Seen it. Did you watch any of "America's cup" races? Tech stuff but I kinda prefer contact and chuckin buckets.
Laird and Derrick Doerner were doing this foil stuff 20 years ago. Why is this news now? And on much bigger waves. It looked lame then, and still does.
Still remains intriguing how hydrofoils can harvest the energy of such small swells, and so early into them. Surfers may be missing the actual energy center on surfboards?? I would love to try one of these. Always have since I first saw Laird on one years ago. There is some untapped into science knowledge there, regarding energy of the waves.
Wanna try this. The balance looks tricky. He makes the SUP guy look like Stone Age. This looks like the "wave" of the future. Has anyone here tried this?
[video=youtube;ejbEAtkyefc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejbEAtkyefc[/video] hydrofoil SUP. Get ready for a line up full of these things. And I would totally get one. Open ocean surfing intrigues me. more into this than getting a kite that's for sure. Can you imagine fishing off it too? Be like the old man and the sea “Fish," he said, "I love you and respect you very much. But I will kill you dead before this day ends.” ― Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
http://www.surfermag.com/blogs/rand...e-mitchell-on-hydrofoils/#9dfXJTAtYvuWte9m.97 Upon seeing an image of an accident resulting from Japanese surfer Yu Tonbi Sumitomo’s experimentation on a hydrofoil, esteemed waterman and big-wave surfer Jamie Mitchell decided it was finally time to voice his opinion and released this statement via Facebook: "So lately I have been asked consistently about my thoughts on the so called “new” foil popularity and haven’t really said much. But, yesterday sadly I saw a photo that I knew was coming sooner than later. In my opinion, foils are for open-ocean swells, Outer Bombies, and places where there are no people or very few people doing it together. Foils are dangerous… Very dangerous, and do not belong in the surf zone with the masse’s and general public. Yes, Kai and and a few talented kids can probably control the boards amazingly well, but you can’t control other peoples actions and movements. I see more and more clips everyday of people trying the foils and I am so scared that someone will pay the ultimate price and die. Look at this photo… If a foil hits you or you hit someone with the foil its going to end badly. I sure hope the people and companies that are making money off these are doing their best to educate people about the dangers. I don’t think this will be the 1st or last incident unfortunately. Im very happy that the gentleman in this photo will be ok. Please think about your surroundings before you just jump in and start surfing those boards."
I'm pretty sure that's extremely hard to ride. Difference between him and laird is that he is paddling into waves. Not being towed in. My buddy was telling me about this, and apparently Kelly commented on it saying how extremely talented this guy must be to ride that thing. Or something to that effect. I wouldn't know. But if Kelly is impressed by it, I'm pretty sure none of us would be able to skillfully ride that thing. Of course, this is just an assumption.
Here's what I found... http://stabmag.com/full-frame/kelly-slater-first-dig-at-the-hydrofoil-fiji/ http://www.surfline.com/surf-news/k...in-fiji-inside-kai-lennys-hydroplane-_139677/ So apparently Kelly has trouble riding the thing. I think that says allot
A local here, Frog, rides a foil behind a jetski and does arial somersaults and backflips and can land them. He was the most radical surfer here for decades until he blew up his rotator cuffs motorcrossing jumping bikes over ramps. He told me its very technical, the whole vertical axis is hard to modulate and you have to think way ahead and proact, not react or you will nosedive fast, and it hurts because you are way up high.He said it is very delicate adjusting going up and down as you are naturally going forward and carving s turns so there is a lot to think about and you have to be constantly in the moment. It looks amazing on an open ocean swell, the lack of friction gives you such glide, and you become the wave. I don't think we'll have to worry aboot a bunch of SUP kooks taking this up. But it is very dangerous for unskilled morons to inflict this upon surfers in the impact zones. I wish I could ride one, but Kai started out when he was 9, riding foils, so he knows instinctively how to do it at this point. My face might get planted too often to appreciate the finer points.
I can see it in my minds eye: A lone figure, clad in bright orange jumpsuite, shiny white helmet, clutching a long paddle fashioned from reeds, straddling a very large, wooden object hand carved to scale in the exact likeness of a baby humpback whale, suspended above the water on a 6' stainless steel hydrofoil. Full on stinkbug squat/stance, pumping for glide and speed. With Cake "He's Going the Distance" as soundtrack. Kowabunga! 3:07 [h=3][/h]
Even though it's gay still want to try it...that can be taken wrong on so many levels. But honestly you know before you try to stop you want to tried a sup you wantedbto try it to see what it is.