SUP Foiling - Bernd's perspective and insight

I was very lucky to have a great chat with Naish Shredder Bernd Roediger about his thoughts, experience and tips on SUP Foiling.

There is quite a bit of excellent information here and some good insight on what to expect, respect and the learning curve.

Before we get started, I do want to reinforce Bernd's final comment regarding where SUP foiling fits into the whole picture. This is a means to expanding what we can ride and exploring new ways to ride water and waves thought unridable previously.



JB - "Everyone's first Question, how hard is it? (I know this is a how long's a piece of string type of question, but maybe give some kind of relation to another sport or trick)"

Bernd - "SUP Foiling is not extremely difficult, so much as highly disorienting, and counter-intuitive to surfing! A comparison could be made between a bike and a skateboard. The skateboard, like any normal surfboard, has a pretty gentle learning curve, and you can take your baby steps as slowly as you'd like. Building up your confidence in small, slow waves, understanding the basic steps. The level of difficulty, from there, can go through the roof if you push yourself! Foiling, however, is kinda like learning to ride a bike, without training wheels, and your father is one of "those dads" that puts you on top of a steep hill because "it'll be easier to balance on two wheels if you're going fast"! Sorry, took a left hander down Memory Lane there. Anyways, Foiling, unlike the normal surfboard, has a very steep learning curve. Catching a wave, and getting up on the foil for the first time, is going to be such a strange and foreign feeling, the chances of anybody making the attempt, first go, is dubious. Kinda like being that 5 year old kid back on that unnecessarily-steep hill, attempting to ride your bike for the first time, with a very short amount of time to learn something you don't have much prior experience in! There are, however, ways of adding training wheels, the baby steps that can enhance your learning experience on a Foil.

Complicated processes are always easier to master in simplified steps. Instead of grabbing your brand new foil and heading out to the waves, for what's sure to be a harrowing experience, try taking out certain elements that multiply the difficulty level. For starters, take out the waves aspect completely, and the paddle. How? See if you've got a friend with a boat or jet ski, one that owes you an hour of their time; or simply enjoys watching you toil between the forces of hopeful-hydrodynamic-lift and cruel, unrelenting, gravity! Stick a rope behind that boat to tow, and your life is going to be infinitely easier! Foils need speed to lift, and you've eliminated the need for you to generate your own speed through paddling onto a wave! While each wave's speed and push is unique to one another, and will produce varying results, a steady pull from a boat will be predictable. Not to mention, you can easily dictate how fast you'd like to go, feeling out the foil that's under your feet before launching into the air. Spend about an hour going through the motions and you'll surely be up and foiling! This step can be repeated anytime you feel like brushing up on your skills, or simply for the pure joy of wake-foiling"!

JB - "Is being bigger and heavier much of a disadvantage"?

Bernd - "Yes and no. On the one hand, bigger people are naturally hated by gravity, which makes lifting out of the water on a foil, harder. However, once up, heavier riders usually experience more control, and less "Ahhh the foil got going too fast and lifted out of the water!" That's something that can definitely happen to anyone, if you ride with too much back foot pressure, the wing will skip out of the water and throw you off, but its less likely if you're bigger! In other words, practicing will matter more than mass".

JB - "It seems the Malolo is really the only low speed high lift foil really available on the market at the moment, at what speed are you finding you are getting up onto the foil"?

Bernd - "Like I mentioned earlier, before we got out into the surf, we learned Foiling behind a boat! And as we were learning, we realized the importance of having a foil that lifted at low speeds. So we started going out on the boat with a GPS and tracked how fast we'd need to be going before the foil began to lift under our feet! Through the development of our foil, we'd return to the boat and track our speeds, gaining insight on to how we could improve our foil's "low end". I'd say that for a varied group of people with different weights, you can start foiling anywhere from 6-10 knots. There is a stipulation to be made here, as you don't actually need 6-10 knots of pure "ground speed". The speed of your wing, added to the resistance of water pulling back, and up the face of a wave, makes foiling at 2-4 knots easy. Also, if you learn how to "pump" the foil up and down, as you might have seen in some foil videos, you can continue foiling at low speeds! The idea is that, even though you yourself are traveling forward very slowly, the foil is rapidly moving up and down through the water creating lift! So don't think that you have to become a super racer to start foiling, the ocean will help you get enough lift"!

JB - "Where to you see SUP/Surf Foiling going, will it become something big or is it just a fad"?

Bernd - "That all depends on the world's expectation for it! I mean, I love to foil now, but I know its not going to replace or diminish my love of surfing. Foiling is a wonderful experience, gliding, flying, yet somehow feeling more connected to the water than ever! It can make small waves feel triple the size, it can trivialize downwinders! And I think that people will love the change of pace from normal surfing. Granted that they openly except that Foiling isn't really high performance, rather that its about experiencing a cool new sensation, unlocking new breaks, and going on amazing downwinders"!

JB - "Do you prefer Downwind or Surf Foiling"?

Bernd - "Hard to say as both are ridiculously fun! Surfing has that level of adrenaline, especially when you start going faster than you want to on a steep face! But downwinding is magical, serene, almost incomprehensibly efficient, and kinda hypnotizing! I recommend that everyone give both an equal shot, especially because the two skills are transferable and will help you progress"!

JB - "Any personal comments on Foiling"?

Bernd - "Safety is key! The average foil is pretty hefty and, traveling at 10 knots (which is a modest speed for the average foil), can easily ruin someone's day. Please, respect the disconnect between surfing and foiling, don't ride though lineups, stay away from crowds. The dream of the foil board is to unlock new potential in waves no one had thought to surf before, we don't want to foil where its perfectly good to surf"!

Thanks Bernd for the great info. Keep your eyes peeled as Bernd is working on a more extensive SUP Foil Guide to really touch each area in more detail.
Picture Credit: Fish Bowl Diaries

Ride safe,

JB

Thanks John.. Good to hear that it's not only for the Kai Lenny's of this world..