Kai Lenny Downwind SUP Foil

[Dwight (DW)]

C) Bummer no leash.

Why would he need a leash? That board isn't going to float away. It's a perfect sea anchor.

I love the idea of soaring above the water.

.

It's not like that at all. These foils fly with or without you. They drift crazy fast down on the water too.

[Dwight (DW)]

Is this something that normal humans could get flying in someplace like the Gorge? 

Yes, very easy. Buy the windsurf foil, not the kite foils.

[Badger]

C) Bummer no leash.

So true. Foils are hard to catch swimming. They drift crazy fast.

I never would have thought that. It seems like it would have a lot more drag and hold than just a small fin would.

[lucabrasi]

Soaring. That seems to fit. That looks soooo fun.

[Admin]

I emailed Alex to see if we could get some full images of his foil.  He wrote:

The foil is on back order already for two months and growing and as you can imagine, we are holding the pics of the new downwind/wave foil under wraps for a little while longer to try to keep the competition at bay.
Aloha!
AA

[cnski]

You get a partial glimpse of the foil in the first part of the video. You can see the front wing poking out under the board. It's looks pretty big and that would make sense since a larger surface area would be needed to create lift at slower speeds. The rear wing looks like the normal AA Go Foil rear wing. I use a larger(more surface area) front wing for light wind kitefoiling and a higher aspect front wing for windier conditions. Larger front wings being slower once foiling. Foils create an insane amount of drag when they are in the water and not foiling. Having the wind and swell die in the middle of a downwind run would not be fun. I'm curious how much effort is involved to get that SUP up to foiling speeds? Probably not much with a large front wing and a good bump. No doubt you need strong wind and large bumps with large bumps being the major limiting factor. Pretty cool video. I can see it now. A M2M racer starts out on their journey across the channel in light wind so they opt out of using a foil. Once in the middle of the channel it gets real windy so they go their support boat and put their foil on.

[tautologies]

I emailed Alex to see if we could get some full images of his foil.  He wrote:

The foil is on back order already for two months and growing and as you can imagine, we are holding the pics of the new downwind/wave foil under wraps for a little while longer to try to keep the competition at bay.
Aloha!
AA

The ones I have seen for this so far are just bigger versions of the kite foils. Now as much as I want fin designers to be super scientific about their escapades I think once again this is a result of trial and failure, and I am willing to bet that scaling kite foils is pretty much where it is at. I want a big low AR wing for my wave riding.

[Easy Rider]

C) Bummer no leash.

Why would he need a leash? That board isn't going to float away. It's a perfect sea anchor.

Nope - Not like a sea anchor at all. 

[Admin]

For those who may be interested, Alex added:


We will be taking deposits and can be reached at gofoil.com, new updated website coming this week to handle the overwhelming response to Kai Lenny's postings. New Kai wave footage is also amazing on the same carbon Go Foil that will retail at $1500. He is riding on swells barely breaking, sometimes not breaking at all and flying on the shoulder and redirecting cutbacks etc. This opens up allot of really bad waves that you normally would not try to ride or really can't ride at all!
Stay Tuned!
AA

[eastbound]

wow--looks amazing--i await judgement from our downwinder crew

[digger71]

Apparently not that hard for Kai to get it onto the foil

s

[CascadeSup]

For those who don't "get it;" this is my take... The biggest smile on my face when I'm downwinding are those moments when I'm hitting 8-12mph on a SUP or over 15mph in the outrigger... Speed equals fun.  Kai says he's hitting 20mph.  Enough said.

Yep, but on the other hand, that means my run is going to over in about 20 minutes.      and that means the logistics of shuttling is going to be higher percentage.      But I'd be willing to give it a go anyway   

[surfcowboy]

First I love how fast we, the hated, have become haters. Lol. This looks amazing.

Second, let's leave the "it can't work" to people who've ridden foils. From what I hear they go easy, (you see that here now) and are surprising. I welcome things that work differently than they look like they should. They remind us to keep an open mind. Everyone help this thread and refer back to it in a year or two. It might be a complete misstep or it might be like all of us talking about 8' boards a few years ago. (How could anyone paddle something so short!!! That's crazy, it can't work!!!)

I'm ready to try one. Might actually get me to paddle something more than in and out of the surf for once.

[Weasels wake]

I emailed Alex to see if we could get some full images of his foil.  He wrote:

The foil is on back order already for two months and growing and as you can imagine, we are holding the pics of the new downwind/wave foil under wraps for a little while longer to try to keep the competition at bay.
Aloha!
AA

I'm pretty sure it looks very similar to the foils that I've been seeing on WS boards and kite boards, which are all very similar with various tweaks here and there.

[spookini]

SUPFoil:  It's all good-- until you PEARL...