've also setup an account at buymeacoffee.com/gfpodcast. I hate writing about money so here's what Liam managed to come up with: 'Buy the dynamic duo a beer each month to keep them motivated to get the shitty editing jobs done and pump out the biggest (and most professional) foiling podcast in the world. Support Freddie and Liam on a monthly basis Feel an enormous sense of self pride for helping Freddie and Liam remain independent from big brand sponsorship Allow us to entertain some silly ideas that may well take some financial involvement on our part' As always - give us a shout on the insta's and the facebooks - and rate us five stars on whichever platform you listen to us on!