Benjamin May won the 2026 Foilwave in Hanstholm, taking the headline result in wing foiling and parawinging as a North Sea window opened over Cold Hawaii.
May, who rides out of Tegernsee, has been the name on the late-summer Danish edits. Wing Daily reported the Foilwave one-two on 14 September. The same week the site published how-to frames of May landing a stalled frontflip and a stalled backflip in storm conditions off the Hanstholm fish factory.
Two launches, one harbour town
Hanstholm sits on the northwest corner of Denmark with Klitmøller and Agger in the strip windsurfers named Cold Hawaii. The port town gives foilers two options.
The Fish Factory works in west-southwest to northwest wind. A long breakwater knocks down the worst of the west swell, so the shorebreak is usable. When the wind reaches force 7 and the swell builds, the waves stand up further out. That is the foilwave session. Local spot guides treat it as an experienced-only launch.
Fakir, west of the jetty, is the other door: northeast to east wind on a coast that otherwise faces west. May already had a German result on the year. At Fehmarn’s Foil Festival over Pentecost he won the men’s wingfoil freestyle division ahead of Josh Mayer and Bene Hiss.
Why the result travels
Foilwave contests only work if the ocean cooperates. Hanstholm cooperated. A westerly with period and height turns a working harbour into a section that a foil can hold. May’s week is the news item. The stalled-flip clips are the distribution.