after a year of saying no I'm finally considering the foil....they look like a good way to avoid crowds, and like a really pure feel to surfing, is this true? What's the feel of riding therm like compared to normal surfing?
and you blokes that have learned how to do it properly, how often are you falling in now you know how to do it?

How it compares to normal surfing depends on how you ride it. If you sit out on the shoulder and do massive roundhouses then its like what you imagine Rasta feels when he does man carves. Personally ive done a few cutties that have accelerated me out of the turns so fast i couldn't believe what was happening. As you progress and you start riding the smaller foils (actually the standard foils just not the massive small wave ones) you'll find it becomes more back foot surfing. However in general, its very neutral/front footed. You really need to lean forward into a turn to keep the foil under. This is also is what makes it accelerate so fast.

I would say 99% of the waves i get i dont fall on. As i get tired i start making more mistakes though. Every few sessions i might breach once during a turn but that is usually because i dont have enough front foot so the foil comes out. I guess i fall about the same as i would riding a shorty, so usually when im trying to do something or when im day dreaming and dont realise how high ive come up on the foil.

It changes the way you read waves and the ocean because it opens up so many parts of the wave.

Cheers,

Ryan

What has it done to your normal SUP surfing, or is there no going back?

Initially i said i would never touch a SUP again after i started foiling. But i do miss it sometimes. Ill still take a Nalu or Stylemaster out for a play. But foiling opens up so much more. Waves that even on a SUP are slow, are now awesome fun on a foil. I got into SUP for those small rolly days where its hardly breaking and i would take a 14 out and just cruise. I did go along with the shortboard SUP thing and was riding a 7'8 for a while. But now its foil everyday. Unless its pumping surf but i ride logs and shorties too so those take up the good surf days most of the time.

I can now foil days when you would struggle on a raceboard. Or when its 20knots onshore and blown out. Or when its too fast and shutting down for a SUP. Or just no banks. Its like discovering waves all over again!!

Like OceanAddict said, once you start to foil reliably, you will fall just as often as regular SUPing or surfing: while pushing the envelope or not paying attention.

For me, it is more like flying than surfing: always in control, basically you are always aiming to balance things. In turns you have to place yourself the foil on the proper trajectory. With SUP/surfing, you push only on way against the water, so you balance against the water, you just push against the board in turns. Foiling is technically more complex and richer, surfing is better to just unwind, let off steam, throw yourself with abandon.

For me there is no question: if I see waves with no crowd (no more than 3 people per peak), I never use the foil. I'd rather frolic like a carefree mad dog on a wave for 20 meters, than tight-arsing on a foil for 400 meters (and I will only have to paddle back out 20 meters :-) ). But if there are crowds, I will use the foil. It is quite surreal to be able to foil totally alone on a warm and sunny holiday when the surrounding proper peaks are black with people and you can barely find a parking spot.

Also, foiling is not worth it in my opinion when waves can hold you down on wipeouts, or when you have to wait 5 minutes to get out to negociate the shorebreak, and I am not even speaking of getting out of the water... The risk of gear damage is too high, unless you do not pay for it. And here in Hossegor, mellow waves can get quite hollow in minutes, with the huge tides, and fickle sandbanks and rips.

So, I have not touched the foil since September. It will use it gladly to escape the summer crowds, but it won't bother me if I was never to foil again.

Having learned to Foil I would rather Foil than SUP 95% of the time.

I will ONLY grab my SUP if the forecast is for OVER 10 ft. Sometimes on a big forecast I will go Foil, or attempt to Foil anyways.

I live near Mavericks and therefore have a channel with almost any size of wave (At least until its regularly 15ft +++). I Foiled a beach break for the first time yesterday and realized that Beach Breaks are a completely different animal.

Beach breaks require skill to get out, acceptance of getting pounded and trickier, pitchier takeoffs that go Left and go Right. Anything over 7+ feet on a Beach Break would put the foil gear at significant risk. Hence the benefit of my readily accessible point break.

Stats below. 80% of the time I have been foiling since our season started in September 2017. More than half of the SUP sessions were because my foil gear was being repaired. The other sessions were because of bigger surf. You can still see that I had fun but . . . . .I have more data on this stuff than . . . . ANYONE. I have measured almost every one of the following 1,500 waves each 1/5th of a second. I add subjective information like 'estimated largest and smallest wave face caught' and eventually how much FUN I had rated 1 to 10.
Here is the Winter's summary of the last 96 sessions.

Notice the GREATEST average fun was still on a SUP but likely because the average wave face was 10+ feet.