"Any surfer who is evolved is going to end up foiling..."
Is there any surfer worth more salt than Laird Hamilton? I dare you to find me one. King Triton has made a home in the sea, riding a variety of crafts along the way from ski boot tow boards, Oxbow longboards, windsurfboards, mid-lengths, stand-up paddleboards and foils.
Of the latter, the surf deity just made the brazen, even controversial, claim that it is the “highest evolution of surfing.”
In a to-camera bit interlaced with moving images of the demigod riding swell on a foil, Hamilton continues, “Any surfer who is evolved is going to end up foiling. If you don’t than you’re stagnating. Because there are only two things happening in life. You are either going down or you are going up. So choose one.”
Well?
What do you think about that?
I don’t know if I back the zero sum “either going up or going down” bit of this. I like to think of life as a long plateau where you reach stasis, sit back with a little serving of foie gras, a healthy pour of chilled Sancerre and gaze into the middle distance for a few decades, at the very least.
Yes, it’s a good life on the continent and I would like to challenge Hamilton to a lifestyle duel. It will be like John Henry versus the machine. In this version, Laird is the machine and I am John Henry. He is out there cold plunging, pool training and foiling. I’m sitting in the sun at a Parisien sidewalk bistro (2nd, 4th or 6th arr.) asking for one more healthy pour of chill Sancerre while actively helping others quitting surfing.
Who is more evolved now?
More as the story develops.
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Good one ( I love homonyms).
The foilers take some of the peacefulness out of the lineup.
They are like some new chess piece, pumping around the chessboard, as surfers sit in just the right spot on an ocean, and are delivered a peak experiance.
There’s a Indo dude on YouTube who built a speedboat from literally junk. He pulled the motor from the sea floor and rebuilt it. Anything can be done I guess
Hey…. Save me a spot at that Bar of your’s . I’m on my way now.
What about those electric foils tho that cunt seems to be on? That’s a travesty
If he can foil across the pacific on one swell from say hawaii to Aus i’ll maybe change my mind as highest evolution
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
one of the best films of the 90’s.
Tin foil hat surfing is the highest form of evolution in surfing. That tweaker driving the beaten up Mitsubishi starvan, riding that brown potato chip with mismatching FC1 and his wetty cut off at the shins muttering about Harold Holt and the Chinese… that’s god level evolution
After witnessing many decades of evolution, I’m beginning to think this “evolutionary” thing isn’t working out so well.
We are Devo.
Laird hasn’t shown the world his foil surfing has kept evolving where he can now foil switch stance.
Chas for dar win!
if i ever see foiling look even remotely fun i will maybe take this claim seriously.
Look I hate dimwit Laird as much as anyone and I’m sure he remembers when he got some well deserved cracks and slaps in the Kahului Gaspro parking lot but he is not totally wrong. Now the last thing anyone needs are a bunch of aquatic guillotines kooking it in the lineup and foil surfers are better off restricted to carving waves way outside of any breaking waves but there is a niche for no-sail foiling surfers that won’t clash with real surfers.
But the bigger picture here is the quantum leap that foils have allowed every sailing craft to achieve. The paradigm shift was huge in its scope from the smallest of recreational sailboats to the largest of racing boats. Just watch some SailGP comps and tell me the future hasn’t arrived. I know JP would concur but he’s probably afraid all you limp dicks will pile on if he extols too much on the sublime beauty and speed of foiling.
How many guys did it take to give him cracks/slaps?
Fargot, who created the first hydrofoiler?
Sail GP is insane, as are the America’s cup boats….I have wondered if it’s possible to do mini foils on S/bds like 6″ high????
evolution is da Revolution!!
Those thought occurred to me also, watching the Finals at San Fran [bravo Spain]…to the batcave, Brutus, if anyone can fashion such a contraption, it’s you.
Didn’t cheyne try it back in the 80s?
Sort of, he had the Ben Lexcen winged keel thingy fin set up a la The America’s cup winged keel.
You couldn’t pump around like a kangaroo.
Breakneck speed.
“either going up or down”… what am i 15? as if i have a choice
Not exactly.
Most heroin is injected, using a syringe.
It will boost his gay icon image big time I would expect. Foiling or fooling around, standing atop one of these crafts like a Greek wrestler on a plinth. I suppose people will do anything to move product.
So many slaps!
On a foil, your board isn’t even actually touching the ocean or the waves. Its just air underneath and around your actual board.
I like touching the Ocean when I paddle, and like feeling the Ocean underneath my board when riding a wave or carving a turn.
But might be the perfect solution for Laird and his friends though,
Air foils—for—air-heads.
Foil me once, shame on you
Foil me twice, shame on me
SUP sales must be lagging
Foiling , the peak of white privilege
It’s true, it’s Pretty difficult to imagine some kid in a third world country fashioning one out of some scrap plywood and a cooler lid
Everyone knows the highest evolution of surfing is stubbornly riding a board that’s designed for someone better than you, bogging rail a lot and mistiming sections.
But those times you belt it! Worth all the humiliation!
Xox