Surf foil
Surf foil expertise: quality equipment, advice, French carbon production.
Surfing foils may sound crazy, but they're a reality. It provides sensations that are just crazy!
Surf foil expertise: quality equipment, advice, French carbon production.
Surfing foils may sound crazy, but they're a reality. It provides sensations that are just crazy!
Foil surfing was born in the 2000s, with big names such as Laird Hamilton, Dave Kalama and Paolo Rista. Initially, the use of foils was simply to fly while being towed. In 2016, Kai Lenny took the market by storm, propelling the discipline to new horizons and performances. Hawaiian, Australian, Californian and Brazilian surfers quickly seized on this new way of surfing. Today, the product is more accessible with the appearance of mass-market models. Surf foils have now spread to Europe, and especially to France.
The advantage of foil surfing is that you can really take off in a very small swell. All you need is a push and you’re up in the air. There are sessions where you wouldn’t normally get in the water because the swell or wind isn’t there. With foil surfing, you’ll be able to go there. So you can save a lot of sessions. We’ve all experienced it as surfers, that choppy stretch of water that ruins a session… With foil surfing, you can still ride and have fun.
This may sound a little philosophical, but it’s really true. Part of your foil is underwater, and you’re going to feel the ripple underwater thanks to it. Something you don’t feel directly when you’re surfing. It’s really a feeling, a sensation that’s almost indescribable, but incredible, and allows you to feel the energy going on under the ripple.
Today, when we go for a surf session, it’s often a two-hour session for 2-3 minutes of riding. The advantage of foil surfing is that you can catch your first wave, raise the bar with the dynamic effect of pumping, catch a second ride and continue in a circle. The only limiting factor will be your cardio. The only limiting factor will be your cardio.
Finally, one of the last advantages of surf foiling is that it’s complementary. Just like skateboarding and surfing, surf foil will complement many other board sports, such as kite foil and wing foil. Why is that? If we take the wing foil comparison, we’re talking about free flying. Surfing foil will teach you to position yourself well on the board, play with the position of your feet and therefore also play with the pumping effect.
To operate a hydrofoil, you first need to pick up speed on the water using a propulsive force (wing in wingfoil, paddle in sup foil, undulation in downwind and surf foil). Once you’ve reached a certain speed, you can tilt your board by pressing on your back foot to create an angle of incidence on the front wing, which will start to create lift. This phenomenon will lift you above the water. This is how a foil works.
Once you’re up in the air, your balance will depend on whether you’re moving forwards or backwards. If you go up too much, all you have to do is put weight forward to bring your foil back down. If you don’t have enough height, we’ll do the opposite, putting weight on the back leg.
It takes a little practice at first to maintain stable flight, but once you’ve got the hang of it, it’s an incredible feeling.
For the take-off in foil surfing, we tend to use surfing reflexes, i.e. putting the board back askew. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work in foil surfing. Our advice is to concentrate on the take-off with the wave facing the beach and perpendicular to the ripple. In fact, you can start by simply taking the foams. The foil will then try to take off like an airplane wing. When you do your take-off, you’ll need to stand up with your front foot, and perhaps even exaggerate by putting it further forward than usual. You’re right in the middle of the propulsive force. This will create maximum lift.
It’s normal not to have the stance of a regular surfer. For beginners, having the front foot much further apart than normal is common and will enable you to control your foil well.
The foil consists of three parts: the front wing, the stabilizer and the TBAR (fuselage and mast).
To get started in foil surfing, it’s advisable to choose a foil that will help maximize control. It’s best to start with a foil with a surface area of around 1000 cm2. Stabilizers can also be of medium size to start with, and reduced as your level of practice increases. The Silk range from AFS is ideal for this.
We also recommend that you start surfing foils with thick front wings, which are more tolerant of lean errors and provide more lift. With practice, you’ll be able to switch to thin-profile, high-ratio kites for more acceleration, more glide and more dynamism.
The size of the mast depends mainly on the depth of the water. To surf a shore break, a small mast is best. Conversely, if you’re surfing an offshore swell, a large mast may be just the thing.
The fuselage, for its part, contributes to manoeuvrability or stability. The shorter the fuselage, the closer you bring your load-bearing planes (front wing and horizontal stabilizer) together, so you gain in maneuverability. In this case, we’re looking for a more responsive and dynamic flying style. Conversely, the longer the fuselage, the further apart the load-bearing planes are, and the more stable you’ll be at high speeds (ideal for big-body surfing, where you’re more interested in controlling your trajectory than carving).
Finally, the stabilizer allows you to fine-tune the front wing. A stabilizer with a short span will add dynamism to your flying. An extended stabilizer will give you stability and support.
The board’s bedding and length have a big influence on how accessible it is to enter a surfoil wave. It’s important to keep some length and volume for beginners. We recommend a board of around 40 liters for a good start. Boards with less than 5 feet are also a good choice for a better ability to pounce properly.
For the uninitiated, LOST IN THE SWELL is a group of surfing friends. They wanted to get into foil surfing. We followed their progress and collected their feedback!
It’s true that it’s not easy at first, as a surfer in any case, to recognize good waves for foiling. Basically, it’s the opposite of surfing: the smaller the wave, the softer it is, the better it is to start with.
We started out behind a boat, so it’s easier to get the first sensations in a boat, just like wakeboarding with rudder pedals. You don’t have to deal with the wave, and at least you can feel the take-off and landing a little less violently.
As for the choice of spot, it’s obviously as far away from surfers as possible, with soft waves. You enter the wave facing the beach, not across it. In fact, you need to relearn a few notions. The idea is that it’s better to take off and then turn, rather than trying to catch the wave sideways, as in surfing, and then immediately get up again.
You shouldn’t make the mistake of surfing small waves that break at the edge and where there’s no water afterwards, the idea is to find a small wave that breaks and afterwards where there’s a bay or a water hole and really get launched with the foam, get up. Once you’re up, you’re ready to go.
Of course, you should start your first wave sessions when it’s small and when the wave is flat, but you shouldn’t start when the wave is hollow and fermenting. The ideal is to find a spot that rolls out for a long time, so that you really have time to reposition your feet and understand how the foil reacts.
For the take-off in foil surfing, we tend to use the reflexes of wave catching in surfing, i.e. putting the board back askew. Unfortunately, that’s not how foil surfing works.
Our advice is to concentrate on the take-off, with the wave catching the board facing the beach and perpendicular to the wave. The foil will then try to take off like an airplane wing. The idea is to really press the board against the wall of the wave.
When you do your take-off, to straighten up you’ll have to stand up with your front foot, perhaps even exaggerating by putting it further forward than usual. Don’t have the usual surfer’s stance and, on the contrary, maybe, for the beginnings, have the front foot much further apart than normal to really tackle the foil, make it take off, make it reposition and play like that.
For the time being, don’t try to turn and break the wave left or right, but rather practice by facing the beach. When you start out, it’s like surfing: you have to let yourself be carried along by the foam, stand up, straighten up and then lighten out. You’re not going to stand up when the foil’s already up, otherwise it gets very technical.
And to take it a step further, once you’ve mastered a bit of wave entry and the first few flights, you’ll be able to turn to catch the wave wall.
When the foil decides to do what it wants, you can’t counteract it. For example, if you want to go left and the foil has decided to go right, the surfer’s reflex is to push, to counteract to bring the board back under you or to bring the board back to a better trajectory. On the other hand, with foils, if you do this, the foil will continue to accelerate in the direction you don’t want to go, and that’s often when you fall. This is really the most important safety instruction. So as soon as the foil starts to go in the opposite direction to what we’re trying to do, it’s best to throw yourself in the opposite direction.
Once you’ve got a good start, your toes in the right place, your arms, your eyes, you can start trying to turn. It’s like surfing, but you can’t afford to make a mistake. As usual, it starts from the head, you send your head towards where you want to go, the arms, you open the upper body and the rest will follow smoothly. You mustn’t accentuate the gesture too much, otherwise you run the risk of falling on the foil.
Pumping foil involves flying a board fitted with a hydrofoil solely by leg power. Pumping foil can be practised on flat water (starting from a pontoon or being launched by a cable) or in a surf-foil (as a means of transition between 2 waves). In either case, it’s a technical exercise that demands a great deal of cardiovascular energy.
With pumping, you need to optimize the flow and glide. So you need to perform the movement well, even if it means going slower, rather than seeking speed by pumping badly. (specific article)
Try to keep it light, let the foil rise and let it fall again, and it will accelerate on its own, so you need to give a push on the back leg to make the board pitch up, and put weight back on the front leg to provide lift to the foil and take off or stay airborne. It’s not like surfing, where you go up, lighten up and go down into the wave by forcing. On the contrary: you pump, you glide, you lighten, you glide and so on.
Foil And Co is the parent company of AFS. Its main mission is to relocate the production of our board sports equipment to France. Today, the company has 42 employees and is based in Brittany. We develop, produce and market under AFS. We also have 2 other brands, AHD and SEALION.
AFS was born within the AHD entity in 2009, with the launch of the first windsurf foil combo (board plus production foil). The historic model is the AFS-1, a foil dedicated to light wind freeride practice, with small sail surfaces (5.5m² in 10 knots of wind). Its field of use was later extended to SUP foils, with the Sealion range of boards, making it the first Stand Up Paddle-compatible foil on the market (2011). 2017 saw the launch of the AFS-2, a new-generation foil developed and manufactured in France. With it, AFS takes off and becomes a fully-fledged entity dedicated to foils. AFS’s vocation is to offer a more high-performance foiling experience, while retaining top-notch accessibility and stability to provide all riders with a safe ride thanks to full carbon construction. Thanks to our know-how and high standards, we are the leading foil manufacturer in France. At AFS, our customers feel they are listened to and supported in their choice.
AFS Advanced is a branch of AFS working on the development of an innovative experience. It’s a concentration of AFS know-how taken to the extreme. Being one step ahead and opening up new horizons in the world of foiling: that’s the role of AFS Advanced. It’s our way of concentrating our know-how and expertise to produce the most advanced designs. It’s the essence and the future of AFS. The essence of our know-how, pushed to the limits of its performance.
Our head office is located in Brittany, more precisely in Pencran, Finistère. We are located Espace Joseph Rolland – 29800 PENCRAN
All AFS foils are manufactured at our company in Pencran, France. All AFS Advanced boards are also made here. Some of our boards are made in Tunisia at Terminatech, as are our covers. Finally, although we haven’t yet managed to make the leap, our wings are now made in China, although all R&D is carried out in-house.
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