eFoil regulations & spots in Cambodia

Cambodia has no regulation that mentions eFoils, electric surfboards or jetboards. Water transport is administered by the Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MPWT) through its General Department of Waterway-Maritime Transport and Ports. Until 2024 the framework rested on circulars, notably Circular 003 on the management of means of water transport, under which vessels of one ton or more and all kinds of powered boats, including pleasure vessels, needed a vessel licence from MPWT or the provincial authority, with family-use vessels eligible for exemption. The Law on Waterway Transportation promulgated on 23 March 2024 (18 chapters, 275 articles) replaces that patchwork and requires coastal and inland vessels navigating in Cambodia, including those operated by foreigners, to register with MPWT, with certificates valid for up to one year. Whether a foil board is a vessel under the new law has not been addressed publicly.

Operator licensing exists on paper: the pre-2024 circular provided for a licence issued after an examination at the Department of Water Transport, with temporary licences valid for 45 days. No minimum age, life-jacket, insurance or registration rule specific to private recreational boards could be identified, and no evidence was found of these requirements being applied to tourists or expatriates riding small powered craft. Commercial jet-ski operators are the ones the authorities deal with.

Where you ride is governed locally. The Preah Sihanouk provincial and city administration requires jet skis to keep at least 50 m from places where people are swimming and marks no-go areas off the city beaches with lines of floating buoys. On the islands, Koh Rong and Koh Rong Sanloem, jet skis are run by tour operators from the resort beaches and there are no published zones; keep outside swimming areas and away from the ferry piers and speedboat lanes between Sihanoukville and the islands. The Sihanoukville Autonomous Port and its approaches are commercial waters. Kep and Kampot see little motorised water sport.

Enforcement is direct rather than through fines: in October 2022 the Preah Sihanouk joint task force confiscated several jet skis from an operator who kept riding into the prohibited swimming areas despite warnings. No published penalty scale for small craft was found. For a private eFoil the practical rules are to ride outside the buoyed swimming zones, keep 50 m or more from swimmers, avoid port waters and ferry lanes, and expect that any dispute will be settled by the local administration on the spot. Anyone planning commercial operations should approach MPWT and the provincial Department of Public Works and Transport about registration under the 2024 law.