The Progression Project

Zane Westwood (@zane_westwood) comes back on the show to recap his last year, the Foil Fest event that he's running, how his downwind boards have evolved, and other foil awesomeness.

Dave Galvin (@daveinflux) is a passionate waterman, foil frother, and competitive downwind foil racer. He began his career as a UCI professional cyclist, racing for BMC Racing Team in the U.S. and Europe, and also worked as a mountain guide. Currently, he is a partner at Three Fish Capital, which he co-founded in 2014 to invest in early to growth-stage technology companies. He was previously CEO of UniqueSoft and UncommonX and held multiple roles at IBM focused on M&A, venture investing, and AI strategy. Dave holds an MBA from Kellogg and a dual degrees in Physics and Economics from the University of Virginia. He lives, landlocked, outside Charlottesville, VA with his wife and three children, and spends most of his time dreaming about downwinding...and some time actually downwinding.

Balz Muller (@radiculo) might be the most progressive foiler on the planet. He's also the most stoked and it's infectious. In this episode Balz talks about his new love of the parawing, the rapid progression in wing foiling, how he sees his role in the foiling world and tons more. Enjoy!

Ed Junquet is a foil surfer from New Jersey who has pioneered his coastline. He has competed in downwind races around the world and shares his experiences and knowledge learned along the way. Ed rides for Green Hat surf shop and not a specific brand which allows him to test everything. Even in the heart of winter in NJ they're still sending!

Eric Christensen (@ericfoil) is a foil surfer from Texas, maybe the first. Eric loves all aspects of foiling, prone, downwind, wing and towing, and most of the spots and runs he's doing, he pioneered. This is his 3rd time on the pod and we discuss how the sport is evolving, how surprisingly good Texas can be, how experiencing real fear at 17 while being shot at changed his perspective and more... enjoy.

Cliffy and Erik break down the design and testing process for the Evolution foils that just released. They discuss how the design game has changed in the last two years, what precision is now needed in the prototype process and how UniFoil changed their process to accurately test more refined foils, and the addition of an F1 areo engineer to the team for CFD analysis.

Ziggy Alberts is an Australian musician and lifelong waterman with a love foiling and twin-fins. In this episode we explore the relationship between music and surfing, the feelings foiling and playing huge crowds, tour life, foil board design, foil design evolution and so much more. For those of you who haven't heard Ziggy's music, I've included a personal favorite song, Runaway, right after the intro. Enjoy! ARIA Triple Platinum Certified, independent Australian singer-songwriter, Ziggy Alberts ( @ziggyalberts ) shares his love of nature and the ocean not only through his lyrics but in his pursuit of waves and adventure whenever possible. "Surfing and music are the balance for my life. It keeps me accountable to pursuing my adventures, which keeps me free and it works great because I always end up working on so much music and poetry while on surf trips. Without surfing and without adventure there isn't that raw, rugged nature and physicality which is so part and parcel to my inspiration. WIthout surfing and adventure, it is just empty words because a lot of people identify my music and poetry with a sense of adventure" said Ziggy.

Zeke Lau (@zekelau) is a professional surfer from Hawaii. He's a 2x Sunset Pro champ and won the US Open of Surfing and The Ultimate Surfer. In 2018 Zeke started prone foiling and then this year he's taken on downwind. This is a wide ranging conversation covering the struggles of the dw journey, differences in flow states between surfing and foiling and competition, his approach to learning and why maybe it's not the best way to learn dw by full sending an 8 mile run before really getting the pop up dialed. You guys are going to love this one! Enjoy.

Edo Tanas (@whoedo) is the current world champ in downwind foiling winning both the M2O and M2M this year. This episode is an inside look at what creates a champion, his olympic wind surfing goals, transition to foiling, spending his teen years in Hong Kong, and his move to Hawaii.

Andrew Sayre is a Hood River based foiler who describes himself as jack of all trades, professional at none. From Rhode Island, a sailor, surfer and backcountry skier who made his way to the Gorge via an extended stint in Jackson Hole, he now calls Hood River home. A KT team rider and SUP foiling addict, he logs 200+ days on the water with the local group of riders all pushing the sport forward. On this episode he recounts the story of getting hit with his foil and nearly bleeding out in the gorge. We dive into safety in foiling, and steps we can take to be prepared if something does happen.