I've been watching these videos all weekend, frothing at the capability of these things:
This has been discussed at length in various threads on this forum, so please do a bit of reading first :-) Do a search for "foil" in the titles of the threads. Various useful advice pop up in most threads.
For instance, I never foiled before, and learned to SUP foil without boat sessions, as I described in
www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Stand-Up-Paddle/SUP/SUP-foiling--my-first-steps-
But previous experience on a foil, be it with a kite, windsurf, boat... will help a lot.
My advice on top of what you can find in the threads:
- The learning curve is extremely steep at first, but it is quite doable if you read a lot of advice, or have an expert guide you, be cautious, and go out in the proper conditions (alone, small crumbling waves but with enough speed - high period - and depth). And it can be done even if you are not an athletic youngster.
- Foiling with real surf/SUP foils is not dangerous (unlike kite foils), but the forces at work are huge, gear can break if you mess up (tumble in whitewater)
- Experience is everything. If you want to foil, get out and clock time on the water. Do not spend weeks fretting about the gear. It will be obsolete next year anyways.
- Using the same board for SUPing can be done, but it means your board will be 3lbs heavier than a pure SUP. And foil boards are evolving to be really different from SUP boards, so I guess these hybrid boards will be limited to be beginner boards.
- foiling will be a revelation if your spots are crowded, as it will open up a lot of unridden spots. It may be not as attractive after the initial challenge if you have access to uncrowded nice surfing/SUPing spots however.
