Towing the Uni vyper 90.
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So sick.
Only somewhat relevant - but out of curiosity is he still on the Uni team? He’s been riding all sorts of non Uni gear recently and I was wondering what the deal was.
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Pretty aggressive to claim first foil barrel with that camera angle especially when Matahi was doing this last year
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Is there a clip of Matahi successfully coming out? Even his caption above says “soon”. Both are mind blowing imo
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Great point, not that I’ve seen/aware of. I just wish Alex’s camera angle was better 
And makes me wonder what matahi’s been up to for 18 months haha, if he was charging that hard that long ago….
Regardless to your point all epic
Matahi being on takuma and Alex on Uni, I think both are being heavily limited by the stock gear for towing atm. Not sure if there is a market for it but there are going to need very specific gear
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Alex is a professional influencer is paid per post in most circumstances. We are watching extreme marketing. Foiling lost its innocence a while back. Appreciate the clip for a great piece of foiling but the gear is more limiting than it is enabling and with the amount of equipment and deals these guys are receiving we won’t learn much from them on gear.
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I can confirm that Alex is not getting paid to ride Uni. Think he got gear and invited on the trip. He’s riding what he likes.
Lots of posts recently about money and motive in foiling. That’s there for sure but having just returned from hood and AWSI, foiling is a long way from being sold out. It was a pleasant surprise. Mike and I discuss it on the latest podcast.
One other point - We better hope foil companies are making money because it’s insanely expensive to design and build foils. Not like surfboards. So if the profit doesn’t come then innovation will fall off and we all benefit from better gear. Think how much easier it would be to learn today than 5 years ago. And what’s possible now.
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There are all different ways of being paid in which establish a commercial arrangement. Ambassador deals at wholesale, free gear, free trips and travel budget, fully sponsored with travel, commission for pro model sales, fully paid retention salary and finally one off insta payments for a single post.
All of these arrangements already exist in the foiling world and have done for a few years at least.
Alex is well known for requesting payments per post generally but quite a few thousand dollars in gear and a free trip is commercial obligation enough. Hardly riding what he wants based on quality or performance.
I am just pointing out to those that work for a living and have to pay for their gear that these arrangements exist and to hopefully factor that into their choices.
None of this has to do with profitability it’s just a little too secretive marketing for my liking and I would call it immoral. Erik at least your relationship with uni and the progression series is relatively clear.
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I agree that should be factored in. But it isn’t different from any other industry. I just look at how foilers are riding gear. It’s harder to hide issues in foiling than in surfing.
As for my relationship with Uni, I have been 100% transparent from inception. And if someone asks me to compare the progression foils to another brand the first thing I say is I’m highly biased.
What’s your IG handle FoilMad?
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What gear limitation are you seeing in his riding? And what gear should he be using instead in these conditions?
I agree. It’s in all industries and foiling is catching on fast.
The influencers that make large income from undeclared one off posts are particularly insidious for all industries and could do more harm than good for a brand once customers wake up to their fickle support and commitment.
The traditional relationships are clearer with sponsorship mostly visible and the only unknown factor is how much they get paid. This I think most of us are comfortable with due to its transparency and we can judge and discuss the changing playing field with our individual opinions.
I don’t have an Insta account. I am an Aussie east coast life long daily surfer in my mid fifties. I have surf foiled for over six years now and love this sport and the all amazing people I have met through it. It’s very important for me to be clear that the very best surf foilers we have here in Aus are also the very best of humans and have done us proud with their personal integrity and openness. Their commercial relationships are very clear and I couldn’t be more stoked for them and their journey as it’s nice to see the industry support such good humans. Not critical of this at all.
I spoke up in the hope to wake the foiling community from their naivety around the maturity of these commercial arrangements after I was particularly disappointed with just a few grubby occurrences of late.
It’s very clear he is way over foiled and on the very edge. He’s effort is even more incredibly considering the lack of gear around to handle that much power with only a few brands even developing gear in that realm. Obviously fearless also.
I don’t know about it being hard to hide issues in foiling!?
I’ve been talking trash about mast flex for YEARS with everyone saying “look at the excellent team riders” and talking about “engineered flex” I mean by my feels a lot of brands are still putting out barely rideable gear and still manage to throw together good clips.
Edit: I’d add that i don’t do social media anymore so i’m not up on the marketing. But most of these clips are just that.
I believe in the progression gear because i’ve seen people who’s riding i’m familar with doing great things with it at my local and i’ve put hands on it and it feels acceptable. I think thats the #1 assessment.
Regarding this gear this takes a super niche foil! I feel like its almost a game of just having a foil that has the right amount of “slow” to match the wave. I imagine there were other attempts with other wings and this one was dialed into after some failed attempts on others. Very different game from any kind of performance foiling as we know it!
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It’s Josh Ku and Jeremy Wilmotte’s local. As seen in the comments. Josh was out of town and Jeremy was working. They haven’t done this out there yet. Alex Hayes has no regard for injury it seems. Regardless of if he got the foil for free or not. It’s a sick clip.
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Not sure I agree with this. He rides both Lift and Uni from what I’ve seen
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It is actually not Josh and Jeremy’s local. It has been a well looked after and respected surf spot by the local community for 50 years plus. Instagram influencers not from the area selfishly and for their own self importance show videos of the area therefore creating traffic in the area from people who do not respect the history, attitudes and behaviours that have kept the area a special place.
Come and share the waves, understand that you didn’t discover a new wave and please leave your cameras at home.
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F-one in the latest clip. Adam has taught him well it appears. 
I’m fine with this take too.
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And even Armstrong while competing in the wake foil comp with Noah…
Sadly the place is pretty blown up, any half decent day cars parked out to the main road then you add the skis 