If you follow the windsurfing world, you're bound to have come across the name Balz Müller at some point. Balz is a Swiss freestyle windsurfer, foiler and bon vivant like no other. He is one of the ten best freestylers in the world, pushes the level in freestyle like no other and is constantly inventing new manoeuvres. "Normal" windsurfers strap a foil under their boards to be able to go straight in light winds, but Balz dances with the wing and explores completely new airspaces.
Agent 00-Foil Balz Müller. He is known as Balz Müller, Balls Müller, Mullet, Mickey Wright, Radiculo, Crazy Müller or Foilstyle. He has christened his board Pegasus and not without good reason, if you look at the daring manoeuvres of the tailor-made sunny boy from Switzerland. ATTENTION: Ladies and gentlemen, the following interview is going to be very film-heavy. Please fasten your seatbelts and check the airspace around you.
Marco: Hola Balz. Very cool that you took the time for us. Where are you right now with your flying objects?
Balz: Welcome, this is your drunken foil pilot speaking: please take a seat, set your clocks forward by one hour and one hundred years. After a wonderful surfing holiday on Sylt, I'm enjoying the golden autumn days on Switzerland's inland waters. Although... I recently foiled across the border to France on Lake Geneva. It's amazing that no one shot at my Swiss cross sail. I was also lucky that the border guards didn't carry out an adrenalin test... hehe
Two years ago at the Windsurf World Cup on Sylt, you had a foil wing under your board for the first time. Since then, you've been foiling more than windsurfing and have developed a new discipline, FOILSTYLING. What is the vision behind it?
The often poor wind conditions or optimal windfoil conditions in my home country inevitably drove me onto the wings. I still remember my first attempts at foiling very well: that incredible feeling of hovering over the surface of the water, dancing quietly like a bird over whitecaps and then plopping into the water like a seagull shot down at the first jibe. I was literally thrown in at the deep end and could hardly believe my inability, but it was love at first sight. Foilstyle was born out of the challenge of taming this hydrofoil and now there is hardly a windsurfing manoeuvre that I don't try with my foil wing.
We see new videos of you every day in which you make seemingly impossible manoeuvres possible. Your level is terrific and often takes our breath away. Are you born a foiler or how do you make such a transformation?
Quite simply, I've never been windsurfing as often as I did last summer. I had the opportunity to take a short flight almost every day. So I wouldn't say that I'm a born pilot. But every flight is different for me and a new experience.
Does windfoiling also help you with normal windsurfing?
Foiling definitely helps my board control during "normal" windsurfing too! I find it really challenging to balance on these wings and after a good foil session I can feel the tiny, deep muscles in my legs more than after a long night of dancing. This certainly helps me to surf more effectively and better with my freestyle fin! I even think that I feel physically fitter than ever. All this pumping with the slightest breeze is simply the best fitness training and also sensational balm for the soul!
Compared to conventional foil sets, your sets seem to be somewhat modified... What exactly do you do with your wings to catapult yourself into orbit?
I mostly use the older Lokefoil Envol17. I find it one of the most stable foils, which is the most important characteristic of a good foil! So my best tip is to adjust your material so that the foil generates as much "lift" as possible. In other words, move the sail and foot straps back as far as possible. It's much easier to hold a rising foil low and control it instead of constantly leaning back and trying to get it to fly. To be honest, I now find windfoiling more pleasant than normal planing.
I would also like to mention that you don't need a race foil with a race board at least 75 cm wide and a nine-square-metre sail to foil comfortably at 15 knots. On the contrary, I love using my normal freestyle board with a central footstrap position to fly... As long as you don't need to reach an upwind buoy, there's no reason to use a big racing sail. I would even say that I take off sooner with my lighter 4.8 than with a heavy, barely pumpable racing sail. I recommend that you use your normal freemove sails and, in the near future, a multifunctional freemove board: "Reduce to the max" :-)!
Foiling seems to be a crazy trend. Especially in regions where there is little or no wind. Will the discipline survive or do you think it will be short-lived?
Many are sceptical, but know that wind foiling has a lot to offer. For example, foiling can turn a weak wind forecast into a great day on the water. Here at Lake Biel in particular, we couldn't imagine windsurfing without foils. I even think that it will bring even more people into our sport and it's another great windsurfing discipline! With or without a foil, everyone should decide for themselves and ultimately we all agree: it's all about being on the water and having fun. Conclusion - with foil a bit more often... ☺
Where do you get the inspiration, stamina and strength to stand on the board for 8-9 hours a day and work on new foil creations?
I work as a landscape gardener during the summer months and earn my living with shovels and picks. When I'm brooding for nine hours in the summer heat, I often think about windsurfing. I then try out a bunch of new creations in my head cinema. There are also times when I swing my shovel around the garden as a forked tree and then my boss grabs his forehead at the sight of me. When I finally get the chance to try out the manoeuvres on the water, I surf until I drop. I'm usually more on my face on Mondays than I am on Friday evenings.
Foils are a lot bigger than conventional fins and therefore offer more surface area to injure yourself on. How do you work on injury prevention? Has anything ever happened to you?
Of course I have nightmares about the sharp sickles and when I think about what could happen, I sometimes get a bit dizzy. But dreaming and mentally visualising the manoeuvres is probably the best preventative precaution! I mean, even if some of my foil jumps look like a kamikaze flight - they are :-) - I'm aware of what I'm playing with and what I'm doing. I would like to mention, almost all my cuts so far have happened during waterstart or soaking and not while trying out foil manoeuvres ... I'm definitely more afraid of getting washed in the Sylt shorebreak with my foil than trying a double foil loop.
Your board sponsor MB-Boards builds the machines you use together with your input. The construction of a foil is very complex and you have to have a few laws of engineering under your belt. To what extent are you involved in the development of foils?
With MB I developed the Pegasus, a pure foil freestyle board, compressed to a sweet 1.72 metres and a sail base position much further back than on a normal windsurf board! This puts all the weight back on the wings and creates more lift. Ha, don't underestimate MB! We're real NASA tinkerers and come up with some interesting ideas over a cosy beer. No! The MB people are of course top serious boat builders and designers with extensive experience in hull and sailboat foil development. This convinced me to continue to be part of our exciting adventure and to create the best windfoils - or let's say - the most comfortable flying objects.
Apart from you, no other foil stylers from the PWA circus have jumped on the trend yet. Why is that?
Good question, I find it amazing that so far hardly any of the top freestylers have tried foiling. Especially because you see more and more incredible manoeuvres from non-world cup experts. My brothers in particular push foiling enormously. Together with me, they try out the hottest freestyle moves with the wing fins. The guys around Horue in France are also working on new foil manoeuvres. I think that a competition is the only way to get more attention and reaction.
I'm also sure that Yentel Caers will blow up his foil board soon... but what about the others? I hope it will happen and we can share the Stoke! Hovering with these wings is just foil, er full of madness and there is still sooooooo much to discover... ;)
You often post photos and videos from the 80s and 90s, when you were also tinkering with foils. It seems like you use that time as inspiration. Would you like to go back in time to surf the seat harness again?
Yes of course, everything was better in the past! No! But the 80s were characterised by windsurfing pioneers who boldly tried out new things. Just like we do today with the foil style! I like to be inspired by the creative times of the past!
