New Take On Foiling

[BoMan]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3h9647SCpE&t=4s

A foil board came to my local a year ago on a crowded weekend day. The rider was inexperienced and came too close to regular surfers with that sharp blade. I rushed to a negative judgement and stayed as far away from them in the lineup as I could!

In the last few months I noticed a difference and my views have changed. Many foilers have learned how to maneuver safely and get long rides while the rest of us bob in the lineup. Alone at a distant peak they catch a ripple, ride it all the way in, then pump back outside to the same lonely peak. This works beautifully at my beach break where everyone can spread out.

What do you think?

[oldmansurfer]

It's another skill to learn. Most of the surfers I knew back when I started who surfed are likely now riding foils at least some of the time. It's particularly good for when there are no reasonable waves to ride. Funny how they seem to think the waves that I chose to ride are not reasonable waves to ride LOL. I think once you hit a dead end surfing and can't improve any more then try something different. Challenge yourself and a much better chance chance to improve when you aren't improving or maybe to make use of the days when the waves don't excite you and get excited by this new skill/equipment . I haven't ever felt like I have truly mastered the boards I have now and when I surf I steadily improve and it's a challenge so I haven't felt a need to try foiling. Let me tell you in case you don't know , you have to be very fit to surf like in that video. All that pumping is a killer for your legs or so I have been told. Sup was a similar thing as well as kite surfing. I am still trying to learn to surf

[BoMan]

It's another skill to learn.

I notice many foilers use a SUP paddle to move around and ride with the rear foot over the foil. They often pump as far as they ride so the leg burn must be intense.

[oldmansurfer]

I first saw an SUP foil where I surfed regularly. There was a day when the waves were close to 20 foot faces (but not quite so 9 foot waves). There were 2 guys using them at this one peak I went to because there were a ton of guys out. They were going left and I was going right. One of the guys worked with me a while before so they were letting me take off but it was really steep and it took me a couple tries before I figured out the formula to making the drop. Fun day but the rights weren't that good very short waves , not sure if I could have made it going left But I was amazed that foil SUPs were out there

[oldmansurfer]

The first foiler I saw was a kite foiler. He went out regularly to the area I surfed. It really seemed though that he wasn't doing so good. He had a kite just like kiteboarders use and a foil board. Most of the foilers I see now are kite foilers that use a hand held triangular shaped kite. I think that is the option to keep from having to work on your leg strength and endurance

[Geezer]

I have never seen one in the water. Thankfully not common here yet.

[BaNZ]

The foilers on my break are super good. But sometimes they do hog all the waves. The worse ones are still old people on SUP who is unable to control their board.

[waikikikichan]

Two different scenarios:

fast forward to 3:00

[BaNZ]

Wouldn't the foil guy have the right of way? It looks like he was deeper and most likely was already on the wave. Either way, they are all idiots. Who brings a dog to such a crowded break and who surf a foil so closely to other surfers. This is why I don't want to go SC. I'm good with my local mellow break.

[waikikikichan]

Wouldn't the foil guy have the right of way?

In this scenario, it wasn't about who had "right of way". The foiler knew the guy with the dog, they're friends.

The problem is there's a lot of beginners / kooks in the line up.

Notice in Waikiki, the foilers stay away from the beginners.

[BoMan]

Two different scenarios:

Scenario 2 is what I saw a lot of last year. Freakin' scary! Scenario 1 is more common now. That said, it's more important than ever to understand what's going on in the water before paddling out. Sometimes it's better to wait for things to calm down or find another spot.

[waikikikichan]

There's A reason why Foiling is not so popular in Japan. I could post it, but need your guys permission first.

The very moment that most people said "Oooookay that looked fun but now I'm OUT".

[BoMan]

I've never seen a running beach takeoff like the one shown in Chan's post. Very cool!

[oldmansurfer]

I knew I had a picture of this

[oldmansurfer]

That photo was from before foils were popular and long before the kite foilers. He was using a kiteboard kite and you can see the cords going up in front of him. But he never seemed to go as fast at the kite boarders or the current hand held kite foilers go. Apparently it was difficult to do what he was doing but he kept at it for a while.

[PipeDreams]

At my local it is often the only break breaking for miles and miles and usually only in one super crowded take off spot, so not excatly catered to foils but they are a nice bunch who get up for the dawn patrols in smaller swells to have some fun in the water, all of them have got good enough that I would be confident in letting them zip right past me, but they are respectful and stay a safe distance from surfers. Safer than almost all the surfers there! Foils in themselves are more dangerous than a surfboard, but as long as that danger is made up for with water safety anyone should be able to ride anything (within reason) imo!

[oldmansurfer]

I've never seen a running beach takeoff like the one shown in Chan's post. Very cool!

Where I learned to surf the local surfers (not foilers) and as I learned me too would make a run and jump on our boards going out like that. We would time it with the backwash and try to ride the backwash out. Only the best surfers could jump to a standing position on the board (not me). The rest of us would popup after landing on our chests and maybe taking a few strokes to be sure we were on the backwash. I know some of the foilers here can do that takeoff but once again pumping out to the surf requires great stamina in your legs and perhaps even those who can do it don't because it would shorten their day. Maybe some might initially pump out and once they get tired paddle back out.

[oldmansurfer]

I actually did a couple of standing jumps into the backwash but on the second one I did a huge pressure ding in the deck of my board so I decided to not do that because it wasn't worth it. I had no problem accepting I wasn't as good as some of the others. In my old age I have on occasion done a running jump onto the board (laying down and paddling) just to get through the shorebreak quickly. My point I guess is that there's probably a lot of surfers here who do that kind of entry into the ocean on a regular surfboard so the transition to doing it on a foil board won't be too great.