Watch: To Ride The Biggest Waves // Matt Etxebarne and Tom Constant

Stu Nettle picture
Stu Nettle (stunet)
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Few years back now, Tim Bonython had me MC one of his surf movie festivals. While chatting, microphones in hand, Tim went off-script and asked me about the next big breakthrough in big wave surfing.

"Foiling, " I shot back.

And despite having never ridden a foil nor extremely large waves, I gave him my reason. To wit, it's almost certain that, from here on, the world's largest waves will be ridden at Nazare, and when that gets XXX big it also gets lumpy and bumpy, yet foils can rise above the surface chop making for a smooth ride in soupy conditions.

It sounds reasonable, yet after watching this video I now see the thinking is flawed.

"The board doesn't touch the surface of the water," explains Matt Etxebarne - so far so good - however he then goes on to say about Nazare when it's choppy, "under the water you have so many movements, many currents, and with the foil it's very hard to control the movements."

Despite this, both Matt and Tom are on a quest to ride the biggest waves yet ridden on a foil, with Europe's west coast as their testing ground.

Comments

lindo's picture
lindo's picture
lindo Monday, 20 Mar 2023 at 1:56pm

As someone who will never do that kind of surfing, but with foil boarding becoming increasingly popular where I surf, I'm Just wondering what happens when a wipeout frees the foil board to crash through the lineup? The ones I've seen have metal foils that potentially could be freakin' dangerous in the wrong place at the wrong time. Thoughts?

nickdid's picture
nickdid's picture
nickdid Friday, 24 Mar 2023 at 2:40pm

Full decapitation or limb amputation a genuine possibility

Thegrowingtrend.com's picture
Thegrowingtrend.com's picture
Thegrowingtrend.com Monday, 20 Mar 2023 at 2:57pm

iv seen a foil travel atleast 100 metres to the shore while the rider was swimming after it..

Timmyh's picture
Timmyh's picture
Timmyh Monday, 20 Mar 2023 at 9:30pm

The music kind of summed it up for me

yarri's picture
yarri's picture
yarri Tuesday, 21 Mar 2023 at 7:31am

The Jet skis towing these at our local bay/point setup absolutely ruin the line up with wake after every time they tow in or power off to follow and pick up the foil rider. Just plain rude.

Peter Reynolds's picture
Peter Reynolds's picture
Peter Reynolds Tuesday, 21 Mar 2023 at 10:35am

I've enjoyed getting into foiling in the last couple of years, sunny coast has waves more often suited to foiling than any other kind of surfcraft. It is super difficult, in my opinion, a lot harder than surfing, requires a much higher base level of fitness in order to progress into pumping back out and catching multiple waves. Its not uncommon for me to dry reach after a few solid rides and I can comfortably freedive to 30+ metres, its a full on workout.
Not sure why surfers are surfing the same waves as someone foiling, you must like going out in very poor conditions, as for the people foiling without a legrope, that's as dangerous as surfing without a legrope.

mikehunt207's picture
mikehunt207's picture
mikehunt207 Tuesday, 21 Mar 2023 at 11:26am

Foilers .... now thats a whole new forum topic there .
The new stand up paddlers and just another outlet for rich wankers to stand around a piss in each others pockets about their latest $5000 toy
Admit it looks good (ok) when actually riding a swell away from everybody but what I see mostly / otherwise is the ugly hopping and pumping while taking multiple waves in the sets and riding dangerously close to other surfers ( take a look at grunters or huzzas any day of the week) summed up as just a greedy cunt act

see.saw's picture
see.saw's picture
see.saw Tuesday, 21 Mar 2023 at 3:33pm

Huh...sorry. Must have dosed off.

AlfredWallace's picture
AlfredWallace's picture
AlfredWallace Tuesday, 21 Mar 2023 at 7:43pm

Can’t say foiling does it for me. With regards to being dangerous, if we look back at board history, there’s plenty of footage and evidence to highlight how heavy and potentially dangerous those big wooden and later fibreglass planks/mals were. Plus nobody was wearing leg ropes back then.
I’d hate to have a 9’6” plank rolling rail over rail parallel to the white wash all the way to the shore. Might not gash your head like a foil but would certainly knock you out or collapse your cranium. AW

Seaweed's picture
Seaweed's picture
Seaweed Sunday, 26 Mar 2023 at 12:51pm

I think foils should be used only in the car park or dunes.

Gowsa's picture
Gowsa's picture
Gowsa Tuesday, 28 Mar 2023 at 12:51pm

Whatever Happened to Foils ?
I think these days the Kids buy it in Plastic Bags