Not mine but looks good huh ?
Hey Sharkcountry, have you seen Gilbert around lately ? I’d like to find out why he started foiling, where he foiled and who he hung out with please.
With the loss of Terry Hendricks a few years ago I wanted to find more history about the original foiling guys before it’s lost or replaced with a commercial version.
I think you might be a little late haha
Huck, that’s a shame if Gilbert’s gone but I don’t want t pre empt his departure if he hasn’t !
One of the guys here only a few months ago was trying to get a few questions to him for the history of such an unusual offshoot of surfing.
Strangely foiling is really taking off with SUPs, they’ve cut the boards down to sub 7 ft, 3M stick on plates to mount the foils, lots of technical advancements.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mqW8t2ViLPk
Overall foiling has been picked up by many sports with traditional surfing probably the least involved but I think that’s because of the design, it’s still derivative from the Air Chair Twin lateral design. However I have passed on my latest design pics and dims to RDM for his consideration.
watching that video and thinking its like surfing with a meat cleaver under your feet.
Greg, it’s a shame there’s been little creativity with surfing foils.
Laird took his foils from an Air Chair which is ridden seated behind a ski boat. It was a gutsy move by Laird but it worked and it’s worked to convince every foil maker since to copy the same setup without thinking about how and why it works.
The Twin lateral foil setup does work well and that’s why the kite guys and any of the other ‘straight line’ riding sports use it but it doesn’t work in steep waves or broken water/foam. Not every idea from another sport works in the surf, the long mast is an example of that. But the surfing foil makers have stuck to the Flying Meat Cleaver design.
A simple Google of surfing hydrofoils would turn up a pic of our good friend Gilbert and his hydrofoil that looks nothing like the Meat Cleaver, it looks benign, safe, a bit square but you can be sure it works in the surf. Why wouldn’t the new foil companies look at a few prototypes in this style just becuase it could eliminate a lot of the danger and open up a world of better design.
But all is not lost for the unimaginative foil designers !
If you have the creative design genes you’ll see that prone foils lack length because they’re only lifting half the weight and stabilised by the riders trailing flippers in the water. So for standup foils you need to add length because you’re not trailing flippers And if you’re adding length you can reduce the width. If you’ve done enough prototyping you’d know that you can go down to 13" wide because just like a bicycle, a foil gains stability as it speeds up.
So you’re going to be a tad generous and you’ve got a foil maybe 16" wide X 30" long but that gives you 480 sq in area and that’s too much for surfing. So how about you take out the centre as it’s the OD that matters.
Wider at the front foot for stability, just like a surfboard. And pull it in at the tail for a bit more response off the back foot. And now you’re surf foiling with pitch stability and enough roll control to take on waves up to head high.
The top one is CF from 2009, the hoop foil is just glassed ply from 2010.
The more you know the less you need to make it happen.
This is nothing like what I ride now but it’s safer and more stable than what’s available now.
Careful Bret. Lots of evil eyes just dying to appropriate your research. I’m sure you know.
But do keep teasing us. Love it.
All the best
Thanks for that Greg, I think no one wants to do the prototyping, they’re just copying one another with a different label. That’s part of the beauty of Sways, we all enjoy the building.
And to continue the teasing… here’s a high-resolution photo of my latest foil suitable for riding real waves, tubes, cutbacks , stalls and floaters. Mine are in kit form that are posted in this small box, it has replaceable sections that can be adjusted as you improve or swap the foils around with different colours and performance. And you don’t need to buy a dedicated foil board you can retrofit my foil to any old or new surfcraft, you just need the foil.
The complete foil really is in this box.
So you’re marketing this kit??? Excellent! Maybe we’ll be getting some more user reviews soon. When do you sell them - got a link?
Sorry for not responding earlier. I don’t follow posts. I don’t know how to get a hold of Gilbert. The only reason I knew of him was because I’d see him on the beach with that boogey board/hydrofoil he had. I don’t see a lot of the older guys like I used to. Probably need to go to Cunhas in Waikiki on a bigger day to find these guys, and I rarely ever go there.
Huck, There’s no rush, it’s more about the quality.
I’m not planning to market a product here, I haven’t got the time, money or insurance for that, more just supply a run of free prototypes for a small group of people to have for design evaluation, not for riding. I’ve done that before with surfmats and handplanes.
But you can do what you want with it I suppose.
Sharkcountry, thank you for your reply. I miss Terry Hendricks and his knowledge and I wanted to see if Gilbert was happy to share his ideas. I’m sure he’s got a few stories.
Moving away from fibreglass and resin I’ve tested polycarbonate foils and tapping / grub screws the sections together. It makes for a very sleek looking product and it works in the surf but I’m not convinced of its longevity as a means of connecting sections.
Sadly screws or bolts are less attractive but more reliable.
Some interesting foil video footage that reminded me of you Surffoils:
I have some kiteboarding friends in Florida who ride foils and have started paddling into waves on their kiteboard foil surfboards. Evidently, it’s starting to take off (no pun intended) and a lot more guys are doing it.
I still think the single mast foil all these guys are using are inherently unstable and way wrong for what they are trying to do. They are so incredibly pitch sensitive that you have to nurse them. Shifting to 2 sets of foils front and rear puts the rider in between the center of gravity. A good analogy would be the difference between riding a unicycle and riding a bicycle.
Anyways, excited to see what this all looks like. Would love to see some video of it in action.
http://www.supthemag.com/videos/dreamy-sup-foil-session-with-keahi-de-aboitiz
Surf foiling has gone from Laird to nowhere until Kai Lenny did a few videos that got good coverage with the SUP community. They’ve taken off with foiling and there’s now more than a dozen manufacturers making as many foils as possible to a growing market.
Foiling on SUPs has progressed the design to a more manouverable and stable setup but it’s still light years away from where Terry Hendricks and I were years ago.
They still can’t foil near the curl but out on the face or unbroken waves the foiled SUPs are killing it now.
The board lengths are sub 8 ft, they can get on a wave without the paddle so it’s virtually surfboard foiling. The surfboard industry has let foiling go past but it’s at their doorstep now.
Can’t wait to see your kit Surffoils.
This motorised version looks pretty fun but not sure I would let my kids loose with one.
http://www.jetfoiler.com/#intro
Monkstar1, I got worried when the SUP foils guys started but they’re not ready yet. I sadly miss Terry Hendricks’ knowledge and his joy at seeing foiling becoming popular.
I can get a kit with all the components ready for shipping for $130 and you can retrofit it onto any surfcraft, even an old surfboard which is great becuase you don’t have to buy a specific foilboard.
I was hoping to do it for around $60 but at low volume the price is fairly high.
Ive got so many prototypes and it’s just a matter of choosing which one is the most suitable for all wave types.
Why would you want to ride a surffoil instead of a surfboard?
I’d be more inclined to go try kite surfing, rather than putting more heavy stuff under the board.
But today, when I showed my latest fin print to a work colleague, first question was: “Can you print a hydrofoil?” And apparently the kite surfers are getting into the hydro-foiling as well, or so I’m told.
The mind boggles with all the options on offer…
Why Surffoil…?
Because it’s exactly like surfing but it’s different.
Like every surfboard, it’s just a bit different to what you’re used to but with foiling , it’s faster, it’s unnerving, it’s bizarre, it’s quiet, it’s a fucking freak out to realise you’ve been chained to the surface of the wave but now you’re above it by a foot or two or three. And you can go up and down in another dimension.
It’s cool because it’s not the RipVanQuikBong version of surfing you never bought into in the first place, it’s Cool because there’s no established heirachy of foiling, you are as good as everyone else right now. It really is new surfing technology and getting better every day as you make it.
If you’re a Swaylockian , then foiling is perfect for you to release your creative ideas on what could /would / might happen if you built it This way… or maybe That way …?
It’s up to you to make a Surffoil as you wish, test your theories, to create your own design, and ride it how you like. Just like surfing as you know it… but different.
Kite surfers have grabbed onto it, same with SUP foilers, same with windsurfer foilers, same with Moth sailing foilers. They could have not, but they did. And it will only get bigger as more people try the most amazing experience above the water"
Just Google videos for surf/ sup/ kite/ sailing/ foils and see what you’re missing out on.
