eFoil regulations & spots in Indonesia

Indonesia has no national rule naming eFoils, electric surfboards or jetboards, and Bali has none either. Shipping is regulated by the Ministry of Transportation through the Directorate General of Sea Transportation and local harbourmaster offices (Syahbandar/KSOP; for south Bali, KSOP Benoa). Vessels under 7 GT are documented with a Pas Kecil, now issued electronically as the E-Pas Kecil under Circular SE 32/PK/DK/2021, a system built for fishing and tourist boats. Whether the authorities regard a foil board as a vessel needing one has not been tested publicly. In practice, motorised water sports on Bali beaches are controlled through tourism zoning and beach management rather than vessel registration.

No licence, minimum-age, life-jacket or insurance requirement specific to private eFoil use could be identified in any Indonesian regulation. Commercial water-sports operators at Tanjung Benoa require life jackets and put a guide on every jet ski, but those are operator policies rather than law. Bali eFoil schools set their own age floors: Airborne, working from Jimbaran with sessions moved to Nusa Dua or Seminyak according to conditions, takes riders from 16 and may ask for identification; Rip Curl School of Surf in Sanur runs youth sessions from age 13 with parental consent, includes a support boat and supplies safety equipment.

Bali's 2023-2043 provincial spatial plan (Perda 2/2023) lists water sports such as jet ski, banana boat, parasailing and underwater scooter as activities permitted with conditions in coastal-tourism and underwater-tourism subzones, meaning they need permits and must respect reef protection, coastal safety measures and marine traffic rather than being open everywhere. The established motorised water-sports areas are the reef-protected lagoons at Tanjung Benoa/Nusa Dua and Sanur, both already busy with jet skis, parasail boats and tour craft; eFoil operators also use Jimbaran Bay. Kuta beach is under active provincial and regency management for its appearance and security, and its surf and swimming zones are not a place to ride a powered board. Riders should keep outside swimming areas and away from the boat lanes that serve Nusa Penida and the Gili islands.

Enforcement on Bali beaches is shared between the regency governments (Badung for Nusa Dua, Jimbaran and Kuta; Denpasar for Sanur), customary villages and the water-sports operators who control the buoyed zones, with police and KSOP involved after incidents. Fines specific to private eFoil use were not found. The practical route is to ride with, or launch alongside, a licensed operator inside a water-sports zone, ask the beach management before launching a private board, and expect different answers from one beach to the next. Import of a board with lithium batteries is a separate customs question.