Re: Shortboard Hydrofoils
Posted: Thu May 25, 2017 9:44 pm
Can you ride it in the flags?
Cpt.Caveman wrote:Hi guys, I'm the test pilot for SurfFoils chiming in to talk a little about how it rides.
I've been riding the square yellow aluminium foil on a bodyboard to get started, mainly to get my head around the dynamics of foil surfing versus regular surfing.
Its been a pretty amazing experience so far and I'm very thankful to SurfFoils for having me on board.
I won't comment too much this early on, but its a very different type of surfing to what we are all used to. Its very different to "surface planing" which we are all more than familiar with in surfing, such as getting the speed from the drop in your fall line, and then pressuring a rail into a bottom turn creating lift and speed around the water surface area to project along the wave. Connecting turns "cutting" into the waters surface.
Its more like surfmat riding, or maybe even bodysurfing, where you are actually surfing the power WITHIN the wave, underneath the surface of the water (at low to moderate riding speeds that is).
Once you get a nice angle with the foil at takeoff and pressure the foil into that energy under the water, you immediately lift up and takeoff with a buttery smooth speed and feel. The power seems to be closer to the upper area of the wave in a medium to soft wave, and once you have it on tap you just glide along with an amazingly smooth speed that stays very constant provided you keep the angle okay. You can turn left and right, and perform swooping cutbacks, trim along the wave, etc. Seeing as it rides the power IN the wave, I've even ridden a wave than ended up in the channel still surfing behind the unbroken lip on just the swell (not broken wave) for a long way. Its very intuitive surfing where you're trying to feel out the power under the water to get up and running, and once you have it, where a surfboard or even mal would start to fail you just keep humming along at a constant speed until the wave is well and truly dead.
The hard part is trying to find the angles early on to get that energy on tap, and when you don't get it right funny things can happen. It can just immediately "power down" and stop/flop/throw you right off the front like a skateboard hitting a kerb. It can also be effected by sideways power, losing stability and throwing you off sideways. Its pretty funny when things go wrong, its like theres an eject button.
Nevertheless, basic dynamics and feel are in place now and step two is to surf the standup version and learn how pumping, pressuring, shoulder torque, etc. effect the ride. The very least we'll have is a video of it being surfed, being surfed well first surf is another matter. It may be all good from the get-go, but it may require a little practice before any decent waves are linked!