It was only a matter of time until someone strapped a hydrofoil to a stand up paddle board… Damien LeRoy, (an ex-professional kiteboarder for Cabrinha) found an old Imagine stand up paddle board and a hydrofoil, took it for a surf and the results aren’t bad actually!

Ever since that old movie “The Billabong Odyssey” came out in the early 2000’s, surfers have known about the hydrofoil idea. There’s a shot in the movie of Rush Randle (another ex-professional kiteboarder) surfing an unbroken wave on an old aluminum hydrofoil from an airchair. He’s pumping along an unbroken wave a few feet over the waters surface, talking about how dolphins use the energy under the water to surf for hundred of miles at a time. “The future of big wave surfing” were his words, is this the future he’s talking about?

But back to Mr LeRoy and his SUP. He paddles in, hops back like normal and then pumps on his back foot to lift the board. The entire board lifts from the wave face and we can see him totally suspended on the hydrofoil, with none of the stand up paddle board in the water at all, making it (presumably) much faster and less prone to chop than it normally would. However, fast forward a few seconds and we see that it’s no easy feat to keep a stand up paddle board on a hydrofoil going for long. With the big swing weight and narrow foil underneath, balancing without toppling over the side is easier said than done.

So is this future? With modern foils getting more stable, faster and easier to ride, you might see more and more stand up paddlers getting airborne this year. Maybe even in the flat water like some of the kayakers are!

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