Nikolas Plytas lands backflip off superyacht wake in latest foil stunt

Nikolas Plytas turned a superyacht wake into a launch point and landed a backflip that made foiling look less like a niche glide sport and more like a full freestyle discipline. The maneuver came behind Naia, a 126-foot luxury yacht, and the clean takeoff showed how far riders have pushed beyond simple speed and wave connection.

Naia is not an ordinary platform for a stunt like this. IYC lists the Sanlorenzo motor yacht at 126'4", or 38.5 meters, built in 2009 and refit in 2024. It carries a maximum speed of 26 knots, cruises at 16 knots, accommodates 10 guests in five cabins and has a crew of eight. IYC also markets the yacht as an award-winning charter vessel with extensive water toys, including an e-foil and Seabob, which helps explain why the wake was clean enough to serve as a launch ramp for Plytas.

The technical part matters as much as the visual one. Plytas rode toward the yacht, veered at the last moment, hit the wake and threw his trademark backflip with enough precision that the final cut made it look almost casual. BTS footage showed the landing came after failed attempts, a reminder that elite foiling tricks still depend on repetition, timing and a willingness to absorb risk before the rotation ever sticks.

Plytas has already built a reputation for operating at the edge of what hydrofoils can do. He was previously credited with the world’s first double backflip on a hydrofoil, a breakthrough that reportedly took more than 800 attempts and stood out in a sport whose modern history spans only a few decades. Red Bull has profiled him as a Greek waterski talent who also competes in snowboard slopestyle and wing foil, a cross-discipline background that helps explain why he is comfortable mixing snow, water and aerial movement.

That blend of backgrounds is part of what makes his work read like more than a stunt reel. Red Bull has also described his water-to-snow snowboard project as unprecedented, and the superyacht backflip fits the same pattern: a rider testing how many surfaces can be made rideable, and how much rotation the foil can absorb on the way down. For now, the clip stands as both spectacle and signal, proof that high-performance foiling is still expanding its trick vocabulary in real time.