Gerry Lopez has entered the foilboard chat. Photos: YouTube//Screeshots
Gerry Lopez is one of the most legendary surfers in the history of surfing. Mr. Pipeline is responsible for so much about our funny little culture of wave sliders and he’s always been a guy who likes to experiment. So it makes sense that he’s still experimenting with the the outer edge of wave riding design.
That outer edge, in recent years, has been on the bottom of a hydrofoil. They’ve been around for a long time (remember air chairs?), but it wasn’t until the Laird Hamilton and the strapped crew stuck a hydrofoil on the bottom of a surfboard, pulled on a set of snowboard boots, and towed into huge Jaws waves in Step Into Liquid that the surfing world became aware of how they can be used. Now, of course, hydrofoiling is big business, and Gerry Lopez paired up with NSP to design a hydrofoil board himself.
Called the Pelican, the board is a rounded, forgiving shape, designed to pair up with the Foil Drive ecosystem of foil assist products.
“Unlike an eFoil, where the motor does all the work,” North Action Sports explained, “Foil Drive simply helps you get up on foil faster, so you can seamlessly transition to riding waves, pumping, or harnessing the wind.” You can learn more about different efoils and foil assists in our review of The Best Efoils.
Lopez has put his name on a few things as of late. Cariuma stuck his name on a shoe. His name was on a soft top. Foiling, as you know if you’ve attempted it, is not as easy as it looks, and Lopez knows this.
“I kind of designed it for a Foil Drive system,” he explains, “but it also will function just fine as a prone paddle foilboard, too. With the Foil Drive, it’s just really a friendly board. Whether you know how to use a foil drive and have done it a lot or you’re just starting out… it just makes the process a lot easier.”
Foils are heavy, so Lopez and NSP made the board itself as light as possible. It’s thinner, shorter, and lighter than other Foil Drive-compatible boards on the market, and thanks to a subtle vee in the nose that transitions into a flat midsection, it’s super efficient under power.
“It planes so quickly and so easily, even at low speeds,” Lopez said. “Pretty much everyone is able to get their feet under them. Once you’re standing up, you just give it a little more gas and the board’s out of the water.”
Related: Best Wing Foil Boards | Best eFoils | Foil Drive Fusion Review | More Foiling Reviews
