SUP Foil

Paddle power alone, flying over small waves and open swell

48 boards · 10 brands · 203 sizes

SUP foiling is stand-up paddling on a hydrofoil board, powered only by the paddle and whatever energy the water provides. Riders paddle onto small or weak waves, swells and wind bumps, and once on foil they can glide and pump far past where a surfboard would stall. It grew out of Maui in 2016 and is the root of downwind foiling.

A typical sup foil board, 2324 by 482 mm
the typical outline: every board’s shape averaged at the median length and width

The typical board

The typical sup foil board is 2261 × 495 mm, 110 L, with a pin tail and its wide point ahead of centre.

1575–2642mm long · median 2261

432–660mm wide · median 495

74–135litres · median 110

4.9length over width, median · derived

Ranges hold the middle 80 % of every size listed · tails: pin tail 17, square tail 15, rounded pin tail 13, round tail 3

How It Rides

What moves it

The rider paddles hard to get the board moving, catches a wave or swell, and the foil lifts the hull clear once there is enough speed. A modern single-strut foil starts flying at walking-to-jogging speeds, around 6 mph, far slower than older water-ski hydrofoils needed. That speed is low enough for a paddle and a small wave to provide it. Once flying, the rider pumps, flexing knees and ankles to drive the foil, to stay up between waves and get back out.

Reading the shape

SUP foil boards are much shorter than race or touring SUPs but still very wide and voluminous, because the rider has to stand and paddle before the foil takes over. Starboard's 2017 Hypernut Foil, for example, was 7'4 x 30 in and 106 L. The short length cuts swing weight and inertia once flying, and the extra volume makes kneeling, standing and paddle-up easier. A shop guide suggests 20–60 L over body weight for beginners to intermediates. The longer, narrower downwind boards are the next step for paddlers who want to cover distance.

How to read any board: length and width, wide point, tails, rails, rocker

Wind

none needed

Water

small surf, open-ocean swell, wind bumps

Worth knowing

Paddle power is enough, so a foil can use small, slow waves and open swell.

The Rack

Every sup foil board, shortest to longest, one scale · from the Takoon Slate 2025 (1320 mm) to the Kalama Barracuda XP V2 (2743 mm)

All 48 in the catalogue

Good To Know

  1. Kai Lenny's first paddle-up foil board, a 315 cm Naish with a GoFoil, was called Malolo, Hawaiian for flying fish. Maui No Ka 'Oi Magazine reported in 2016 that no self-powered hydrofoil SUP had existed before it. [1][2]

  2. SUP foiling depends on low take-off speed. According to SUPboarder in 2016, single-strut foils begin flying at about 6 mph, while the older water-ski hydrofoils needed about 10 mph. [3]

  3. In late March 2017 Kai Lenny paddled a Naish Malolo foil board from Molokai to Oahu in 3 h 26 min. The crossing was unofficial because foils were not allowed in the race then. It beat the 4 h 07 he had set on a regular SUP in the 2016 Molokai-2-Oahu by 41 minutes. [4]

  4. In April 2022 James Casey, the 2019 Molokai-2-Oahu winner, foiled 213 km on a stand-up paddleboard in about 11 h 17 min, setting off from Kioloa on the New South Wales south coast towards Bondi. It became a Guinness record and raised money for brain-cancer research after his father's death. [5][6]

Watch And Read

Who Makes Them

Where And When

Where to watch it

  • Maui North Shore, HawaiiKai Lenny and GoFoil developed paddle-up foiling here in 2016.
  • Ka'iwi (Molokai) Channel, HawaiiLenny's 2017 foil crossing and today's SUP foil world championship.
  • New South Wales south coast, AustraliaStarting point of James Casey's 213 km SUP foil record run (Kioloa, 2022).

Where it came from

Laird Hamilton, Dave Kalama and the Maui tow-in crew stood up on foils in the late 1990s, but they needed a tow or a big swell. In 2016 Kai Lenny asked GoFoil's Alex Aguera for a foil that would fly at paddling speed. Aguera mounted it on a cut-down Naish race board of about 3.15 m, called the Malolo ('flying fish'), and Lenny's Maliko downwind clip that spring went around the world. Production SUP foil boards followed from 2017.

More disciplines

Sources

  1. [1]

    Kai Lenny (Foil SUP)

    Maui No Ka 'Oi Magazine (Lehia Apana), 2016-08-31 · tier 2 · article

  2. [2]

    What started Foil Paddleboarding

    Starboard New Zealand · tier 3 · manufacturer

  3. [3]

    The past, present and the future - SUP Hydro Foils

    SUPboarder Magazine, 2016-05-10 · tier 2 · article

  4. [4]
  5. [5]

    James Casey - World Record Foil

    SUPboarder Magazine, 2022-04-26 · tier 2 · article

  6. [6]

    Kioloa is the launching spot for world record attempt

    Ulladulla Times, 2022-04-20 · tier 1 · article

  7. [7]

    213kms James Casey

    Tonic, 2022-04 · tier 2 · article

  8. [8]
  9. [9]

    SUP Surf Foil Guide

    Hydrofoil Store · tier 3 · manufacturer