Watermen’s Foil Garden

The Pamlico Sound is known for miles of shallow flat water. This is what helped build its reputation for being such an incredible place to dial in your windsurfing and kiting skills over the past 40+ years. Kiteboarding with 2” fins, you can ride almost anywhere and not have any issues of hitting bottom. When you switch over to the foil, even with a short 24” mast, you better watch out because you will hit bottom. The sandbars in the Pamlico Sound are shallow and very unpredictable.

When we stumbled on to the REAL Slick 20 years ago, hydro foils were only being used in Air Chairs and towing into Jaws by a select few. We never saw the kite foil and wing foil storm coming. Little did we know that directly out of the back yard of what has become the REAL Watersports and Watermen’s Retreat is the perfect depth for both kiteboarding and foiling.

99% of the Pamlico Sound around Cape Hatteras is too shallow to foil in. You could go with a mast that is in the 15” range and be ok, but those short masts are pretty limiting once you learn. There are a couple deep spots with public access like the Canadian Hole, but the Watermen’s Foil Garden is the only sound side location in Cape Hatteras that you can foil directly behind your accommodations. For those foilers that are more experienced, there are 70 miles of ocean side foiling that has deep water and great foiling conditions.

The Watermen’s Foil Garden starts 100 yards off the launch at REAL, has a defined runway out to the REAL Slick Island and then a huge riding area of chest deep water that is accessible in all wind directions. You can foil this area with anything from a 24-34” mast length.

Many of our guests have been really progressing their kite foiling and wing foiling skills in the Watermen’s Foil Garden because you have the perfect combo of steady wind, shallow enough water to stand for a break and you don’t get that much chop because the water isn’t that deep.

As kite and wing foiling grows, we’ve had a lot of visitors coming to Cape Hatteras inquiring about the best spots to foil. The ocean is wide open, but the sound is pretty limited unless you want to walk your foil a mile offshore to get to deeper water.

All of our guests staying at Watermen’s Retreat, Watermen’s Cabanas and Watermen’s Hideout have access to our private launch site and to the Watermen’s Foil Garden. This launch and access to the Watermen’s Foil Garden is limited to guests staying with us at Watermen’s and currently enrolled in REAL Lessons. Guests of all Watermen’s accommodations also enjoy a 10% discount on gear rentals at the REAL Rental Shop which is stocked with all the latest 2021 foiling gear from Armstrong, Naish, Slingshot, North and Core.

For more information about the Watermen’s Foil Garden and to book your accommodations with us, shoot us an email at reservations@watermensretreat.com or call us at 252-987-6060. We look forward to seeing you on the water soon!