Innholdsfortegnelse for Winter 2020 i Foiling Magazine

We all know that – with foil riding – we are engaging in a somewhat magical exploit. How many times have you been stopped on the way to the beach for a bemused dog walker to ask what that is you’re carrying? Or had surfers staring at you slack-jawed as you glide away on an impossibly fat shoulder? It’s pretty much a miracle. I’ll admit to being no expert in foil history over the decades, but the fact is these beautiful engineering feats that we so enjoy did not just appear out of nowhere. They came about through experimentation, application of theory, varied levels of engineering talent and, in no small part I’m sure, blind optimism and no doubt plenty of obscenely-fun-to-watch wipeouts. From the initial concepts, there were iterations,…

So Mala’e, we know you from your Instagram, but tell us a little more about yourself… My name is Mala’e McElheny. I just turned 12 years old and live on the North Shore of Oahu, and I first tried foiling in October of 2017 with John Amundson when I was nine years old. What’s your favorite discipline and set up? Right now I spend a lot of time wing foiling and also prone foiling. Luckily my 4’0 Amundson Customs Fire Bolt works great for both! For most conditions I will use the 29” Go Foil Mast (with a plate adapter) with the GL140 and a 12” flat tail wing. For wing foiling I use the Duotone Foilwing, usually the 4m here on Oahu and even sometimes the 5m. I recently…

We didn’t score the most perfect swells on our trip to Kamchatka, but with the little swell we had we could see the potential of the place. The only problem is how big the peninsula is and the complicated, sometimes impossible, accessibility to many spots. Luckily, we had a very comfortable boat that could take us anywhere we wanted. Still, we only visited a tiny little piece of this gigantic peninsula. There are probably hundreds of waves never surfed with so much untouched coastline. Just thinking about it excites me! I remember that early morning sunrise session, the location was so beautiful with two massive snowy volcanoes in the backdrop and the smoke coming out of their calderas. We were camping on a huge black sand beach relatively well known…

01 NORTH CHASE FOILBOARD The ultimate single board quiver for those with a varied range of watery penchants. Perfect for prone foilsurfing but will also happily work for kitefoiling and kitesurfing. Features a reinforced built-in foil connection with FCSII thruster fin boxes, and North’s own Carbon Innegra Futurelite system to maximize strength without losing flex. Pairs perfectly with North’s Sonar Surf edition foil setup. 02 FANATIC SKY WING The Sky Wing (reviewed in a lot more depth in our Inbound section this issue) is Fanatic’s wholly dedicated wing foiling board, perfectly bridging the gap between their Sky SUP and Sky Surf ranges. The board is available in three sizes, with the smaller two focused on freeride to waves, and the larger allowing for early take-offs and maximum efficiency in light…

You have been making boards since 1998. Can you briefly take us through then to now? I actually built my first board in 1981, it was a windsurf board built from a translation that I made from a French windsurf magazine. It was polystyrene and plywood. I built all the parts for the rig as well. I have been building boards ever since: windsurfing boards, surfboards, kiteboards, wake boards and foiling boards. I moved to Maui in 1984 and worked for Jimmy Lewis at Sailboards Maui, building wave boards for Mike Waltz and speed boards for Fred Haywood and Pascal Maka. I later worked for Peter Thommen and F2 building world cup raceboards for Björn Dunkerbeck and most of the top world cup riders. I also competed in windsurfing in…

From his Maui base, KT Boards founder Keith Teboul has been creating very well-regarded watercraft for a number of years. We got in touch with Keith to discuss the new Drifter Pro foilboard. When we fired these questions off, we heard back: “I’m in Micronesia surfing and foiling at the moment!” We tried not to begrudge him too much for this… Which was tough. First up, for those who might have heard of KT boards but don’t know much more than that, can you give us a little bit of background to the KT brand? KT has been around for at least 10 years now, mostly doing surfboards locally here in Maui. I’ve always had a passion for surfing so it was a natural evolution to shape surfboards as well.…

I can only speak about my own experiences within the sport that we have all fallen in love with – and I know that there are many disciplines within the sport – but as a whole I feel like us as riders have had a hard time fitting in, especially in the beginning. There is nothing wrong with not fitting in, personally I’ve always preferred doing my own thing and creating my own path, especially when it comes to foiling and being out there in the water. I was introduced to the sport a few years ago when Slingshot introduced their foil to the market, just after Surf Expo. I remember we spent an afternoon trying to figure it out behind the boat. I was curious as to how we…

High aspect ratio wings have become popular in the foil surfing world. These long narrow wings have extremely good pumping performance and great glide. The surf foiling world is getting more diverse, and now includes SUP foiling, prone foiling, hand-held wing foiling, wake foiling, downwind SUP foiling, and kite foiling. Which of these disciplines are high AR wings suitable for? What are the advantages and disadvantages, and are they right for you? The Good There is good and there is a lot of it. The Aspect Ratio or AR of a wing is the ratio of its span divided by its chord. Increasing a wing’s AR is a sure-fire way of increasing its efficiency, which is important when limited power is available. Airplane gliders are a prime example, and they…

Hi Bruno. We know you have a history full of water sports, including a very successful stint as French, European and World Champion in kitesurfing. Tell us all a little about your background, and how you came to hydrofoiling? Yes, I am one of the pioneers of kitesurfing in France. I’ve participated in different French and worldwide competitions since 1999, and during my kitesurfing career I became World Champion three times and European Champion several times. Outside of the competitions, I was also a competition kite and board gear tester for the biggest watersport brands. This helped me to develop my knowledge and skills, but I’ve never limited myself to just kitesurfing, and from a very young age I’ve also enjoyed windsurfing, surfing, SUP, and then hydrofoiling since 2004, when…

NAME: KJELL VAN SICE SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA @KJELLISSEY Born in Belgium and raised between Hawaii and the African island of Mauritius, Kjell van Sice’s life and career have been transglobal and shaped by the ocean which he clearly loves. An internationally published ocean photographer, university professor in design, and competitive water athlete (and now a Contributing Editor for us), Kjell added surf foiling to his pretty loaded repertoire in 2018. Although Kjell foils daily in the kelp-filled, rocky waters of the central California coast, he lives for towing into fast, open-faced lines of energy south of the Equator. Where the waves end, Kjell finds foiling potential too, and he loves exploring California’s alpine lakes and rivers on leg power alone. NAME: SKY RAMA MAUI, HAWAI @SKY.RAMA Maui born and bred,…

Hey Keahi. So first up, let’s get a little background. How did you get into surf foiling and when? I guess I was pretty lucky that I had a little bit of background from kite foiling in the beginning. I remember towing into some waves on a kite foil once about five years ago then never trying it again for some reason. It wasn’t until I saw the Kai downwind foil clip that I decided to really get back into it. I’ve been addicted ever since! And what’s your preferred set up? It depends a little bit on the type of waves but I’ve been really enjoying the Neilpryde medium slim wing lately as an all-rounder. It’s a little more technical than the glide surf wings but it’s still lifty…

I was in Japan a while back for the ISA Games, competing with Team Canada because I was born there. We were there doing the contest and then I flew down to Miyazaki to meet up with Tomoko Okazaki who was putting on The Butterfly Effect event in Miyazaki again. I’d premiered my film The Wave I Ride at the very first Butterfly Effect, so she invited me to come along to join again, and it just so happened to be right after the contest. So it was perfect timing. I flew down there, we did the event, and then I flew down to Okinawa to meet up with Hayato Maki who is a Patagonia Ambassador. I was in touch with him and Patagonia dialed it in to connect, so…

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Pumping, whether in flat water off a jetty or after a wave ride, is specific to prone foiling without a paddle. It is easiest to practice pumping as you kick out of a wave whilst you have got some momentum going. If you don’t have waves in your area, you can apply the same basic movement, but will require a much quicker start to your pump. Either way, these are the basic principles of learning how to pump foil… THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING HOW TO PUMP FOIL Once you have kicked out the back of the wave, you need to carry the momentum you have picked up, keeping the foil high to the surface of the water, without it ventilating as you speed away from the wave and around…

This spring sees Fanatic release a dedicated board range for wing foiling, neatly filling the gap between their Sky Surf and Sky SUP line up. Loaded with plenty of volume for easy starts and optimum maneuverability, they’re also very pleasing on the eye. We caught up with shaper Sky Solbach for the full lowdown… Hey Sky, first up, we hear you’ve recently become a dad, congratulations! How’s that treating you and are you getting any sleep? Thanks a lot. Being a dad has been really amazing. Luckily our boy is a good sleeper and has been taking it pretty easy on us so far, so we really hope it stays that way! So the Sky Wing… Exactly what design attributes make the Sky Wing wingsurf-specific? After riding Ken Winner’s early…

+ Foiling is going to continue to open up new places to ride. What I’m most excited about is the type of waves that will be discovered in the process. I can imagine fickle outer reef breaks in random places will have consistent eyes on them, and one day when a proper swell arrives they might just be firing. + It’s also very possible in some areas that foiling will be limited at certain spots. Hopefully with advancements in the equipment it will be easier to use and safer, leading to more interest outside the current crew of foilers worldwide. If it becomes a common toy for lakes, I think that’s where we will see the largest growth. It’s in its infancy so I’m curious as to how it will…