2026 iQFOiL North American Championship Lands in LA28 Olympic Waters

Long Beach just became the most important North American checkpoint in iQFOiL before LA28. The 2026 iQFOiL North American Championship will run July 25 to 27 at Alamitos Bay Yacht Club, 7201 E Ocean Blvd, dropping continental-level foil racing into the exact city waterway that Olympic windsurfing will use in 2028.

That location matters as much as the title. iQFOiL is World Sailing’s Olympic windsurfing class, a one-design hydrofoil windsurfing platform built around equality of equipment and speed. It replaced RS:X for Paris 2024, and Olympics.com says the foil lets the board fly, with race speeds that can top 60 km/h. Putting North American championship racing in Long Beach gives riders a real preview of the venue behavior, not just another stop on the calendar.

LA28 finalized its sailing venue plan on June 30, 2025, and split the program between two Southern California shores. Belmont Shore in Long Beach will host four board events, the men’s and women’s windsurfing and the men’s and women’s kite events, while the Port of Los Angeles will host six boat events. LA28 and World Sailing said the split was chosen to optimize racing conditions and spectator viewing, which makes Long Beach a key piece of the Olympic map rather than a satellite site on the edge of it. LA28 also said Long Beach will stage 11 Olympic sports in 2028, the most outside the city of Los Angeles.

The city’s sailing résumé gives the announcement extra weight. Mayor Rex Richardson has already pointed back to Long Beach’s role in the 1984 Olympic Games, and the Historical Society of Long Beach says its Olympic legacy project is focused on the city’s place in both the 1932 and 1984 Games. Alamitos Bay Yacht Club fits that history too. The club was founded on May 30, 1926, incorporated in 1927, and built its first facilities in 1928, giving the 2026 championship a century-old host with deep local roots.

For foil riders in Southern California, the significance is concrete. Long Beach is no longer just a convenient venue name on a race notice. It is the Olympic board-racing hub for LA28, and the 2026 North American Championship will be the first major continental iQFOiL test in that environment. The athletes who line up in July will be chasing a title, but they will also be collecting the kind of water knowledge that can decide the next Olympic cycle.