A Moving Foil Welcome in Historic Waters

Words and photos by Kenneth Erlandsen

“1625 hours. The Royal Ship incoming 🙂”

That was the entire message that landed on my phone Sunday afternoon, August 30th. Sender: someone from the foil crowd at Torkilstranda outside Drøbak, who’d picked up via the app Foilmenyen.no that the Royal Yacht Norge was set to pass the well-known watersports beach at 1625. What to expect? A short window to enjoy a premium stern wake that screams foil surfing.

Fifteen minutes later, I was on the rocks south of the beach, camera in hand, in a strait that already had its own place in the history books. This is where the German cruiser Blücher was sunk by torpedoes off Oscarsborg fortress on April 9th, 1940 – a very different story, but one that also came down to a short window of time. Those torpedoes bought the Norwegian royal family the exact minutes they needed to get out of Oslo, and flee north, before they were finally evacuated to Britain in June 1940.

86 years later, this Sunday had nothing to do with war. It was, however, a particular moment for the country all the same. Norway is currently in mourning, having just lost King Harald V, with Crown Prince Haakon now ascended as King Haakon VIII. Against that backdrop, Sunday’s short window was about something smaller and lighter, some symbolically loaded wave-riding, and whether anyone was ready to grab the opportunity.

Royal Surf

From the outside, it might look a little disrespectful to foil the stern wake of the Royal Yacht Norge just days after King Harald’s passing. But Sunday’s wave play was all about showing respect and welcoming the Royal Yacht, following an age-old maritime tradition in which local boats meet and greet the Royal Yacht as it arrives in port, typically accompanied by horn signals and flags. This time, the horns and flags were swapped for surf wings and foil boards.

In Norway, the welcoming custom took on special meaning after the war, when the Royal Yacht Norge was given to King Haakon VII in 1948, and has since been used on the royal couple’s journeys along the Norwegian coast.

Exactly as promised in the app, the Royal Yacht Norge delivered a surfable stern wake off Torkilstranda at precisely 1625. A handful of wingfoilers dropped into the wake just off Elleskjær, and five minutes later the last one peeled off by Oscarsborg, the same waters that once sent the Blücher to the bottom. The foilers themselves called it their most special and emotional foil-surf sessions to date.

“Riding alongside the Royal Yacht the whole way from Elleskjær to Oscarsborg, two days after King Harald’s passing, was an emotional and powerful experience. This session is going straight into the history books”, one of the foilers told me after coming ashore.

King Haakon VIII – The Surfing King

I recently read a piece in Surfer Magazine noting that our new King could have seen himself pursuing a career as a professional surfer, had he not been bound by the monarchy’s legacy. A claim that’s easy to smile at through Norwegian eyes. At the same time, it underlines exactly who our new King is. A man who combines his office with the mindset of a surfer, drawn to free play, and raising his own kids to love it too.

The country is still grieving King Harald V, and Haakon VIII’s ascension came only days before Sunday’s symbolic foil session behind the Royal Yacht. And there’s something quietly fitting in that. Because King Haakon VIII, a foiler himself, has just inherited a ship that produces world class stern wakes made for foil surfing. It wouldn’t shock me if the monarch snuck out for a foil-surf session behind his own boat, whenever he finds the time. He seems like the type.

Norway has itself a new King. He surfs and foils. Can we really ask for more?

Same Waters, Different Events

It’s tempting to draw a line between Drøbaksundet’s role on April 9th, 1940, and August 30th, 2026. Two fundamentally different eras, each carrying its own story rooted in its own time.

One is about a nation’s day of occupation and a royal family’s flight. The other is about a small watersports community’s welcome to the Royal Yacht Norge on its first sail into the Oslo Fjord under its new King. The same rocky shoreline that once watched a German cruiser slip into the strait through the morning fog, on Sunday watched a handful of people on foil boards fall into line in the wake of a ship carrying the name Norway itself.

It’s hard to find anything more symbolically loaded, for those who live and breathe wind-powered board sports.