The SUP hydrofoil is here! Are you...... thrilled?
Hydrofoil surfing is much the rage what with Kai Lenny lapping waves etc. And what a ambassador he is no? Very handsome, very skilled, very brave, very magnetic. He is like a mix of Kelly Slater and Laird Hamilton and I wonder, as he ages, if he will eclipse them as the most popular surfer alive.
Do you think?
In any case, remember a few months ago when the Japanese surf icon Yu Tonbi Sumitomo almost decapitated himself with a foil? Read here! Jamie Mitchell responded, at the time:
So lately I have been asked consistently about my thoughts on the so called “NEW” foil popularity and haven’t really said much but, yesterday, sadly, I saw a photo that I knew was coming sooner then later.
Foils are for open ocean swells, outer bombies and places where there are no people or very few people doing it together. Foils are dangerous. Very dangerous. And do not belong in the surf zone with the masses and general public.
And it makes very much sense.
Yet, I have been seeing more hydrofoil SUPing across social media these days and personally can’t think of anything more dangerous in the lineup. I would rather wander to my local break and see a shark’s fin prowling between waves than someone who is already inclined to SUP with an aluminum blade set to disembowel for good measure.
But does this thinking only expose the hardness of my heart? Is it like a man clutching a cassette tape while sneering at shiny CDs telling anyone who will listen that the new technology is creepy?
Am I that man?
The one who caresses his Case Logic soft CD carrier while sneering at the iPod telling anyone who will listen, “But where is the music? Where does it fit?”
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Bringing that contraption into a lineup should be against the law, but at the end riding it in the open Sea looks fun.
The spots I surf at are well regulated. If we see a dangerous kook on a sup, we tell him/her to go to beginner/tourist spot. You’re a ripper from Cali and you gibber about locals burning you bc you go straight to the point and don’t wait your turn, you get chased out . . . anyone on foil board in a crowded lineup? Not gonna happen where I’m from – we take safety seriously. These things shouldn’t be allowed in lineups, at all.
This is pretty fucking stupid. If your not touching/sliding/feeling the wave why even be in the ocean? Might as well go zip line or ride go carts even.
Able bodied men under 60 who foil SUP, or any kind of SUP, is announcing to the world that they have no shame. That they don’t care what they look like or what anyone thinks they look like. Which is usually cool but here it is so not.
Why have they blurred out the fin? Are they taking cues from Japanese porn?
There could be a new surfing Unwritten Law here: Just because Kai Lenny can do it doesn’t mean you should.
They blurred out the foil in the video because it’s obscene.
Do you think its because it looks too much like a penis? Penile foil design is pretty hydrodynamic I heard but they had to sensor it.
Gorgeous Menace- thats an option right?
Yes. You solved my problem! Or wait…is it a dangerous dance?
this was pretty great…
Van hallen can’t fit in there with bon jovie?
Sweet that they’re doing them leashless
I feel more bang for buck. Like, if the SUP foiler is very lucky or skilled he can chop two heads clean off with one wipeout.