Lo Jun Hao back in action with wingfoiling

Having left competitive racing for more than a decade, Lo Jun Hao has found himself back in familiar waters over the past year.

Once a laser sailor who won a silver medal in the Super Mod class at the 2007 SEA Games, the 34-year-old’s racing set-up looks vastly different now as he has switched to wingfoiling, a water sport that is growing in popularity around the world.

Since taking part in his first wingfoiling competition in May 2024, Lo has chalked up a few encouraging results, including finishing top in the X-15 wingfoil class at the Pattaya International Windsurfing Championships in December.

While the regatta was a test event for the Dec 9-20 SEA Games in Thailand, wingfoiling is not part of the programme yet, although Lo hopes it will be included eventually.

For now, he is just relishing the chance to compete again. He said: “I’d like to keep the momentum up and continue the regional races first. I know I can’t win forever, but I’ll try to win as many as I can before the time runs out.

“But what I’m more excited about is how the sport is still developing... and hasn’t reached its peak yet. It’s exciting to be part of this journey.”

Lo’s path back to competitive racing came unexpectedly a few years ago.

Back in 2020, he was supposed to join a commercial company as a pilot in Australia, but after the Covid-19 pandemic struck, he returned to Singapore and had to change his plans.

He then started working at Aloha Sea Sports Centre at East Coast Park as a water sports instructor. It was there that he was introduced to wingfoiling when Aloha ordered wingfoil equipment three to four years ago.

It was still a relatively new invention then but as the gear and equipment developed over the years, Lo began to take an interest in the sport.

It combines elements of windsurfing, kitesurfing and foiling, with the athlete holding on to an inflatable wing which is not attached to the board that he or she is standing on.

The board is equipped with a hydrofoil, which lifts it above the water surface, allowing the wingfoilers to go faster.

While participating in one of the world’s biggest windsurfing competitions, Defi Wind in Gruissan, France, in May 2024, he made an impromptu decision to also compete in wingfoiling.

With experience in windsurfing, which he picked up at 19, he finished mid-fleet in his first wingfoiling event.

He said: “It was then I was hooked and that was when I said I wanted to keep going for races in wingfoil because that’s one of the ways I feel I will improve.”

In September, he won the wingfoil event at the Jeju International Super Cup Kiteboarding Championship, and collected another gold in Pattaya in December.

These results are encouraging for Lo, who highlighted the importance of the support from his boss, who gave him time off for competitions and helped to cover his expenses.

Apart from the enjoyment of discovering a new sport, Lo is also hoping for a chance to participate in a major competition alongside his brother Ryan Lo, 27, a laser sailor who competed at the Tokyo and Paris Olympics.

He said: “When I was competing, Ryan was really young and when he was competing at a higher level, I was in national service already. So now we’re older, it’ll be fun if we get to go together. I’m not young any more, but competing is still something to look forward to.”

As Lo continues his wingfoiling exploits, the Singapore Sailing Federation (SSF) is also paying attention to the discipline, especially with the increased focus on foiling classes globally.

At the Paris Olympics, five out of the 10 sailing categories were foiling classes, including kitefoiling (where Maximilian Maeder won a bronze) and windfoiling, as compared to just one in Tokyo in 2021.

Hoping to catch the wave, the SSF started a Junior and Youth Foil Pathway Programme in November, aimed at introducing young sailors to these disciplines.

SSF chief executive Leslie Tan said: “Wingfoil is the latest sailing craze worldwide…

“We started a new board foiling programme in November 2024. Our aim is to teach eight to 16-year-old Singaporeans the foiling fundamentals. They can then progress to wingfoil, windfoil or kitefoil.

“We want to help our junior and youth sailors keep up with the times so that they too can compete at the Olympics.”