Check this excellent hydrofoiling video by Patrick Weiland for Lift Foils.
Foiling pioneer Laird Hamilton and his crew went to Nazaré, Portugal to surf foil the giant waves on hydrofoil surfboards.
The Hawaiian waterman, alongside Luca Padua, Benny Ferris, and Terry Chung, followed the swell that hit the Portuguese coastline in mid-February and foiled some epic waves.
After extensive preparation with the foiling gear, they decided to surf foil the breaks in Nazaré in a different way, using foilboards that allow for an unreal speed on the water and an entirely new experience on custom classic foils engineered by the team at Lift Foils.
\”The vibe here in Nazaré is kind of like if you\’ve ever seen or read The Hobbit. There\’s the happy little river town next to the big mountain, and inside the mountain is where the dragon lives,\” explains Ferris.
\”And you have this town with these happy simple people going about their business. But in the deep and the wilderness, there\’s the dragon, and it shows itself sometimes – that dragon is Nazaré\’s surf spot.\”
\”We woke up in the morning, and we saw this thing marching way out to sea. We were like never mind the left by that cliff. We\’re going out there, and sure enough, the thing was just unbelievable,\” states Ferris.
\”It\’s slick as ice. You\’re on a moving liquid surface, and it takes a lot of experience and a lot of practice to be able to pull that off,\” describes Terry Chung.
\”What happens when you move at that speed is that your mind slows things down to be able to cope with that speed.\”
\”The great thing about the hydrofoil is that it opens up opportunities and places that wouldn\’t be normally looked at in,\” adds Laird Hamilton.
