SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — The first-ever national championship for WingFoiling is being held in the San Francisco Bay. U.S. Sailing began sanctioning the event and says the sport has grown so much in popularity that they decided to hold a championship.

“This event is really unique,” said Makani Andrews, one of the competitors. “The other sailing disciplines there is usually a sail and a mast connected to a boat but we are physically holding our wings in the air and it lets you do a lot of things like freestyle and also racing.”

MORE: SailGP grand finale kicks off in San Francisco Bay this weekend

WingFoiling is a combination of wind and kite surfing along with hydrofoiling. Athletes hold a sail while balancing on a board that rises out of the water.

“The foils had improved year over year and also regular kind of free ride and freestyle kite surfing utilizes this inflated tube technology,” said Geoff Headington, the Race Director who is with the St. Francis Yacht Club. “At one point maybe about a decade ago, the idea came about to put these two technologies together.”

The event runs from Friday through Sunday. There will be several races each day, but on Sunday, the top 20 will compete for the title of national champion.

On Friday, before the first race, each competitor was busy inflating their sails and getting their foils ready for the weekend. Athletes from all came to San Francisco to compete.

“I got involved through wingclub Hawaii,” said Mani Pahuatini, another competitor. “I first got involved with windsurfing. That transitioned to formula kite for one year and now WingFoiling, so it’s great.”

As the sport grows in popularity, the athletes think this sport can one day be in the Olympics.

“This sport has been one of the fastest growing sailing disciplines ever,” Andrews said. “hopefully one day it makes it into the Olympics.”

The San Francisco Giants surprised a lot of people when they didn’t become sellers at the trade deadline despite clearly having an uphill battle to get into the playoffs this year.

Instead of moving some of their most attractive assets, including Blake Snell who multiple teams were interested in acquiring, the front office decided to dig their heels in and plow ahead with the goal of making the postseason.

Entering Friday, they certainly have a chance.

The Giants are three games back of the final Wild Card spot, and with the way Snell has started to pitch recently, combined with former Cy Young winner Robbie Ray returning to the mound and Logan Webb putting in good outings, this is the best they’ve looked all year.

If San Francisco is able to get themselves into the playoffs, then their decision to keep this group intact will make it look like the front office was miles ahead of all those who thought they should sell.

But if they don’t, then there’s a real chance they could move on from president of baseball operation Farhan Zaidi.

When looking at the best-case scenarios for each team, Tim Kelly of Bleacher Report thinks that whatever the result is coming down the stretch, they will at least know what to do with their executive.

“Speaking of executives who may have uncertain futures, San Francisco president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi is probably at the top of the list … Over the final couple months of the season, ownership in San Francisco will have to decide whether he should continue to lead baseball operations for the Giants,” he writes.

That goes in line with the report that Zaidi could be in danger of losing his job if they aren’t able to make the playoffs.

The Giants were ultra-aggressive this offseason, spending money to land multiple high-profile free agents.

Not playing fall baseball would be a disaster, and likely would result in Zaidi getting fired.

That might also explain why he was reluctant to move his best players at the deadline, fearing that if he sold off his most attractive pieces, that would highly reduce this group’s chances of getting hot down the stretch and making a playoff push.

If San Francisco grabs a Wild Card spot, he looks like a genious.

If not, he could be looking for a new job.