There has been a first success for windfoilers, wingfoilers and kitefoilers in the dispute over the foil ban on Saxon lakes. According to a report on bild.de, several water sports associations have reached an agreement with the relevant authorities. Certain areas on the lakes are now to be set up where foiling will be permitted again. It is not yet clear which areas these will be - however, according to the report, approval is expected to be granted before Easter, i.e. in less than three weeks.
Philipp Kümpel, one of the initiators of the lawsuit against the foil ban, described the solution as a "practicable idea". However, he disagrees with the Bild report: "They received the report from the ministry. Allegedly, everything was agreed with the water sports associations. This does not correspond to reality."
Exact foil areas are still unclear
According to Kümpel, the authorised areas will not be determined until after Easter: "It is still completely unclear whether these will be small gravel ponds or lakes that are easy to foil, such as Lake Cospuden near Leipzig." However, the lawsuit against the foil ban, which Philipp Kümpel and three fellow campaigners have filed, will be upheld, "as we see absolutely no scientific evidence to support the foil ban."
Financed by a crowdfunding campaign, the activists filed a lawsuit against the ban at the Dresden Administrative Court on 23 December 2022 with the help of a lawyer from Cologne. "The aim of the lawsuit is to overturn the foil ban as a whole, regardless of whether the foil is used for wind foiling, wing foiling, kite foiling or under a SUP."
Last year, fines were imposed on foilers several times, sometimes with outrageous justifications. surf also campaigned against the ban and presented facts and assessments on the risk of injury when foiling in a letter to the responsible ministry.
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Tobias Frauen
Editor
