Interview with Finn Noer: "The goal is to have the European Pro Windsurfing Tour on TV"

It was a perfect start for the newly founded European Pro Windsurfing Tour in Ebeltoft, Denmark - strong winds, lots of spectators and a great start. Johan Soe, a local hero at the top of the podium. But the event was also impressive off the water. We spoke to organiser Fin Noer, took stock and looked ahead to what's to come from 2025.

Finn, the first event of the European Pro Windsurfing Tour is wrapped up. How would you sum it up?

Phew, I'm naturally relieved that it went so well, that we had a lot of wind in our sails and received good feedback from participants and sponsors. The fact that the first event could now take place was the result of a long process. The basic idea is that we wanted to do many things differently to established competition concepts.

What exactly?

Right from the start, we tried to think about the event from the participants' perspective and keep the hurdles as low as possible while making it interesting for spectators and sponsors. There is a wide wind window in which races can be held and therefore no material restrictions as long as it is series material. Weight waistcoats may also be used, which means that lighter drivers also have a chance of being at the front, making the races more exciting. All you need is a registered sail number.

You have a prominent member of the organisation team!

That was extremely important to me, it had to be beyond all doubt and come across professionally to participants and outsiders. With Ben Proffitt and Alfie Hart, we have hired THE voices of windsurfing for the live coverage, as well as John Carter (long-time photographer at the World Cup, the ed.) a media professional. The race director was Guille, who has been in charge of the TWS slalom training sessions in Tenerife for years and is held in high regard by the participants. He is very competent and fair, there are no discussions when it comes to decisions. We wanted the best in their field for the event.

The best in their field don't usually come for free? Was it your plan from the start to make it so professional?

Actually, I would have liked it to be even bigger and better than it was in the end. But of course the budget was limited somewhere and we had to reduce or omit some things. It's difficult to instil faith in a new project in sponsors and other people in charge when you're starting from scratch. But the municipality of Ebeltoft gave us great support and some other sponsors also came on board, so that we were able to give away prize money and a high-quality F4 foil in a raffle in the end. Even though we had to leave some things out, there were areas that we would never have touched: it was always clear - we need a good live stream with a commentator, a good media team with drones and also a video wall on the beach so that people from outside windsurfing can follow the action. In my opinion, that's also one of the biggest problems in windsurfing - the coverage is for the windsurfing scene, very little gets out there.

Everyone can understand racing. Whoever crosses the finish line first is the winner. This also makes it interesting outside the surfing scene

Let's be honest - who stands in front of a video wall in 35 knots of wind and cloudy weather to watch windsurfing action?

There were an astonishing number of them. The advantage of racing is that everyone understands it straight away - unlike wave riding or freestyle. Whoever finishes first is the winner. It's important that we show people from outside the scene how great windsurfing is. That's why we also took sponsor representatives and people from the local authority who supported the project on the boats. They were totally surprised at how spectacular our sport is. We are also working on bringing the action to television in the form of reports.

Others have already tried to turn the big wheel...

There are enough stories to tell, apart from the pure results on the water - things that make windsurfing interesting beyond the scene. Our advantage is that we can decide independently what we think is right, without the industry or riders talking us into it and imposing certain guidelines that are actually only intended to strengthen our own interests.

The event in Ebeltoft is just the starting signal for a proper tour in 2025. What are you planning?

The idea is to stop at good spots that can be reached with relatively little travelling. There has already been interest from municipalities, but they were not suitable for such an event. We then cancelled because it wasn't ideal for the participants. You have to have a good set-up where you can change equipment quickly as a rider. Lake Wittensee near Kiel has a surprisingly good set-up and a scene that is fully behind it. Lake Garda or the Brouwersdam would also be ideal and we hope that we can organise events there next year. We want to organise at least four events next year that can take place between April and October.

We took guests from outside the surfing scene on the boats. They were totally thrilled and surprised at how spectacular windsurfing is

Other regatta series also often present impressive tour schedules with numerous stops at the beginning of the year, but these often melt away again as the year progresses. This makes planning very difficult for the participants...

We will not have the typical footnote with "to be confirmed". All stops that want to be on the tour schedule must have deposited between 12,500 and 15,000 euros in advance, depending on the event, and then the rest one month before the start of the event. If the missing budget cannot be provided, a small part of the deposit goes to us as an expense allowance, while the lion's share is paid out to all participants who have registered by then. All in all, however, I would say that the EPWT events are significantly cheaper than a PWA World Cup, for example. And one of the main advantages, as already mentioned, is that you can ride with any series equipment and not just if the equipment has been registered for a series. Our aim is to get the budget from outside the windsurfing industry. We don't want the windsurfing industry to have a say in our decisions.

You bring up the comparison with the PWA World Tour yourself - isn't the EPWT a rival tour?

No, not at all. We take great care to ensure that we don't overlap with other professional events organised by PWA, IFCA or iQFoiling. I have great respect for the people who organise these events and it doesn't make sense to organise a rival event here.

We don't want the windsurfing industry to have a say in our decisions

Will women also be involved in the future?

I hope so! As soon as we have eight starters, we would definitely integrate a women's field.

Fin, thank you for the interview!