Stand-up paddleboarding champion Kai Lenny has thrown a knarly wave into the paddleboarding world with his new video showing him skimming a few feet over the ocean with a hydrofoil underneath his paddleboard.
Lenny, a six-time SUP world champion, makes the contraption look incredibly easy as he grazes over the ocean, seemingly levitating over the waves.
Without using a sail, tow-in or waves, Lenny's paddleboard-hydrofoil hybrid appears to defy gravity and fans who watched the video were as confused as they were impressed.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kai-lenny-stand-up-paddle-hydro-foil_us_572a6e6be4b096e9f0903d17
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Bill Herderich
Not exactly "flat water" - looks like 25 mph breeze with 2-3 foot swell. Plenty of oomph from nature. (If you don't believe me, watch a beginning windsurfer go downwind in those conditions. You'd think they were at Luderitz.)
But, very, very cool. I've often wondered why no paddleboarder ever did a downwinder on Lanier on a big day. Not as fast but the surfing action would be cool.
Sadly, one more cool sport that is difficult to impossible to do here.
--- The Arrogant Jerk: Crabby and irritable since 1998.
I've often thought of trying downwinders on Lanier, starting from say Van Pugh and going to Tidwell on an easterly. (Starting smaller might be a better idea,) I guess the biggest problem is simply the logistics. You really need 2 or several SUPers since you need to transport gear to the launch and end points. Kind of like the "shoot the hooch" types do. So many people in SUP, I suppose organizing it would be possible.
The Hooch is a lot more user friendly for little downwinders, and I've done them many times with my small kites but not w/o kites.
One issue I suppose is that the SUP crowd does not come out when there is much wind. Anybody interested let me know.
What happens in a black hole stays in a black hole.
So easy
Message unclear. Do you mean this whole foiling thing would be easier if
a) you were pulling some ballast like around 0:45?
or
b) you were getting pulled by a kiter on a foil?
Judging by the video, foiling does look like child's play.
--- The Arrogant Jerk: Crabby and irritable since 1998.
CV, Aguera foiling on a Hypersonic
note around 2:32 where he's put the fin
https://youtu.be/3_2g73oHYTQ?t=2m32s
So, I looked at the website from Chris's tandem video gofoil.com
They are the guys (no women mentioned) behind Kai Lenny's foiling SUP. They claim that it will foil at about 4-8 mph of board speed. And, they've patented it. I wonder what magic juice they are using on their foil that nobody else is.
http://gofoil.com/#buy
http://gofoil.com/go-foil-patent/
--- The Arrogant Jerk: Crabby and irritable since 1998.
Foil moved forward but he's got the mast all the way forward too... front straps way forward too??
I see him controlling pitch with the sail trim & rake and never hooked in like me but, imho, way less stable. I need to experiment more with my set-up.... where's the wind??
AJ, you should never call a girl "ballast".
Looking at it again– foil has a top plate that has to be glassed/screwed into the board, so the mast had to be moved forward a similar distance to keep the centers of lift lined up??
Looks like the mast is about 8 inches forward from where it would be in the stock box. The mast doesn't seem quite that far forward. Maybe everything is forward to either a) stand far enough back? or b) get the float under the feet before foiling.