why can't SUP foils wings have "safety Tips"?

The tips of SUP/surf foils are already actually quite thick and rounded, much, much safer than the kitefoils.
And much safer than your average surfboard fin :-)

The Gong SUP Foil for instance has sacrified some hydrodynamics for safety, with thick trailing edges and rounded tips. It hums a lot at speed, it is less efficient but much safer than kite foils. A Gong rider got hit in the face last week with the SUP foil, it hurted as hell, but no cut. And from what I see in the pictures, the other SUP foils are also thick and rounded.

I guess we are still in the early ages, and my bet is that we will see rubber tips & edges on foils like proteck did for fins. Or the ABS edges we see now built-in in many paddle blades, even 100% high-end carbon ones.

here is a comparison between the tip of the foil wing with a FCS fin with blunted edges (I always sand mine).



So yes, SUP/suf foiling IS dangerous. But nothing compared with the folks that just tried with a kitefoil and a 1 meter mast last year and no proper guidance. And safety features will come, they always do after the early adopter stage.

Colas, seems smart to at the very least, sand down the pointy bits.... but then I know nothing about how foils work.
I only know that deep gashes suck

DJ.... I like the "box wing" direction.... that looks awesome.
Hard to see in the video... but one on those rigs had two "box wings" ..... zero pointy bits.

Would that type of wing work for SUP?

New invention created, its called sand paper.

If I'm ever going to get hit by a foil I want it to be a Naish foil..

It looks very blunt and rounded.

Just my two cents from a couple of years of kite foiling, the dangers of foiling are hugely exaggerated. The most common source of such fears are newbies imagining all the things that can go wrong, just like you guys are doing now.

Take this with a grain of salt. You can get clobbered and you can get hurt. The vast majority of times you just fall in and get wet.

It seems the source of greatest danger is riders over controlling the board, either deliberately or accidentally. As a beginner you're constantly struggling to make it all happen and putting excessive inputs into the board. Those inputs are transferred to the foil which reacts and amplifies the input, and can send it all right back at you. It is possible for a board to foil off and circle around and attack you from behind.

The solution is to relax and go with the flow. In a SUP context I would suggest going out in smaller swell and keeping well clear of breaking waves to start with. Don't even try to foil, that will come soon enough. Keep your weight well forward and just get comfortable dealing with this big, ungainly, uncooperative thing. Spend a couple of hours just paddling around and getting in and out of the water through whatever shore break there is. Learn how to hold the board on its side and upside down and stuff (there are pictures of a kite foiler riding his board upside down). Even carrying the board to and from the break is an acquired skill. You don't want to damage your foil (or other beach goers).

There seems to be two keys to success. One is muscle memory. You start off trying to ride the board and doing board things, and screwing it up completely. After 4-6 hours it clicks and you can feel the foil through your feet. It all comes quickly after that. I would think that boat towing could be an efficient way to get through that period.

The other is adjusting your centre of gravity. As a newbie you excessively focus on foot position and pushing down hard on your feet to try and get the board up on the foil, then to try and stopping it flipping you off. It is much more effective to move your head and shoulders. Where they go your body mass follows and so does the board.

Impact vests and a helmet are not a bad idea. The other thing that makes a difference is a lightweight foil. I have landed on, or been hit by my high performance carbon foil a few times. It is so light weight it just gets pushed away.

Using straps can definitely keep the board under control, but getting into the straps at the critical moment can be very difficult. I have had some epic crashes from doing that. Some people think that big, loose straps are the go so you can jump out of them. I find that they tend to twist and trap your feet. I have recently put some stiffer straps on my board and it is much easier to get in and out of them while riding.

Foil maintenance is part of the fun. My carbon foil is painted white. The white paint protects from UV and gives a sacrificial finish that is easily maintained. A couple of times a year I repaint it, making sure to get a good bead of paint around the tips. The paint is then sanded back to a clean finish with no excessively sharp points. It's quite common to see the race crew cleaning and sanding their foils before each session (for different reasons).

any one tried these?