Freedom Foil Boards has become a leading brand in foil board design in a very short space of time. We chat to Chris Sayer, the man who started it all in his garage, whilst working as a full-time firefighter!

We’re stoked to have you here Chris and hear about the journey. As with everyone we interview, we have to start with this; when did you first get hooked on foiling?

About 4 years ago, I was out surfing a local outer reef break when Chuck Patterson drove up on a ski and asked if I would mind if he and his buddy whipped into some sets on their foil. I vividly remember watching Chuck glide by me at impossible speeds with a huge grin and I immediately knew my traditional surfboard was in danger of becoming dusty. That day changed everything, and I was literally on a mission to try to figure out how to get a foil and board. There weren’t a lot of options back then, but I reached out to my good buddy, Jimmy Redmond over at Liquid Force Wakeboards, which randomly happened to be located right across the street from the Firehouse I worked at in Encinitas. After fair amounts of unannounced visits, I finally landed a Liquid Force Foil and was one step closer to what I knew was going to be a game-changing event. A short time later I completed building my first foilboard and headed out to the Colorado River to learn to fly with one of my good buddies, river legend and foil pioneer, Mike Mack. Mack lives year-round on the Parker Strip section of the Colorado River. I spent a few days learning how to glide and wake foil with him. I quickly turned my attention back home and to the surf. San Onofre and “The Dog Patch” is just down the road from me, an amazing spot to foil and quickly became my new home away from home. 

What led you to designing your own boards and eventually, the creation of Freedom Foil Boards?

About 10 years ago I had turned the back half of my garage into a shaping bay as a hobby and a place to daydream while shaping classic California cruisers. After my first encounter with foiling, I quickly decided I was better off shaping my own board. After shaping my first couple of personal boards I started getting requests from a few friends that wanted a board. 1 board turned into 3, 3 turned into 10 and it was my wife who convinced me I should consider starting a company. The name Freedom means a lot to me as it does to many people, but there is not a single expression I feel more than Freedom when I’m foiling. Hence the beginning of Freedom Foil Boards. Up until about 2 years ago, Freedom was run out of my garage. Shaping boards late into the night and waking up to pack them before heading off to the firehouse at 5 in the morning was quickly becoming unsustainable. As the Company continued to rapidly expand, I knew the one-man show wasn’t going to work. I presented my best Shark Tank Pitch to my friends at Liquid Force (yup the same ones who gave me my first foil) and we agreed to a deal that would allow me to continue to run Freedom but with the support and backing from the parent Company of Liquid Force. 

Sounds like a great partnership. You must have some amazing prone foil spots there in California? What sort of forecasts do you look for and how often is it a foiling day?

San Clemente is my home base and as most know, it’s full of world-class surf waves, but we have a handful of amazing foil waves as well. SoCal in general is a swell magnet with literally year-round waves and loaded with some really nice foil waves. As many of my new foil friends from all around the globe have quickly realized our long interval swells are very favorable for clean foil conditions above and under the water. You may have seen from recent posts on IG but we also have some decent wind in select zones especially up in North OC and LA County for occasional downwind sessions. 

I'll keep an eye out for those downwind videos! Where do the ideas come from for the unique hull shapes in your boards? Particularly the Rubix, which has a super exciting design, it looks like a fighter jet!

Thanks for that! Living in California I have a well-rounded board sports background. Snowboards, wakeboards, and of course surfboards all have unique features that I draw some influence from. To be honest, a lot of my designs are based on what I think would feel nice. One of the advantages of being a shaper that foils is you can ride and test your own gear. Christian Fletcher lives in San Clemente, his surfboards have a ton of deck concave which was a heavy influence on my shapes early on. The double concave idea actually came from Mike Mack. Speaking with him about his Air Chairs and how and why their deep double concaves work was a big influence on my early shapes. There’s of course just a ton of experimenting which is how the Rubix came to life. One of my first team riders was Corey Colapinto. We were watching a slow-motion video of his carves and his rails kept hitting the water on the last 2/3rds of his tail, so we decided to just remove it from the blank. All the curves in the Rubix are really designed to avoid or reflect water in an attempt to keep the boards as friction-free as possible. Light, rigid and fast is really what you want out of any board and the Rubix definitely follows those characteristics nicely.

Fascinating how much knowledge and thought goes into these designs. Do you draw inspiration from anyone in the shortboard or longboard design industry? Or do you think foiling is passed that now? 

I really don’t follow traditional surfboard shapers too much. Foilboards are so different than surfboards. We’re not designing these boards to be in the water, so all of my designs are meant to avoid and reflect water rather than carve through it like a traditional surfboard. I can tell you I really like what KT does with his designs as well as John Amundson, Kalama, and Glen Pang. Those guys have been in the surfboard game for such a long time and it’s an honor just to be mentioned in the same sentence with them.

You’ve got some incredibly talented riders on the team, what’s the process like when designing a pro model board like Brian Finch’s FTW Pro?

Our team is our Family… I think one of the really cool things about Freedom is we really respect all of the input from all of our riders, and we all go on foil trips and have a ton of fun together. It’s funny with foiling, your style and ultimately your board designs are so heavily influenced by your home break and weather conditions. Working with Brian Finch, Jason Miller, Tom Carroll, and Brady Hurley is just so fun. They all have such unique insights and ideas on how they want their boards to work. I always try to stay open and humble when we’re working on any shape. As much as I’ve learned over the years in doing this, I still feel like we're just scratching the surface in board construction and designs. My goal with Freedom is to always be one step ahead and pushing the envelope in designs & construction. If you’re building boards for what’s happening now in the sport you're already behind the curve by the time a production board hits the market. 

Not only are you the founder of Freedom Foil Boards, I hear you’re also a firefighter? I’m dying to know, how do you balance these with family life?

Haha, yeah, my wife and I have 4 kids together and she has pointed that out a couple of times. She’s had my back with Freedom since day 1 and is my biggest supporter. I’ve been very blessed to be able to do things that I love. When you’re stoked to go to work, whether it’s at the Firehouse or now with Freedom it doesn’t really feel like work. Of course, I’m not foiling as much as I used to but it’s been such an amazing experience creating a business from my garage to where we are today. Our parent company has big goals for us but none of them are as big as mine. I don’t mind working hard to leave a legacy and a positive mark on our little world through Freedom.

FFB is branching out to new products, including the Freedom Wing & full carbon foils? Can you tell our readers what to expect from FFB in the near future?

Expect everything! We’re coming after the foil market with a ton of talent working for us and a Parent Company that has the financial backing and support to help us get there. One thing I will say is that if we put our Freedom logo on a product it’s because we feel it stands up to the Freedom Experience our friends and customers have come to appreciate about us. That does mean our process from designing to R&D, to final retail sale takes a while, but like Steve Jobs said it’s not about how you paint the front of the fence but how you paint the back of it. It’s about the attention to detail on parts that no one can see, that really separates the good from the great.

Foiling has progressed exceptionally fast, do you think we’re reaching the peak of that progression or is there more to come?

No way. Were only in the 2nd or 3rd inning in the sport of foiling… Look at carbon race bikes and race cars, look at the America's Cup sailboats… These people are spending big dollars on carbon fiber parts and foils. Our sport is so young that we really don’t have the technology or the money to implement into these future designs yet… but it’s coming. I know we will all be boosting higher and flying faster with more efficiency down the road. The sky is the limit when it comes to foiling…

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