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Emmanuel Bertin's first tow-in foil ride at Belharra - 2006
World First Snapshot
- First Title
- First tow-in foil ride at Belharra
- Discipline
Tow-In Foiling 
Big Wave Foiling- Class
- Open / Wave
- Measured Result
- First tow-in foil ride at Belharra - (First only)
- Date
- 2006-11-29
- Location
- Belharra, Bay of Biscay, France
- First Achieved By
- Emmanuel Bertin
World First Spotlight
Monster Council Approval
Koa, along with the foiling community at large, has given this glorious achievement the official Foiling Freaks nod for Tow-In Foiling.
May it inspire better evidence, cleaner runs, bigger claims, and even louder hooting from the crowd.
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The Ride, The Proof, The Glory
Emmanuel Bertin's retrospective Instagram post identifies a Belharra ride dated November 29, 2006 as the first foil ride there and describes the photograph as a moment before letting go of the tow rope. A later post from the same account refers back to the first Belharra foil session in November 2006, reinforcing that Bertin regarded the session as a pioneering local tow-in foil milestone. A 2022 Windsurf Journal interview adds important context: Bertin said that from 2003 to 2007 he and Paolo Rista developed high-performance foils aimed at flying on giant swells at Belharra. Taken together, those sources place this entry within a documented tow-in foil development effort rather than a casual one-off mention. The World First language here is intentionally limited to the first publicly documented Belharra tow-in foil ride found in this research pass. It does not claim that no private or unpublished attempts preceded it.
Rules of the Beast
To qualify, the entry must document a hydrofoil rider being tow-assisted into a rideable wave at Belharra, with the tow line used for entry and the rider transitioning to a wave-powered foil ride. The evidence must identify the rider, the venue, and the event date or provide a clear enough historical statement to support the date entered. Primary rider documentation is preferred, with later interviews or historical context used only as corroboration.
How This Got the Nod
Public retrospective firstness claim with later interview context. Not an independently sanctioned record.