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Matt Etxebarne's first tow-in foil ride at Mavericks - 2024
World First Snapshot
- First Title
- First tow-in foil ride at Mavericks
- Discipline
Tow-In Foiling 
Big Wave Foiling- Class
- Open / Wave
- Measured Result
- First tow-in foil ride at Mavericks - (First only)
- Date
- 2024-12-23
- Location
- Mavericks, Half Moon Bay, California, United States
- First Achieved By
- Matt Etxebarne Aguirregomezkorta
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.
Adopt Koa and celebrate this victory with a little monster merch from the Koa merch store.
The Monster-Sized Story
During the powerful Mavericks swell on December 23, 2024, Matt Etxebarne Aguirregomezkorta brought a hydrofoil into one of the most consequential big-wave venues in the world. Contemporary reports and the rider's own public post place his foiling session at Mavericks on that date. SURFER reported the public claim that Matt was the first ever to foil Mavericks and described him being whipped into the wave early, which establishes the tow-in character of the ride. The Mavericks Awards video provides the strongest public video trail identified in this research pass. Because firstness in this niche was reported through surf-media coverage and social documentation rather than a sanctioning body, the entry is framed as the first publicly documented tow-in foil ride at Mavericks. The date is recorded as 2024-12-23 because the rider's own post and SFGATE's photo caption align on that date, even though some reposted captions elsewhere display 12.22.2024.
Rules of the Beast
To qualify, the entry must document a hydrofoil rider being tow-assisted into a rideable wave at Mavericks, with the tow supporting the wave entry phase and the rider then surfing the wave on the foil. The evidence must identify the rider, the venue, and the date at day precision or clearly support the date chosen. A video, photograph, or primary social post is preferred, and a reputable surf-media report may be used to corroborate firstness.
How This Got the Nod
Public-record firstness claim supported by rider social post, surf-media coverage, and Mavericks video, not a sanctioned federation record.
Video Proof From the Vault
Basque foiler Matt Etxebarne Aguirregomezkorta was publicly credited with the first foil ride at Mavericks during the December 2024 swell, using tow-in access in a giant-wave session.