Code Foils Team Rider Spotlight Tom Earl – Cornwall’s Rising Foil Talent

From the rugged coastline of Cornwall in the far southwest of England, Tom Earl has quietly built a strong reputation within the European foiling scene. Based in Newquay, one of the UK’s best-known surf towns, Tom has transitioned from traditional surfing into one of the most passionate and dedicated foil riders in the region. A member of the Code Foils team, he has already stacked up impressive race results, combining prone surf foiling with the growing world of Foil Drive-assisted riding. We caught up with Tom to learn more about his home spots, his journey into foiling, and what keeps him pushing progression.

Aloha Tom thanks for your time. We got a nice intro of yours, lets talk a bit about your local foil spot.

The place I foil the most is at home in Newquay. We have a handful of quality prone foiling spots — river mouths, point breaks, and open beach breaks. I mainly prone surf foil, as the spots and conditions at home are best suited for this discipline.

We now have a really good crew of foilers in the area, and the scene is steadily growing and gaining popularity.

My friends over a Code Foils tell us that you are quite successful in competing. What are your stand out results?

Last year I competed in:

Kernow Foil Classic – 🥇 1st Place
St. Tropez Downwind Foil Drive Race – 🥇 1st Place
Crozon Foil Festival – Equal 5th Place

So far this year:

Foil Drive Downwind Race – Santa Pola, Alicante – 🥇 1st Place

Nice thats quite impressing. Stoked to see you were in Alicante, but about that maybe a bit later. Tell us your foiling journey.

Initially, I saw foiling as something to do on bad surf days and mainly as a fun way to get my legs stronger for traditional surfing, which was my main passion and focus at the time.

I thought it was a more enjoyable way to increase fitness than going to the gym. But over the past few years, foiling as a sport has evolved and grown rapidly, and my focus slowly shifted more towards it.

Now, foiling is my main focus. With the direction the sport has taken and the progression of the gear, it has become my favourite thing to do. I really enjoy trying to progress myself as a rider — constantly pushing, learning, and making the most of every opportunity that comes my way within the sport.

That’s interesting and we see similar trends all over the place where surfer either quit surfing or at least ad foiling to their skill set. Did you stop surfing all together?

I still surf occasionally when the waves are good, but foiling has definitely taken over.

Apart from prone surf foiling, I’ve really embraced the Foil Drive assisting system, which I think is an epic tool for progressing skills. It has opened up even more opportunities both in and out of the water — allowing me to ride spots and waves that I probably wouldn’t have ridden without it.

Yes assist systems were really a game changer for many foilers. Lets talk a bit about your sponsor: Code Foils. How did you get to meet James Casey and the boys?

I have known Josh Ku who works for code foils and is also a rider for many years. We both used to be on the Unifoil team a few years ago and I have always followed Josh’s journey keenly. I had the chance to meet James in person once when he visited my home town in Newquay. I have always followed James being a fan of his surf foiling and impressive down winding achievements. I also got a chance to meet the Tardrew brothers who started the brand when they visited Newquay. Everyone involved in running the code foils team ride to a high level which is epic! I love the core zero bull shit surf feel to the brand!

What is your favorite Code Set Up?

I ride the X series foils the most. In prone surf foiling we are all chasing good low end, good pump ability while still being able to rip turns at speed with control on good waves. I feel like they have knocked it out the park with the X series for this. If I had to pick one foil as my favourite in the line id have to say it would be the 810X. For me that foil handles pretty much whatever conditions I turn up to. Having the choice of the whole line if its super small I go 890X, if its bigger I go 740X. If its massive or tow I go 700X. However like a said above the range of the 810X is epic and it can act as a one wing quiver.

The X Series is built to give you a surf like flow in all disciplines. Featuring increased anhedral for fluid roll transitions, refined wing tips for stability through breaches, and smooth, controlled lift in steep or critical sections — this series is made for pushing performance on the wave.

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How do you pair your front wings and tails? Do you change your set up much based on wave conditions?

I use the medium fuse the most with the AR tails. I seem to prefer tuning my foils to give me the most pitch stability so I have more to push against.

If somebody wants to come an learn more about Code Foils in Cornwall, where can they go?

You are welcome to reach out to me on my instagram @tomoearl for any questions or need advice with gear and details about my local area. Chris Burke also runs poseidon watersports foil school/shop and sells code foils who is also good to contact info@poseidon-watersports.com

Nice thanks for the advice. Speaking of shops and local crowd, lets talk one last time about your local foil demographics. How fast has foiling grown in Newquay?

I think like most places in the world wing foiling is very popular and Cornwall in no different. Parawinging is also growing like most places. In my specific local area of Cornwall prone surf foiling has been steadily growing as we have some really fun spots for that discipline more days than not. We have nice solid crew of local foilers which bring a great atmosphere.

How is it with the surfers, we had a few incidents in Australia lately that has heightened the controversy in the line up. What do you see on your local spots?

We have a good understanding in my area to not foil at the most popular surf spots. Because we have quite a good selection of surf spots we have an unofficial rule in the community to stay away from Fistral Beach (the most renowned surfing beach in England). Right next door we have a perfect spot for foiling which surfers don’t tend to bother with as the wave is slightly fatter and surfers know its normally full of foilers so the mixing of the two sports is minimal. We havn’t really had any issues in recent times because of this, thankfully common sense is prevailing and both sports are respected. Foil assist also had a moment of potentially causing some issues but again the unspoken rule in the community is to avoid using these at certain sensitive spots where there is a high number of unpowered users. Everything seems to be finding its place as things get more understood

What about Downwind and Wing-Parawing Foiling, how big is that in your area?

There are small clusters of people doing down wind runs but id say the down winding scene is the smallest discipline in the Cornish foil a scene. Allot of people who already wing have been getting into parawinging and its looking fairly popular

Great that was very interesting than you very much for your time.