eFoil regulations & spots in French Polynesia

French Polynesia regulates pleasure craft itself through the Direction polynésienne des affaires maritimes (DPAM), so the metropolitan French "planche nautique à moteur" category does not apply and no Polynesian text names eFoils. When the first boards arrived in 2020 the DPAM treated a board with a motor under 3 kW as an "engin de plage", the general exemption for craft with a motor of at most 3 kW (4 hp) and a hull under 2.50 m, which need neither registration nor a permit. A board above 3 kW is handled like a véhicule nautique à moteur (VNM), the jet-ski category, and must be registered and approved by the DPAM.

For VNM-class boards the jet-ski rules apply: minimum age 16, a permis côtier once engine power reaches 6 CV (4.5 kW), an engine cut-out lanyard on the wrist, and a worn lifejacket or buoyancy aid fitted with a light. Arrêté n° 1097 CM of 17 July 2009 also keeps VNM within 2 nautical miles of shore and at 5 knots within 300 m of the coast. Commercial rental and instruction must be declared to the DPAM and insured; in 2020 the qualification required of eFoil instructors was still undefined. Nothing in the sources imposes a permit, registration, PFD or age rule on a sub-3 kW board; the DPAM's Nautical Activities Unit is the place to confirm how a given model is classed.

Lagoon-wide rules decide where you can ride. Délibération n° 78-124 of 27 July 1978 limits every craft to under 5 knots within 70 m of the shore and of fishing installations, quays and pontoons, including inside marine protected areas; the gendarmerie applies 20 knots as the ceiling elsewhere in the lagoons. Mayors police the 300 m coastal band and buoy swimming zones that motorised craft may not enter; designated open-water swimming zones exist at Bora Bora, Moorea (four), Punaauia, Teva I Uta, Tubuai and Makemo. Bora Bora's lagoon has DPAM zoning for mooring and submarine-cable protection, and Moorea's lagoon is also governed by its Plan de gestion de l'espace maritime (PGEM), revised in 2021, with marine protected areas and activity zones. Keep out of marked navigation channels.

Enforcement is by the gendarmerie's brigade nautique and the DPAM; speed patrols run in the lagoons of Tahiti and Moorea. No fine schedule specific to VNM offences was found. Rules are uniform across the archipelagos, but municipal swimming-zone orders and the Moorea PGEM add local layers. Check whether a board's rated power exceeds 3 kW before importing or hiring one, keep to 5 knots within 70 m of any shore or structure, and ask the DPAM about the PGEM activity map before riding at Moorea.