For many years, from 2007 in fact, I have been a pariah at surf spots. Paddle out on the surf sup and no one meets your eye, say hello and they ignore you. Standard practice to ostracise a type of craft that is not cool. Wave skis got it before us. Started sup foiling a year ago. What a change, people talk to you in the surf, they approach you in the car park. All positive, really different vibe. Anyone else felt this?

Where I ride, SUPs aren't allowed at the main break, so they (we) congregate at one of the lesser breaks with the kayaks, beginners, etc. With all us pariahs together, I've noticed no differences in response between SUP, SUP foil, or surf foil. It will be interesting to see what happens when I start surf foiling the Point ... SUPs may not be allowed, but I don't see any rule anywhere about prone foils.

But yes, on the beach and parking lot, the surfer crowd are slightly less stand-offish. Some are curious to know more.

Something I have noticed is the feedback from the beach is quite different between sup foil and surf foil. I am far from a ripper, but I get compliments on surf foil riding, versus on SUP it's more like "yeah, saw you out there". Frankly it's much the same as sup vs shortboard, on SUP you catch the wave and kinda mostly stand there, maybe some swooping turns, whereas on surfboard you tend to ride more dynamically. I have been SUPing for years and explain it as "a lot more fun doing it than it looks". I think sup foil is much the same, feels rad even if it doesn't look like much.

hear ya hilly
I recently went back to sup race board & sup surf board because have no foil for more than 3 weeks now and I'm hanging out to be cool again

Definitely agree you get more cred without the walking stick

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scotty100 said..
Definitely agree you get more cred without the walking stick

Still got the broomstick and get the cred. Win win.