Hydrofoil Surf Board.

[flienlow]

Hydrofoil Surf Board. - Anyone ride one of these?

Yesterday was a busy day on our small lake which means that it was D-Bag Central. It was all jet Skis and Jack-asses doing figure 8's with tubes. I decided to call it a day early and put the cover on the boat. My neighbor and I were talking about the craziness and we both noticed an idiot trying to wake surf behind a stand up jet ski. (you read that right.) This is normally a shake the head moment, but then I realized 2 things...
1. The stand up jet ski was worthless as a Milk bucket under a bull trying to pull a surfboard.
2. that was no ordinarily surfboard. It was a foil board in the flesh I have been reading about.

"C'mon Nate.. We're on Mission!" We both jumped in the boat and motored over to the failing foil board dude. I told him his super jet looked to be struggling and asked him if he wanted a pull and to tell me more about his board. His was actually a kite board one which I guess are a little different.
Anyway, I pulled him up and he rode for a bit and fell, and we repeated that a couple of times. He then asked if I wanted a quick go as he was hosting a beach party and needed to get back to them. ( it was understood I would just go for a minute or 2.) - I jumped at the chance.

I found it was really easy to get up on very similar to a surf board. However, The foil is a like an airplane wing and will climb and stall. Found it extremely tricky to ride out of the water. As it would rise out and then crash back down on the nose of the board. In fairness, we didn't have time to play with boat speeds or technique, just a quick give-it-a-go.
It was really cool to try, but I would like to hear from others to see if this is just a novelty or a must have.

[spatty99]

It is somewhat of a novelty, but definitely still a lot of fun. You can't endlessly progress like wakeboarding, but it is super cool and fun progressing on the learning curve.

I have a couple year old kiteboarding specific Liquid Force foil, which is a little too sketchy for me behind the boat (needs higher speed, and mast is really tall so wipeouts are dangerous). I recently got the new 84cm Slingshot foil and really like it. It provides enough lift (I'm 205#) beginning at about 8 mph and can tolerate speeds up to about 15 mph before becoming a rocket. With enough skill you can surf the wake (even a couple wake back) ropeless, so really unique experience.

[The General]

I have not tried one yet. However I have watched every video I can find online and I will definitely have a foil for next season. It really wasn't that long ago that wake surfing was a novelty. Cruising down the lake, two waves behind the boat or pumping from one boats wake to another (18-24" above the water) seems like a hell of a lot of fun to me.

[jph3]

We have almost given up the surfboard and only foil. It is a blast, and with the right wings you can surf the second and third wave back. Run full rear ballast and foil both sides, 2 riders. If we had more boards we would be foiling 3 or 4 riders. It’s worth getting one, or trying a buddies!

Pic taken with no ballast... you could probably foil a bass boat wake
FE2EE523-2DA7-4538-B16A-6BE22B83463E.jpg

[trayson]

I Still have mine. I was told that the 24" mast is the better one for foiling on the surf wave. I like the 30" mast for foiling at wakeboard length. I can get up first pull every time, I can ride it forever just cruising at wakeboard length. I haven't done more than 2 of 3x at surf length-- We just run out of time to get all the riders playing as much as they'd like on the various options... Between wakeboard and surf, we rarely have time for anything else in the evenings. I did slalom and foil a decent amount on weekend days, but I'm running out of those this year. The days are so short now that I didn't even bother bringing the foil with us last night after work.

It's certainly fun to have, but I haven't put in the time to get really good. I'm just okay so far and it's another board in the quiver.

[Slinger]

Love wake foiling... and kite foiling and surf foiling.
https://www.facebook.com/gavin.broad...&theater&ifg=1