Hydrofoil surfboard

[izzmunkee]

Has anyone seen this before?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wXGAd1gNfo&search=hydrofoil

Looks pretty weird to me. It doesnt look like you would be able to feel the waves so i guess would be a bit odd. Wouldn't mind trying it though, although probably meant for larger waves.

[bluesnowcone]

that just ..........
i duno what its just

[libby]

I've seen it in a few of the big surf flicks, It looks like fun, apparently theoretically you should be able to catch open ocean swells and ride them for miles. I think the original design was to make riding very big (20+ft) choppy waves smoother, as your not bumping around on the surface chop.....

[Broosta]

apparently theoretically you should be able to catch open ocean swells and ride them for miles

...well Laird can anyway .
Looks a bit 'tippy' to me tho, not very stable nose to tail wise .

[libby]

Me...Laird...whats the difference?

[Driftingalong]

apparently theoretically you should be able to catch open ocean swells and ride them for miles

...well Laird can anyway .
Looks a bit 'tippy' to me tho, not very stable nose to tail wise .

I've heard that it does take a lot more balance to ride one.

[dougirwin13]

Shamelessly ripped from Step Into Liquid :D

Yep, heard they are very unstable.

-doug

[ken]

I reckon it must be realy easy to bust ur ankles cus ur in snowboard bindings or somethin similar

[GowerCharger]

they took the idea from a chair designed for paraplegics to use for waterskiing, there is footage in some video of laird riding waves sitting in the original chair (might also be in step into liquid?), now that looks really odd.

[Roy Stewart]

We built several PADDLE IN hydrofoil boards back in 1997, we sent drawings of them to sam George at surfermag but got no reply. I can show you how we did it if you like.

[Dec]

So Roy, how did you do it?

What do you mean Paddle in Hydrofoils? As in you paddle on the hyrdofoil board pop-up then lift a foot or so..or do you mean you actually paddled with the board above water level?

[Roy Stewart]

The boards paddled normally, then caught the wave and lifted up to 2 or 3 inches . . . the amount of lift depending upon the speed, the board appeared to surf normally but only touched the water lightly. . . the lifting foils were close to the bottom.

[muppet]

We built several PADDLE IN hydrofoil boards back in 1997, we sent drawings of them to sam George at surfermag but got no reply. I can show you how we did it if you like.

Hi Roy, came across this old thread. I've being toying with the idea of making a padle in hydrofoil, I would love to see how you did it and any advice you have regarding the design.

Thanks,

Nick

[b123]

Not sure why, but getting:

"This video has been removed due to terms of use violation."

[Roy Stewart]

I'l put some info up on it this arvo

.

[billie_morini]

Roy, you continue to astound. Especially apprecaite your committment to surfing.

[Roy Stewart]

Thanks.

The deal with the hydrofoil board is that it isn't designed to lift out of the water completely, as it would then be impossible to control without foot straps. The idea is to have the foils providiong some of the lift, while the hull still does some of the work, this enables the rails to be used in the normal way for stability.

So, the result doesn't look like a hydrofoil board when it is surfing, but it feels like one as there is a lot of lift from the foils. The foil board is extremely smooth and it feels like the board is flying as the majority of the work is done by the foils ( well actually that depends to some extent on the speed )

Now because the lift produced by the foils increases with speed, and the foils are fully immersed, it has to be done so that the board won't fly right out of the water automatically when it goes faster. We want to be able to make the board lift up a bit in a controlled way.

The way we do this is to that we use two foils and the front one is set up parallel to the surfboard bottom. This one acts as a 'slave' foil and doesn't lift against the bottom. The rear foil is set up at the same angle as the front one which means that it will lift against the surfboard tail due to the rocker ( hope that makes sense ) What this does is make the surfboard respond pretty much like a normal board as far as turning goes.

The front foil is 25% up the board and the rear one is in the normal fin position. Putting the front foil further forward is possible but it's nice to have them as specified because it allows easier turning, the nose leads the board into the turn and there's more leverage on the fins when they are not too far apart.

I can do some drawings does it make sense so far ?

We used a longboard as it helps to have a higher paddle speed. The setup is amazing for gently rolling waves as it seems to stay on the wave as if by magic when other boards get dropped, it is able to go down the line but doesn't like pulling in to steep sections at all, so it's a specialised setup for swell riding. . . it can ride breaking waves, but likes gliding on slopes rather than clinging to a wall.

The foils are easy to make though, and if the front one is removed the board rides well with just the back one and can jam turns and off the tops etc.

.

[Roy Stewart]

Umm, not sure what you mean, but they are made of wood and resin, with some cloth.

[tautologies]

Hey, the paddle in surfboard sounds pretty nice. I've seen some other versions of a smaller type of foil.

I have one of the larger ones, and it works in surprisingly small waves..of course you can't paddle into the wave. It is an incredible feeling, just hovering over the water....it is very sensitive to weight distribution, but once you get into it, it is a lot of fun.