Incredible things are happening in the “riding a board on water” segment of the action sports populace. Of course the concept of a hydrofoil board really took off after the infamous sunscreen photo:
Zuckerberg is riding a very expensive electric-powered one that has a tiny propeller on the foil, but it’s also possible to go windpowered like in the top photo. Stand-up paddleboarding (aka SUP) is very popular and hydrofoil boarding is the next level. I have heard it is unbelievably difficult to ride these for longer than a single second without having your board tip dive into the water & eating shit spectacularly.
It is interesting to see what tinkering people are getting up to now that lightweight and relatively cheap/energy-dense batteries + motors are readily available. Quadcopters and e-bikes are only the beginning. Peter Sripol is a pretty cool youtuber who builds lots of things in this genre, mostly model planes.
Took me 3 days to just stand on a wingfoil board, let alone getting fast enough to pop up onto the hydroplane. Still not surprised there’s dudes somehow jumping them 12m. I still feel so much more in control boofing rapids as opposed to any windsport, but I gotta say wingfoiling feels a lot safer than kitesurfing
I used to be a pretty competent windsurfer years ago. I’ve been wondering if these wing-foils would translate with my old reflexes. I’m still pretty good on a practice ‘balance board’ so I guess there’s some hope for me.
I’m sure they would, winging seems much more analogus to windsurfing than kiteboarding ever felt (disclaimer you’re hearing this take from a person who last windsurfed at a clinic for teens, and only got up on a kite board once in my early 20s).
With winging you’ve got the flexibility in changing wind conditions by bringing different sized wings & the portability of kite gear, but actions like jibing and tacking with a wing seem more familiar to what you do when windsurfing vs flying a kite. Manipulating the wing & it’s angle of attack into the wind feels like you’re working a windsurf sail, only it’s leading edge is parallel with the water instead of upright & you no longer have a boom flailing about which might concuss you.
Again, I’ve never gotten up on the hydrofoil & I hear you need exacting foot placement/balance in order to not drive it into the drink. I had a hard enough time transitioning from kneeling to standing whenever I caught a big enough gust to pop up on the wing board. However, the best part was having the option of simply letting go of the wing whenever I needed to depower. That’s what makes it feel safer to me than previous windsports