I was there when the guy in the pictures was surfing. Quite a spectacle. Also, Maybe I’m biased from following your thread here Surfoils, but he seemed too high up. Our waves are slow and not too powerful so he needed to do a lot of pumping to maintain engagement.
Yes Greg, the longer mast gives a certain look to foiling but takes away from the feel and balance, like standing on a chair on a surfboard. There’s a pause between what manufacturers have made and need to sell and what’s better, so inside a year it will all be on sub 2’ masts.
This isn’t me or mine in the pic but does this qualify as foiling ? It’s a 10 inch mast on this board and close to the Hybrid that MrMik was talking about.
And apparently Kai Lenny has just invented the hydrofoil bodyboard…?
This is a closely watched site and without a doubt it was observed world wide that surfoils was riding a hydrofoil bellyboard years ago, but the spin masters are giving all credit to the kid in the spotlight, just alternative facts is all, lol.
Greg,
I can’t comment on how it works for stand up foiling, I know the justification for such a long mast when kite foiling is the ability to lay over at an angle and not have your rail to the surface. But on a few occasions when I was using a 12 inch mast, in some small Florida surf I experienced missing waves as the power of the wave essentially passed between my foil and my board.
Surffoils,
My latest design is more or less a hybrid of your longer foils and my wider foils hoping to reap the benefits of both.
What I an glean from the ride description from the fellow in those photos is that he is limited by how quickly he can turn,
he can only do wide turns, which is good on a kite but maybe not so good in the surf
I have always tried to maintain a near zero turning radius for my main foil and tried to minimize how much tracking that is created by the tail sections, because I know especially in the smaller Florida surf that you have to be able to maneuver to where the power is, and that can change at any time.
Maybe that’s where the opportunity for advancement lies.
I have some alternate designs I communicated with Brett about that might change turn performance.
Secret Sauce? LOL…
Stoneburner (Bill Wurts), youre the one who has given me the best ideas about the surf hydrofoil design. I dont know how many emails weve exchanged over the years, but its a lot.
Youre the main contributor of science, conceptual design and essential Devils Advocate to temper my creativity.
You know how and why the foil design really works so I thank you for your constant collaboration and insight.
You told me a few years ago what the final configuration would be so looking back now I think you already knew and youve just led me to the design.
You already knew what would work but youve let me run around pretending I discovered it !!!
Theres zero chance of us ever meeting but thanks for all your help Bill. Youre a good man.
Many more years and ideas to come. Brett.
Hi Brett -
As you know, I’ve followed many of your ideas that you’ve posted here. I still consider you to be one of the true innovators in modern surfing.
A guy named Nels Norene used to post here once in awhile and he also had his own website… “Vagabondsurf”
‘Roger Wayland’ was occasionally profiled and was known to be a prolific down&dirty innovator. His boards were often completed seemingly on a moments notice and lacked some of the finished qualities so many expect but… holy cow, did he came up with some interesting stuff! Here is an example…
Hi John, Rod’n’tube has links to Vagabond… some of the work people do is just amazing like Nels and Sways here is loaded with creative thinkers and builders.
As best as I can measure it there’s a 6 year turnaround of reality on the internet.
Whatever happened today can be re-invented in 6 years and it’s accepted as truth.
Maybe because there so many Ad-men flogging their crap these days that no one really cares what they say…
One SUP forum Admin said there were plenty of pics of hydrofoil bodyboards on the net but no pics of people actually riding them so it wasn’t invented until Kai did. Some of the bullshit is too stupid to believe.
John, I think there’s a hidden vault of the most amazing surfcraft thats never seen the light of day or the Internet. Like a pristine barn find Brewer gun, some of the best creative work is yet to be discovered or yet to be invented.
Hey Mr. Burner, don’t bogart that sauce my friend !!!
Thanks for the recognition Brett.
My original inspiration was the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. We have come a long way since then.
When Brett gives me the thumbs up, I would be happy to share my alternate design(s).
And I thought I was being fancy with my Peregrine falcon fin… Nothing beats biomimicry! And your bird is much more pretty!
But from what I hear, maybe I should call it ‘biorepetition’ or something like it.
As in: The feather was evolved long before the feathered wing.
No photos/pics of riding a hydrofoil bodyboard/paipo/boogie??? Since at least July 2003: https://mypaipoboards.org/hydrofoil/paipo_hydrofoil.shtml
Nels Norene’s Vagabond.com site has been ported over to MyPaipoBoards.org – it is virtually identical except for a few formatting artifacts – functional content is the same. More about the porting over and a link is here:
https://mypaipoboards.org/vagabondsurf/vagabond_epilogue.shtml
Many thanks, Nels!
Preserving history so that future generations may enjoy…
Thanks for posting Rodntube.
It was through your forum that I realised we don’t all have to ride what the pros ride.
Updated this link for early-1960s.
Hi Rod, do you think that reference to 1963 is the earliest record of foiling in the surf ?
I recently had a conversation on Another forum where site Admin insist that Kai Lenny invented prone surfing just a few weeks ago…
https://www.standupzone.com/forum/index.php/topic,31707.0.html
Kai is an absolutely amazing talent in every aspect but I think that ‘invention’ is different to ‘marketing.’
Kai’s current media list of foiling inventions fly in the face of recorded history and photographic evidence but they’re just ignorant or playing dumb of the lengthy history of people like Miller and Lum and Hendricks, Domasetti.
Put together a chronological time line with the various body board hydrofoils and there creators.
Provide any existing links to the sources.
Post it on that other forum.
Tell them the records can be verified…
Bill, I did something like that but the Admin says grainy pictures aren’t enough to convince him. He’s just protecting his forum sponsors and their hype.
Gilbert Lum doesn’t look like he needs or cares for Red Bull hype.
What Admin? What a load!
Video? Ha Ha Ha! I don’t recall this Kai guy being who he claims to me. I didn’t see the video of him being created and hatched 
Video? Oh geezy whiz… Hawaiians didn’t surf before 1870… there ain’t no video. Maybe George Freeth invented surfing??? No surfing in South Africa back in ca. 1915… NO VIDEO!!!
Nonetheless… it is interesting to see this published reference:
Kuhns, Kittie Kerr and Betty Shor, eds.
Scripps Stories: Days to Remember in Celebration of 90 Years.
(La Jolla, Calif.: Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California)
San Diego, CA 92093
October 1993
S.I.O. Reference #93-35
The terminology may be a bit crude by today’s standards, but so was the report filed by Lt. James King. It wasn’t even called surfing nor marketed by Wheaties.
See: Lt. James King, 1778, Kealakekua Bay, Hawai`i, from King’s unedited log of 1778. Reprinted in “The Voyage of the Resolution and Discovery,” by John C. Beaglehole (1967); as quoted in “Surfing, a History of the Ancient Hawaiian Sport,” by Ben Finney and James D. Houston (1996, Pomgranate Artbooks, San Francisco).