I'm interested in trying out a hydrofoil SUP but I've heard mixed reviews about them. I was reading this article: http://supboardmag.com/riding-hydrofoil-sup/ and it said some people think they're gimmicks. I'd like to know people's thoughts: is it worth spending the money on a hydrofoil board, or is it something that's only fun for the first couple times? If anyone hydrofoils on a regular basis I'd like to hear from them.
Cheers
My mates an editor of a SUP mag and he gets all sorts of stuff to test, the latest being an AHD sup/surf/windsurf/foil thingumybob. He says it's the only thing with a foil on it he'll recommend.. mainly because it's such a versatile board covering all manner of water sports.
Dedicated foil boards, he says, are just that. You can only foil them.
It depends on the kind of spots you have, and your tastes.
I know a guy who is reselling some of his SUPs because he now plans to SUPfoil more than regular SUPing.
It is magic to be able to "3D surf" non-surfable waves. It is not worth the added risk in my opinion in good surfing waves.
I could foil alone on a big holiday where the surfable spots were ultra-crowded, or have fun in crappy onshore high tide conditions. But to be honest, I could have had fun too with a modern ultralight carbon long SUP.
But you must accept to become a beginner again, be attracted by new challenges, and to be very cautious and read a lot of advice because the danger is quite high if you do not plan for it.
I really like the idea of surfing "non-surfable" waves. But none of the videos show taking off on a non-surfable wave. The take off is always a perfectly decent peak that peters out and they keep riding.
At low tide my favourite break has decent swell lines coming in but they hit the sand flats and turn into tiny close out ankle snappers. I want to get out into deeper water and ride those swell lines before they break.
There are lots of places where the swell comes through in deeper water but the waves never quite break. You can get a bit of a surge on a SUP, or actually catch them on a 14'.
My post from another thread:
Ahh the stoke of the foil, well here is my foil story - Bought a kite foil 12 months ago, gave it a few goes and sold it. Why? What a PITA to get to the beach compared to a kiteboard. On a SUP it would be even worse. Plus the pumping thing just looks wrong, same as pumping a surfboard. If you had perfect conditions for foiling I can understand it (like downwinding which is similar story) as Kalama does on Maui. But seriously why bother if not?? especially when the sup I have works really well in the above, less than ideal foil, conditions. Not many long unbroken lines in Perth. More like a closeout with 50 of your closest crawler mates ready to be beheaded by the blades of your new craft. Just my 2 cents not disparaging if you love it, as do some of my mates.
There will be some cheap secondhand ones about next year.
Glad i'm not the only one that thinks the pumping thing looks weird . In California that's called the Huntington hop.
Select to expand quoteKDog said..
Glad i'm not the only one that thinks the pumping thing looks weird . In California that's called the Huntington hop.
Yep thugly as even with Kai doing it.
Select to expand quotehilly said..
My post from another thread:
... Bought a kite foil 12 months ago, gave it a few goes and sold it. Why? What a PITA to get to the beach compared to a kiteboard. ...
From a kite foiling point of view you gave up too soon. Everybody in our area that put in the effort to get competent at kite foiling doesn't want to ride anything else. Even sponsored freestylers and pro riders are all out foiling.
In purely practical terms we've doubled our time on the water and quadrupled the fun. Possibly more importantly the non-foiling sessions are much more fun.
Kite foiling in light winds and glassy conditions is magic. Kite foiling and carving turns in sloppy wind swell is a blast.
Hopefully SUP foiling will prove to be an expansion to the wave riding tools and not just a variation.
I haven't SUP foiled, but pumping on a kite foil is a hoot. It's like any sport where you put in energy and and get the energy amplified and returned. Think of pumping a skateboard, or riding a mountain bike on a pump track. It's similar to doing linked little turns on skis, or getting that perfect trotting technique riding a horse.
PS It's a touch ironic reading about foiling looking bad ... on a SUP forum.
Select to expand quotehilly said..
My post from another thread:
Ahh the stoke of the foil, well here is my foil story - Bought a kite foil 12 months ago, gave it a few goes and sold it. Why? What a PITA to get to the beach compared to a kiteboard. On a SUP it would be even worse. Plus the pumping thing just looks wrong, same as pumping a surfboard. If you had perfect conditions for foiling I can understand it (like downwinding which is similar story) as Kalama does on Maui. But seriously why bother if not?? especially when the sup I have works really well in the above, less than ideal foil, conditions. Not many long unbroken lines in Perth. More like a closeout with 50 of your closest crawler mates ready to be beheaded by the blades of your new craft. Just my 2 cents not disparaging if you love it, as do some of my mates.
There will be some cheap secondhand ones about next year.
Perth waves are absolutely not suitable for a SUP-Kook transitioning to Foil-Kook.
Select to expand quoteGorgo said..
I really like the idea of surfing "non-surfable" waves. But none of the videos show taking off on a non-surfable wave. The take off is always a perfectly decent peak that peters out and they keep riding.
It seems there are many solutions to this:
- Onshore winds help. A little chop on the top of a non-breaking wave is enough to get going.
- Also, if you look at Kai Lenny and some others, they can now pump to takeoff
- A longer board, 9' - 10' paddles faster, and can take off on flatter swells
- Straps help. I can tilt my body forward after 2-3 paddle strokes, pushing on the front foot and pulling on the strap with the rear foot to actually trigger the takeoff in a more reliable way for my abilities than pumping
Note also that pumping is nothing like the "Huntington hop". As Gorgo said, pumping something that stays in laminar flow is exhilarating, it is like how birds use their wings. The difference is like between the feet movement in swimming vs using a big monofin, or in skating, pumping while lifting the front truck or not. And you pump in "3D" with the foil, actually surfing the underwater wave
Select to expand quotedarrenm said..
What are they like to paddle? Must feel like towing a boat anchor
This is where the positioning of the foil relative to the board is critical. If the foil is horizontal when you paddle, there is very little drag.
If the foil points downwards, as when you just stick a plaque in the rear rocker, it will be a huge boat anchor.
On this subject, I have been looking at all the SUPfoil videos I could find, and in one from 2011, a French pionneer said "Of course it is hard to paddle with a foil, but that's a sport, effort is part of the exercise". It shows how too naturally gifted pionneer can be bad designers: they tend to adapt their technique to compensate for issues rather than making the design evolve to solve them and make it accessible to anybody
Select to expand quoteSUPerfreak said..
I'm interested in trying out a hydrofoil SUP but [...] is it something that's only fun for the first couple times?
Note that I don't think you can try an hydrofoil SUP for just a couple times. To feel the actual planing feeling you should plan for I'd say 5-6 sessions, and maybe some boat-towed sessions.
Otherwise you will just experience new ways of falling dangerously :-)
I wasn't convinced until I saw the video of the Gong SUP rider in France making it look really cool. No pumping just looked effortless. I have ordered a Neil Pryde windfoil so will be getting into that soon. I plan to learn to "fly the foil" wind foiling then might consider SUP foiling but not sure if the infrequent conditions for SUP foiling here will warrant the investment compared to wind foiling where the frequent light wind conditions are often and an hour on the windfoil would equal a solid month of SUP foiling in terms of learning.
I was riding a beach bar that was hardly breaking today and it would have been ideal for SUP foiling.
Select to expand quoteGorgo said..
I'm going to try this next week. 
Yeah
Lets all get involved in Boogie Foil
As for Kite Foil. All I can think about is if the Kite Foil cannot see you as they are flying out of control and they collide with someone surfing/swimming
Would be the same as getting smashed by a Great White Shark
I can probably do the boog foil. I'll wait till the market do a cheap copy of these foil 
