For some reason when I saw this video I thought of Surffoils. The single foil concept seems to me like riding a unicycle vs. riding a bicycle. Having a front and rear foil more similar to the America’s Cup boats would seem like such a more stable approach that would require WAY less rider imput and not burn your back leg out so much. I’ve ridden kite foils and they are super sensitive and have a steep learning curve. Seems like the surface is just being scratched with foils, and this video show a pretty impressive open-water usage of them.
https://youtu.be/9QfFRvd7H6I
It’s just a new form of down wind paddleing and using the rolling swell that is found off shore part wind swell part ground swell, and for anyone thinking it looks fake there is allso a video of him getting it up on to the foil paddleing which is amazing and proves it realy is real!
Lawless, Thanks for that and you’re right that moving the foils apart makes it much easier to ride. All of the variations I’ve seen are “bolt-on” versions from other sports.
For those of you who like the idea of hydrofoiling let me declare with no uncertainty that the day they swap from lateral foils to longitudinal foils the surfing world will be set on fire.
However long term residents here will remember Terry Hendricks who showed us all here how he could foil on prone craft.
Then Laird dropped in with his Skychair with ski boots and blew minds with His grace and speed on big waves.
I admit coming late to the party and spent 6 years doing nothing else but foil design and testing, living the NACA dream until Terry Hendricks mentioned something in an email that made me look at putting twin foils Along the length of the craft instead of Across.
It is a remarkable difference and the construction and performance benefits are outstanding. Even Terry started changing the orientation of his foils. And that should be enough for any serious foiler to consider.
Surfoils, more please. Video?
All the best
I didn’t do a lot of video because it’s really not something I enjoy editing. but here’s a few in and out of the tube…
https://vimeo.com/search?q=Surffoils
And I’ve got some stills of riding a short board at a normal beach break. I think Ben Chipper has a lot of pics from that day too.
We did a full show here on Sways few years back.