Years ago, my business mentor, Remi Makhoul, gave me a piece of advice that has stayed with me ever since:
"If you do something, do it right, and do it for the best possible outcome."
This week, that advice came full circle.
First and foremost, congratulations to every athlete who competed in Hawaii. World Championship week always showcases the very best of our sport—not only incredible athleticism, but the camaraderie, sportsmanship, and passion that make this community so special.
A special congratulations goes to Edward "Edo" Tanas (@whoedo) on becoming the M2О World Champion.
What makes this result particularly meaningful to us is that Edo won on a standard production F4 Hammerhead foil and SR mast—the very same equipment available to every F4 customer.
There were no prototype parts, no secret race-only equipment, and no special factory builds. Just production gear, designed, tested, and ridden by the same community that inspires us every day.
That has always been our philosophy.
Everyone at F4 is a water athlete first.
We all have full-time, real-life jobs. Some of us work in advertising and publishing, some in medical devices, others in software and engineering. F4 has always been built by water athletes first. Like so many of our customers, we balance work, family, and the never-ending desire to spend more time on the water. After work, we'd head to the beaches of California to ride, test, break parts, improve them, and do it all again the next day. Countless evenings were spent exchanging ideas with customers, friends, team riders, and fellow foilers. Every session taught us something new.
The products we build today are the result of thousands of those shared moments.
We've never believed in building one foil for professional athletes and another for everyone else.
Our commitment has always been simple: our customers should ride exactly what we ride. The same production equipment. The same construction. The same engineering. Because at the end of the day, we're all chasing the same feeling—the joy of being on the water.
People often ask what drives a small company like F4 to spend countless evenings refining another profile, another mast, another connection, when everyone already has a full-time career waiting for them the next morning.
The answer has always been the water.
It's the satisfaction of solving a problem, creating something better, and then watching people experience the same joy on the water that inspired us to build it in the first place.
The products have always been a consequence of that passion—not the reason for it.
That's why Edo's victory means so much to us.
An incredible athlete chose a production F4 foil because he believed it gave him the best opportunity to perform at his highest level. He then went on to win three of the four races and finish second in the fourth, earning the World Championship through remarkable consistency, skill, and determination.
Those results belong to Edo.
Our contribution was simply building equipment that allowed an exceptional athlete to perform without compromise.
We're equally grateful to every customer, partner, development partner, and rider who has helped shape these products over the years. Every piece of feedback, every test session, every conversation on the beach has played a role in getting us here.
Edo's World Championship doesn't suddenly make the Hammerhead or the SR mast great products. They were already the same production parts our customers have been riding around the world. What this result does is validate the process that created them—a process built on listening, testing, sharing ideas, and never believing we're finished.
To us, that's what this championship represents.
Not a finish line, but a reminder that doing the right things, for the right reasons, alongside an incredible community of riders, is still the best way to build products that people trust.
So today isn't about celebrating that an F4 foil won.
It's about celebrating what can happen when passionate people build products with integrity, athletes push themselves to their limits, and a community comes together around a shared love for the water.
Remi was right.
Do it with love.
Do it right.
The results will take care of themselves.
Photo from Richie Gordon’s M2O crossing.
