South Africa’s first eFoiling instructors’ course was launched this month in response to growing interest in the sport.
The course, which includes training in care and maintenance of eFoiling equipment, is aimed at maritime students looking to bolster their CVs with professional qualifications.
“So many of these bigger boats are buying eFoils as toys for charter guests, but our research suggests that very few of the crew are really very handy at eFoiling – and none of them are trained to instruct,” explains BlueCape co-director Bruce Tedder.
In response, Tedder helped develop an instructor’s course in tandem with a Hout Bay-based eFoiling expert already working with local eFoil distributors. Together they adapted existing eFoiling teaching courses to include an instructor’s module. “We now have this course which we want to present to all the academies where they are training all the young people,” Tedder says. “It is certainly a massive added benefit you can have for your CV – the fact that you can eFoil and have been trained to be an instructor.”
Tedder even got a taste of his own medicine, volunteering to be the trainee guinea pig at the instructor’s course launch event in Hout Bay earlier this month: “I was the belligerent ‘charter guest’, wanting to learn a new skill in about five minutes. The reality is of course a little bit different!”