America One Racing Expands Foiling Pipeline with Landmark Long Beach Foiling Camp

Mar 26

America One Racing (A1R) successfully delivered a landmark foiling camp in Long Beach this past week, marking a major step forward in the execution of its America One Foiling Pipeline vision. Held in the lead-up to the High Performance Midwinters hosted by Alamitos Bay Yacht Club, the camp brought together top emerging and established foiling talent from across the United States.

Athletes traveled from all corners of the country, reinforcing A1R’s growing national footprint and the strength of its developing pipeline.

Two New Classes. One Unified Vision.

This week marked the first-ever racing of both the X15 Wingfoil Class and the Switch Class in U.S. waters—a milestone that, just months ago, existed only as an idea.

The inclusion of these two classes represents a critical evolution of the A1R model:

X15 Class (Wingfoil Pathway)
The addition of the X15 completes the Foiling Board Pathway, creating a clear and structured progression for athletes entering the sport through wingfoiling.
Switch Class (Boat Pathway)
The Switch Class establishes a high-performance crossover platform, bringing together athletes from America’s Cup, SailGP, Olympic classes, WASZP, collegiate sailing, and wingfoil backgrounds into one shared environment.

Together, these pathways form a system where cross-pollination of knowledge, technique, and performance culture accelerates development across all disciplines.

A National Pipeline, Activated

At the core of this new phase is a scalable national model:

A1R lead coaches visit regional programs across the country
Identify and connect with top talent
Share best practices and align training methodologies
Invite selected athletes to America One Foiling Camps across a national tour

From this tour, top-performing sailors will be selected for the A1R Foiling Pipeline Travel Teams, to represent the US at international events later this year.

“After a solid week of training, data debriefs, and X15 racing, I feel I’ve made meaningful improvements across several areas, particularly in starting technique and board speed,” said CJ Perez ahead of joining the SailGP circuit in Brazil.

Expert Coaching Drives Performance

A key driver behind the success of the Long Beach camp is the integration of world-class coaching expertise, built on a model that has delivered results at the highest levels of the sport for over a decade.

Through collaboration with American Magic and Quantum Racing, A1R athletes benefit from proven high-performance methodologies.

This consistent approach to coaching—focused on detail, process, and continuous improvement—ensures that athletes across all pathways are aligned with the standards required to compete at the highest levels internationally.

Ben Rosenberg, who both sailed with the Switch squad and led advanced analytics for the team’s performance debriefs, said: “This level of collaboration, supported by data, video, and highly interactive debriefs, is what drives real performance forward.”

Expanding Access Through Strategic Support

Support from the Sailing Foundation of New York and the Schoonmaker Foundation has played a critical role in this effort, providing matching grants that help athletes participate in this new era of foiling development.

These partnerships are instrumental in lowering barriers to entry and enabling a broader, more diverse group of sailors to engage with A1R’s national pipeline.

From Vision to Reality

What was conceptual just months ago is now operational.

This week in Long Beach demonstrated that A1R is not only building programs—but building a system. A system capable of:

Identifying and developing talent nationwide
Integrating multiple foiling disciplines
Creating meaningful progression pathways
Raising the overall standard of U.S. high-performance sailing

“Our vision for America One Racing is to unite top talent under a shared high-performance framework and develop a common language that allows athletes and coaches to learn from each other. This is what will raise the standard of foiling in the United States,” said Leandro Spina, “And this week demonstrated what’s possible when that system comes to life.”

Momentum Continues: WASZP Games and Beyond

As this new phase of the pipeline is underway, the A1R WASZP squad is currently competing at the WASZP Games in Pensacola, Florida—the culmination of an 18-month program designed to take on the best sailors in the world on home waters.

Following the Games, A1R will further expand its impact through collaboration with the WASZP North America Class, supporting the development of regional hubs, coaching frameworks, and shared best practices across the country.

At the same time, A1R will begin deploying Switch Class Travel Teams to international events in Europe, providing athletes the opportunity to benchmark against the rapidly growing global fleet, understand where the level sits, and align the next steps in the program.

In parallel, the Foiling Pipeline Formula Wingfoil squad will head to Naples, Italy, for the European Championships, continuing the testing and refinement of equipment developed in collaboration with F4 Foils. This campaign is a key step in the lead-up to the World Championships in August in Turkey, as the team continues to connect equipment development with racing performance.

Looking Ahead

The Long Beach camp was more than a training week—it was a proof of concept.

With new classes, a national pathway, and a growing network of athletes, partners, and supporters, A1R is building a future where:

Talent is identified earlier
Development is more connected
Performance is continuously elevated

“This week was pretty special,” noted A1R Head Coach Charlie McKee. “We can use this as a roadmap going forward. We had Olympic medalists, Sail GP athletes, Moth and Waspz champions, Wingfoil World Cup podium athletes, professional sailors, and coaches all together in one room. We shared ideas, analyzed data, scrutinized drone footage to point out nuanced technique differences. You could feel the energy in the air, and you could see how the process of learning together was energizing for both fleets.”

And from here, we continue to raise the bar…