There's big wave surfing in Portugal, and then there's big-wave surfing in Portugal on a hydrofoil—an attachment for a surfboard that makes the riders look like they're floating above the ocean.
Hydrofoils harness the wave energy that’s below the surface. A little wing shaped like an airplane flies below the water propelled by that energy, with the rider surfing an attached board that rises a few feet above the surface. The setup almost entirely eliminates drag that would normally slow a surfboard; it also takes chop and surface messiness almost completely out of the picture.
It’s such an efficient form of waveriding that unbroken swells can be caught and ridden. This is what the early adherents celebrated. You could tow behind a Jet Ski into giant swells, great rolling mountains of water long before they break on offshore reefs or sandbars, and swoop around at terrific speeds. An entirely new form of waveriding.
How long before we hear of people using hydrofoils to cross huge areas of the sea?
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