It started in the surf.
We’re Unifoil — a rider-owned crew building the fastest, most intuitive foils we know how to make. Designed by the people who ride it, sold straight to you. No boardroom. No middleman.
Where it started
From one question in South Africa.
It started in South Africa, with a simple question. Clifford Coetzer — whose head is full of fluid dynamics, hydraulics, and the self-taught aerodynamics he picked up flying RC gliders — had a mate who’d watched guys out kite foiling and asked: could you build me a foil I could surf? Cliff did — making him one of the first people in South Africa to ever surf one. Many prototypes and customs later came the Vortex, our first production foil, and the fuse was lit on everything Unifoil became.
Cliff doesn’t think like a watersports brand. He thinks like an aircraft designer — and you feel it in the way our foils fly under any foiler. It’s in our DNA. Working with downwind foilers and Signature in Cape Town, he went on to design the world’s first high-aspect surf wing — a shape that became the template the whole sport followed.
The original mark
Built for every discipline
Born in the surf, dialed for everything.
Foiling is a game of millimeters, and it keeps us up at night — wing, mast, tail, shim, fuse, every combination still left to crack. We cut our teeth in the surf because it’s the most demanding place to ride: tight pockets, steep drops, turbulent water, and no room for a foil that fights you. That’s where a wing has to turn tight, stay stable, and be efficient — the kind of intuitive, trustworthy feel you can lean on without thinking.
That obsession with feel runs through everything we build. Surf, downwind, winging, wake, parawing, Foil Drive — whatever your drug of choice is, each one rewards a different wing, and we build the right one for each: tight-turning for the surf, long and efficient glide for distance. Whichever you ride, it’s dialed until it disappears under your feet and all that’s left is the fun.
The crew
Three starting points, one hangar.
An engineer from South Africa, a lifelong surfer and filmmaker turned foil designer, and a thirty-year industry lifer. Different roads, same obsession. We run this thing ourselves — design it, ride it, ship it.
Founder & Mad Scientist
Clifford “Cliffy” Coetzer
Jeffreys Bay, South Africa
Born and raised in South Africa, Cliffy is the mind who invented the world’s first high-aspect surf wing — the shape that reshaped the whole sport. A head full of fluid dynamics, hydraulics, and self-taught aerodynamics from years flying RC gliders is exactly why our foils fly the way they do. He still leads design and engineering, and he’s our South African distribution. Every wing we make answers to the standard he set with that first foil.
Hangar Chief
Dominic DiMaggio
Winthrop, Washington
From folding shirts in a surf shop to thirty years deep in the trade, Dom’s a lifelong surfer turned full-time foiler who’s done nearly every job in the business — brand, production, sales, ops. He’s been part of the crew since 2022: came in on sales, never left, and bought in. He keeps the whole thing running so the gear gets built, stocked, and out the door.
Test Pilot
Erik Antonson
Jacksonville, Florida
Erik Antonson brings a designer’s eye and a rider’s obsession to UniFoil. A lifelong surfer turned dedicated foiler, he’s spent thousands of hours testing, refining, and chasing what makes equipment truly work. Before UniFoil, Erik founded Portal Surf Designs, where he designed the first mid-length. His other gig is designing waves for surf pools, where he may or may not get to test a lot of the Uni protos. As host of The Progression Project, he’s spent years learning from the sport’s best riders and designers. Since joining UniFoil in 2023, Erik has worked alongside Cliff on foil development, helping turn deep riding knowledge into gear that feels fast, intuitive, and fun.
The Tower
Isidora
Montenegro
Runs our marketing and keeps the whole crew on course — nothing takes off without clearing her first. She brings years of experience in the field to the brand's marketing and content. And when she's not at her desk, she's out on the water putting in the time to get foiling herself.
Crew Chief
Andy
United Kingdom
After 30 years of surfing dictating every aspect of Andy’s life, he turned his back on surfboards when he stepped on a foil, with a rejuvenated grom stoke and expanded horizons. He has several decades of experience working in the water sports industry, specialising in the surf enviro and search and rescue sectors. Andy recognises the value authentic ambassadors bring to foiling communities and loves unearthing and nurturing foiling talent from around the world.
Join the crew
Come ride with us.
From Hawaii to Australia, South Africa to Europe, some of the best foilers on the planet ride our gear — and tell us straight when something can be better. That feedback shapes every wing we build. This isn’t a customer list. It’s a family, and the door’s open. Welcome in.