From growing up in the Team Bridge household to carving his path in the world of foiling, Guy Bridge has had an epic journey on the water. In this chat, he shares some incredible travel stories, his ultimate gear setup, and what’s next for him and Emma in 2025! Dive in for an inside look at life, adventure, and all things foiling with one of the sport’s most dynamic riders.

Hey Guy, it’s fantastic to have you here! I don’t think we’ve had the opportunity to interview for Tonic Mag before. Growing up in the iconic Team Bridge family, what was it like being surrounded by such a strong watersports culture from a young age? 

Childhood was such an incredible time—always fun and great to have two brothers to share it with on the water. After school, we’d hop on our bikes, head to the beach, rig up, and go kiting. Mum and Dad would be working down there, and we would all hit the water. Looking back now, it was a pretty epic set-up!

Growing up with Olly and Tom must have been such an adventure! Did the three of you find yourselves getting competitive, or was it more about encouraging and motivating each other both on and off the water?

Growing up with Olly and Tom was an unforgettable time. We all started kitesurfing and freestyle around the same age—under 10—so we were small, young, and energetic. Olly, being older and bigger, had a bit of a head start and progressed faster than Tom and me in that first year. But it quickly became apparent that Tom had a natural talent that surpassed us. By then, I think I had accepted that I wouldn’t reach his level, but Olly, as the older brother, didn’t want to be outdone, and that rivalry drove him to improve rapidly in his early teens - it was pretty cool to watch!

We competed together in youth events across Europe, with Tom dominating every competition he entered. Olly often won in the older age divisions, while I was usually happy to secure 2nd or 3rd. Olly also loved racing, and as it evolved into foiling, I got into it too. Travelling the world with our mum, Steph, to events was such an epic experience and had an amazing vibe. 

Olly’s success in racing set the benchmark for me, and training with him pushed me to improve. However, things became more competitive between us as we got older. Olly’s temperament was a bit fragile, so even though I wanted to beat him, I worried about how it might affect our dynamic—both on and off the water. Still, I believe our small rivalry kept us both at the top for a long time. When Olly eventually stepped back, my level gradually dropped. I think I lost that extra edge I had when we trained and competed together. Those years, though, were some of the best of my life. Plus, off the water, we had so many epic times travelling together and some pretty classic stories! Tom and Olly are still super successful in their kiting and still push me to try new things - I am super proud of them both.

Are you still kiting as frequently as you wing or foil, or have you fully transitioned?! 

Ha! I always loved kiting, but I’m quite a bit fussier nowadays. I’ll always get on the water, but I’ll wing surf or surf foil if it’s gusty or swell. It depends on the conditions and what I feel like. My main aim is to be on the water with family and friends. I do mind scoring the best conditions for discipline!

I hope you’re having an amazing trip to Australia! What are you and Emma up to down under?

We love being in the sea, so it’s no surprise that we’ve spent nearly every waking moment on the water! We feel like we’ve had the whole world on an epic coastline. We shipped lots of gear a month before arriving and still managed to bring two board bags, so the ocean has been our playground and natural air conditioner! The wind generally picks up around midday/1 pm, so we have been waking up in the tent + jumping in for a surf before breakfast, then running errands and chilling a bit before pretty hectic afternoons: winging, downwinding, surfing, or kiting; we’ve been making the most of whatever the conditions have dished up! Emma has been frothing on the downwinding, so we have been doing many runs, which has been fun. Ningaloo Reef runs were a real highlight, with colourful corals and multicoloured fish, and they rode with some absolute legends and true watermen. We have found the foiling community out here excellent; the crew are legendary and knowledgeable, and we have loved riding with them. 

Haha, as you can imagine, we have slept like rocks. That’s probably a good thing since we’ve lived out of a tent for over a month! The nights have been pretty magical, though; the stars out here are insane. We’ve been pretty remote for most of the trip, having a Gnarloo stop and scoring some epic swell both for surf and winging, but we made it as far as Exmouth, which was a special stop since it’s where we’re from in the UK! The local crew were absolute legends to ride with; honestly, leaving was hard!

Could you describe your downwind foiling journey? Did you struggle with it initially, or did it come naturally?

Haha, I can speak for everyone learning to downwind. There is plenty of struggle, and I was no exception to this! I started learning to downwind around 2019 when I had a very square sup board that I used to foil and would try to use in the bumps but struggled and barely got foiling. That same year, Titouan Galea invited me to New Caledonia to stay and ride with him (downwind/wing/kite), an offer you couldn’t turn down! So I was thrown into the deep a bit there, given a pass-off giant board at the airport, plus the struggle to downwind started when we got to the sea. It made even more difficult and frustrating by going with Titouan and his cousin Clement Colmas; at this time, they ranked 3rd and 4th at the M2O, so trying to downwind with those guys lapping around you made you feel mega s#it, and guilty for holding them up! 

I struggled to take off—I’d need the biggest, steepest bump to get any flight. From then on, I could generally do a few kilometres on foil, but the stress of coming down and paddling up again made the whole experience a bit stressful and not that enjoyable. So, after that, I gave up on downwinding supping for a while and did all the other disciplines. 

It wasn’t until around 18 months ago that I started downwinding properly! I had been watching the boards and foils develop over time, so I thought it was my time to get back into the sport. I bought an Appletree skipper board and started giving it a shot again; my progression was pretty quick. Having done some paddling before in the surf helped, and having the foil skills dialled, my progress was relatively fast. My next board was the AFS Blackbird v2, which is 8’ 0 x 18’, and it was a game changer for me. It accelerated my progression and has given me the confidence to go for runs I’d never have had the confidence to; easy to build speed, good takeoff, and ultimately having trust in your gear, I think, naturally gives any rider confidence + natural progression - investing in good gear where possible should not be underestimated!

How has your racing mindset influenced your winging and foiling, especially in downwind conditions?

I don’t think racing has influenced any foiling discipline I do now! Now, I am totally in it for the love of each sport, which I think when you’re competing and racing, you are much more focused on that discipline - you’re in it to win, right? There was quite a lot on the line for me, and it required much more dedication and focus on kite racing, specifically, particularly with the lead-up to the 2024 Games! So, I was driven in another way to what I am now. The main thing racing did for me was to gain so many foiling skills that I could never have had today if I hadn’t gone through it, as well as a more profound knowledge and appreciation of the foil itself. I still love tweaking and adapting my foils just as I did for racing, but now I want more glide, carving varied conditions, etc. I do it for fun and to push myself, not to win. It is more me. 

Was the transition motivated more by the evolution of the sport or by a desire for new challenges?

I’d probably say new challenges, being crap at something again is good for the soul and learning something new is mega fun if pretty humbling! Seeing the progression in gear and participation in all of these other foiling disciplines is inspiring and makes you want to keep improving and push where the sports can go.

How has AFS Foils supported you specifically in excelling in your new disciplines?

They’ve been super helpful in facilitating me with some of the best gear on the market across all the disciplines, and thats not me being biased. I generally love their gear and bought it before they started supporting me. We recently visited their factory in Crozon (France). Seeing the processes and levels of making every product was pretty epic.

What’s your go-to set-up for each discipline?

Surf foil: Board: AFS 4’4 Chipri Pro. Foil: 850 Silk or 700 Enduro, 80 uhm mast 38 Stabiliser.
Wing foil: 650 Silk, 85cm uhm mast, 38 Stabiliser. Board: Fire pro 4’6. Wings AFS Diamond V2
Downwind: V2 Blackbird 8.0, 17.5, 105L, 850 silk with the 38 Stabiliser. 

With Steph being a 5x Kite Race World Champion, what’s the best piece of advice she’s given you about competing or pushing your limits on the water?

Honestly, there’s nothing really in terms of on-water advice that she’d offer us. She would be super helpful in facilitating us in terms of getting all the knowledge we could before events and ensuring our preparation and the logistics were good around being at events. She would always make epic feeds, but racing was always super different. You could only learn properly by doing it yourself, so it would only be occasionally when we chatted about plans on water. In terms of pushing our limits, that would all be down to us; there wasn’t ever any push to get better; it was all down to what we wanted to do. It’s been fun seeing her progress on the downwind journey of late; she’s so passionate about trying to learn that sport and is often looking for as much advice as possible.

What’s your favourite memory of training or travelling together as Team Bridge?

Wow, there are so many special memories and trips we’ve all been able to do together, which has been so special. I’d probably have to say either our trip to SA when we were younger or the trips we did to WA; those trips were so special as we were younger, so just travelling to those places was an insane experience in itself, but being able to Kitesurf in these epic spots was another level. The progression we all saw in each other from riding in excellent conditions was all the time and made it so enjoyable. We still do a lot of trips together; I’ve done trips with Tom recently, which has been mega fun, filming and riding loads together, which has been super sick!

Do you and Emma have exciting plans to share with us for 2025?

It always seems to feel exciting to us. Still, Emma and I have a pretty exciting year ahead—not in terms of big trips - we are just making the most of every minute down under - but in the kind of everyday adventures, making quick calls on conditions that always seem magical. Emma is currently teaching supply, so she is flexible, which works well for scoring some epic sessions! The biggest highlight? We’re getting married in May! After that, it’s summer in the UK, a season we both love and try to work hard through - we are busy in the family shop, and it’s a time for us to knuckle down. But the long evenings are always super special; there’s nothing quite like spending long days with family and friends and sharing epic sessions on the water when the conditions deliver!

 

Videos

Ningaloo downwind 1 take
West Aus winging dream days
Downwind Days in WA
By Jen Tyler
Italian/Egyptian Jen Tyler grew up on the sandy beaches of the Red Sea and has been on the IKSURFMAG & Tonic Mag team since 2017.

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