Kai Thompson and Naumi Eychenne have been crowned the inaugural Downwind Foil World Tour number ones, completing the first season of a global ranking system connecting six of the sport’s leading races across France, Australia and Hawaii. Launched in late 2025, the Downwind Foil World Tour was created to give the rapidly developing discipline something it had previously lacked: a season-long international ranking.
The inaugural tour brought together the St Tropez Downwind and Crozon Foil Festival in France, the West Coast Downwinder and The Doctor in Australia, followed by Maui 2 Molokai and Molokai 2 Oahu in Hawaii.
Each athlete’s best four results counted towards the final standings.
Australia’s Kai Thompson established an early lead by winning both European rounds, collecting maximum points in St Tropez and Crozon.
Jarrod Snow responded with victories at both Australian events, setting up a close contest heading into the final races in Hawaii.
The Hawaiian leg belonged to Edoardo Tanas. Despite missing the first four events, Tanas won Maui 2 Molokai and then secured his third consecutive Molokai 2 Oahu SUP foil title.
Those two victories lifted him to third in the final standings, but Thompson’s results across the wider season proved decisive.
Thompson finished with 328.4 points, ahead of Snow on 307.7 and Tanas on 200.
The women’s title followed a very different pattern.
Naumi Eychenne did not win an individual event but produced four remarkably consistent performances, finishing second in St Tropez, Crozon, Maui 2 Molokai and Molokai 2 Oahu.
Those four runner-up results gave the Tahitian rider 282.8 points and the first women’s Downwind Foil World Tour title.
Annie Reickert won both Hawaiian races and finished second overall with 200 points, while Emma Bridge placed third following a strong Australian campaign that included victory at The Doctor.
The tour separates its season-long world rankings from the Molokai 2 Oahu World Championship title, meaning different athletes could—and did—emerge from the season as world number ones and M2O champions.
That distinction produced one of the most interesting aspects of the inaugural season. Thompson and Eychenne were rewarded for competing consistently across different continents and conditions, while Tanas and Reickert demonstrated that Hawaii’s established channel races remain major standalone contests.
A total of 238 men and 17 women scored ranking points during the season. While the difference between the two fields remains significant, the overall participation shows the rapidly growing international interest in competitive downwind foiling.
Perhaps more importantly, the tour has begun connecting events that previously existed largely as individual races.
Downwind foiling remains a young competitive discipline, but a recognisable global calendar gives athletes, sponsors and spectators a clearer season to follow. Regional series are also being developed across Europe, the Americas and Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
With its first two world number ones now crowned, the Downwind Foil World Tour has successfully established its basic structure.
The challenge for its second season will be attracting more of the leading riders to compete across multiple continents—and building a deeper women’s field alongside the rapidly expanding men’s competition.