Pawel Tarnowski is a professional IQ Foil campaigning to compete in the 2024 Olympic Games. We sit down with him to discuss winging and much more.

Pawel Tarnowski just came 7th in the IQFOIL World Championships in Brest, France. A huge achievement in the exceptionally competitive Olympic windsurf fleet. Like so many of us, the Polish athlete has also recently become a wing convert. We chat with Pawel to learn about his windsurf career and journey into winging.

Firstly, massive congratulations on your top 10 position at the IQ Foil worlds! In an enormous, highly competitive fleet, that is some achievement. I hope it was a good result for you.

It was indeed. Thank you. I’m very happy about the result. I started sailing on IQFOIL only last January and clearly, I made solid progress. I had to catch up a lot with the top guys who have been foiling for a much longer time but I knew I was on a good path. Now, I was 4th before the medal race series where everyone could win a medal. I felt strong and fast but I lost a gust in the starting sequence of the quarterfinals and was significantly late for the start. Makes me wonder what the result could have been if I started correctly 🙂 

Could you start by telling us a little bit about your watersports career, and when you first stepped foot on a foil?

I started windsurfing in 2004 when I was 10. In 2007 I became a vice-World Champion in the U17 category (BicTechno 7.8). I was 13 years old and competed with much older windsurfers. One year later I won the World Championship in U17. After that, I moved to RS:X and became the Youth World and European Champion one year after another (4 titles in two years - 2011 and 2012). I did well in the senior class as well. Won a lot of medals in World cups and European Cups, won the European Championship in 2015, scored 3rd place in Europeans in 2016, and placed 5th in Worlds in 2018 and 2020. After that, I had a years break from sailing and came back in 2021 to start my foiling adventure 🙂

That is quite a résumé! What was the transition like from RS:X to IQ Foil? 

The transition was very fast and easy. Of course, I had loads of catapults and crashes in the beginning but this was mostly due to my competitive mindset and racing mode on since the very first day but foiling in general was a nice surprise. After all, the way you sail IQ Foil is similar to RS:X. Of course, RS:X was much more difficult, and switching to foil felt a bit like retirement for me. Actually, I have a feeling that RS:X was the most challenging class ever invented and all other racing disciplines in windsurfing (formula/slalom/IQFOIL) always felt easy after competing in RS:X. Obviously, other things matter in IQFOIL and I know I need to work a lot to close the gap to the fastest guys in the fleet but I’m super happy to gain this experience and I’m ready to learn and improve in IQFOIL now. 

I presume you’re building up to potentially competing in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games? What are your goals before then? How do you qualify to compete for Poland?

Yes, I plan to compete in Paris 2024. Before that, I need to qualify for this competition and the only way to do it is to be the best in the country. Next year I want to do my best in the Worlds and Europeans and fight for medals so I get myself the best chance to do it. Let’s see how this goes 🙂

Where does winging fit into this? Does it count as cross training or is it just a way to unwind and have some fun?

It’s a very good question. Definitely, it counts as cross-training. The more you foil on any set of different hydrofoils the better you feel on IQFOIL and vice versa. But this is also great fun and that’s primarily why I fell in love wingfoiling. It’s also super smooth, light, and gentle compared to windsurfing or kitesurfing, and every time I go wingfoiling I get hypnotised. Even the last time I had a good session in Sopot with Easterly wind I finished when it was completely dark, because for the last hour I kept on saying to myself every time I was catching a wave “this will be the last wave” and I just couldn’t stop - hahaha

I've been there! We’re finding that people from all disciplines are starting wingfoiling, have many of your windsurf colleagues have started winging as well?

Almost all my friends started wingfoiling already and those who haven’t are seriously thinking about trying it. It’s a big boom and it’s easy to understand why. Windsurfing and kitesurfing take more time to learn plus wingfoiling seems to be safer, less physical, and very light in traveling compared to windsurfing. 

You’ve recently joined the Shinn team. How’re you finding the gear? What do you ride most and what size?

I like SHINN equipment very much. NUBO boards are just awesome, perfect shape, and very solid carbon construction that is lightweight at the same time. I like the 4’10 (65liters) the most. Foils are super stiff and lightweight too. They also have positive bouyancy that adds volume to the board and feels super easy to pop up foiling. Suprahydro 1200 (for lighter sessions) and 720 (for stronger winds) is my choice. Foil carbon masts are the stiffest masts I’ve ever tried and they give perfect control while jumping, riding waves, and making sharper turns. I use the 90cm carbon mast and it’s just perfect for everything. Shinn has two lines of wings: resurrector and escalator. I like Resurrector for it’s shape, lightweight, and speed but what I ride most are Escalators (4.8m2 and 3.7m2). Escalators are perfect for tricks, manoeuvrability, and ease of use and that’s why I ride them a lot.

What’s your favourite discipline within winging? Freestyle, free ride, wave, downwind..?

I do prefer wave. Wave is a combination of waveriding, high jumps, tricks, and some downwind as well. I’m not a typical freestyler but I love jumping high and turning the best I can. Downwinders are great but harder logistically and once I’m on any spot I usually stay there for the whole session and just try to catch as many waves as possible to ride them till they break. This is the nicest part of winging 🙂

I believe your home spot is Sopot, Poland? Could you tell us a bit about the conditions you get there?

Sopot, Poland is my home spot. I train a lot in Sopot and It works perfectly with all wind directions. Westerly and southerly winds are good for offshore flat water IQ Foil training with a big dose of wind gusts and shifts that force you to learn how to sail smart (super useful on every high-level competition in RS:X and IQFOIL).

On the other hand, easterly and northerly onshore directions bring nice waves and stable winds perfect for all watersports fans. These are my favourite conditions for IQFOIL as well as for wingfoiling or kiting. 

I get the impression Poland has a huge watersports community. Do you think that has played a big part in where you are today as an athlete?

Indeed, Poland has a huge watersports community. Pomerania (northern Poland) has one of the best spots for watersports in NE Europe (“Hel” peninsula, northern coastline, Rewa, Puck, Sopot, Górki Zachodnie etc.). The only problem is that, due to cold off-season temperatures, for most, it works only in summer. Luckily together with my friends we chase good conditions all year long and although off-season it’s super cold sometimes, at least we’ve got the whole spot to ourselves 🙂

Last one, do you think you’ll ever compete in winging?

I like competing and I do a lot of racing in windsurfing. For now, I rather treat wingfoiling as my time to recharge batteries and relax (waveriding/chillout/jumps/tricks and general fun). Also for the moment, my SHINN gear is a wave/freestyle set rather than speed/racing but I think at some point there will come a moment I try racing as well. Btw. SHINN has a new Supraglide foil series which is very fast and stable. I tried it and I can tell it’s a machine. Maybe I’ll try one or two regattas next year, who knows 😉

Thanks so much Pawel. Good luck in the olympic campaign!

By Jack Galloway

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