It’s the fifth annual Can Foil Week in Halifax, a time when the nonprofit We Can Foil brings the equipment and gear to the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron to teach the sport of foiling. “We have foilers coming from all across Canada to learn how to foil and at the same time we have five days of intermediate and advanced racing,” says Agustin Ferrario, We Can Foil program director. Foiling involves boats and boards flying over the water. Ferrario says this week is a celebration of foiling in Canada. There are world class athletes and coaches in town to not only teach but help some athletes prepare for championships “We were the first hub for We Can Foil. We’ve got a history of foiling since SailGP was here in 2024 and it’s a fast-growing sport, it’s the future of sailing. Half Olympic classes are now foiling so it’s a great opportunity for young sailors to learn a faster and fun way to enjoy the water,” says Mark Postles, Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron head foiling coach. This week they are offered two sessions a day, and lesson in all types of foiling: dingy foiling on a Waszp, wind surf foiling and wing foiling. “We had 80 participants in total coming all the way from around Nova Scotia, Halifax area but as well from like Quebec, Ontario and as far as BC,” says Ferrario. This week they offer two sessions on the water each day. They range from beginners’ classes to intermediate and some training for world championships. Each session they offer this week is taught by an experienced coach or professional athlete. “If you go to all five sessions through the week, AM or PM, its $220 or you can come along and just do one session at the time, $65 for the morning or the afternoon and that’s all the gear you could need, that’s top-level coaching. We make it super affordable just because we want everybody to have the opportunity to come along and get it,” says Postles. Alice Read from the UK is a coach at the events. She is training for the X-15 championships in Ibiza, Spain, in November. “The best way of learning your sport is actually teaching it as well. So for me teaching is not only helping other people but consolidating in my head as well what I’m learning and how to be the best wing foiler,” says Read. She has been foiling since she was a kid and what she loves about it is getting to be out in the elements on the water and meeting new people. “Have the best time, the absolute best time and enjoy it and send it. It’s one of those sports that gets your adrenaline going. It’s so rewarding, you learn something new every time and it gets you out in the water,” says Read. For local foilers like Emile Goytte, having coaches and athletes from all over the world out on the Halifax Harbour with him makes it all worthwhile. “There are a lot of people from all around the world that have a lot more experience than me and just being around then gives me the ability to get better a lot faster and improve way more than I could before,” says Goytee. Rachelle Simard from Revelstoke, BC, heard about this opportunity from her coach and made the trip to the East Coast. “I hope you can expect some fast speeds and some turns out there but you can for sure expect to see a big smile,” says Simard. “This is my first year of racing so I got to do two races before this, so this is going to be my third one so I’m very excited and it’s also my first with the X-15 class which is a specific type of race board that just came out this year.” Nova Scotia’s own Olympic sailing sisters Antonia and Georgia Lewin-LaFrance stopped by for some fun as well. “A lot more potential for wipeouts and going fast and, yeah, I would say that sailing on a board is a lot different than the sailing we do and keeps our respect to those athletes like we are going to give it a go today, me in particular but we are super excited,” says Antonia Lewin-LaFrance,. “I think it’s important to have fun and see the fun sides of the sport, just like what we do is a grind sometimes, so the goal of today is to have fun,” says Georgia Lewin-LaFrance. The team here wraps up the week with a weekend regatta called the Can Foil Cup, which is the first Canadian championship for the Z-15 wing foil class. “We will have racing on the wing foils, Waszps and also IQ foils, kinda like wind surfing foiling. And we will probably have a wide range of skills and experience. But also, it’s the last event before sending off some of our athletes towards the world championships next month,” says Ferrario. For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
