beware foiling fools

Its been a very long time since I last looked at this, anyway nows as good atime as any. Over a decade ago I became Australias 1st foilboarder. Pioneering foiling like I pioneered all aspects of kiting. I bought a dozen of the 1st ones from Hawaii and did my dough. Took me 10 years to pretty much give them all away at a dead loss! Although I thought they were cool at the time seems I was way too far ahead of my time. Heres some early video of one of the 1st sessions I had on a full carbon foil.



Whenever foiling around I instinctively steered clear of anyone. Going out into the open ocean or lakes and staying well away from surfers and swimmers. Seems some newbies are less considerate. This morning I went for a swim at the rivermouth and was the only person in the water for hundreds of meters all around. Along comes fool with pronefoil and although he could have foiled far away he chose to wobble by within a few feet of me then loose control and kick the board up (like the runover pictured at left), thankfully after hed passed me. I quickly got out of the water wondering why many of the foilers Ive seen recently are so self absorbed and thoughtless. Its a throback to goatboaters and sup'rs but with a huge meatcleaver thrown in!

I was actually about to take my 10 year old for a practice surf session in the perfect little grommie waves but swerved that idea due to foilfool, who brought to mind that song 'yuour so vane (yes I know its *** spelt vain). Also brings to mind a discussion at World Surf Reserve meetings where when foilboarding risks were raised. I said something along the lines of 'self regulation worked great for us kiters, so perhaps if foilboarding gets prolific it can work for that too... What this morning highlights however is that foilboarders are more prone to the protected places that swimmers and surfers frequent already!!!

OK rant over. Still stoked just hope people treat each other as they want to be treated.

Till next time, tight lines.
MC

13-Jan-20 9:25PM

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