Kite foiling isn’t cheap, but the wealth in California’s Bay Area paired with the proximity to the coast have made the place a veritable hub for the sport. For better or worse. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Like stand-up paddling before it, another surf derivative, hydrofoiling, has gained steam in recent years. Adroit readers might recall that foiling isn’t an entirely new innovation. In Dana Brown’s 2003 opus, Step into Liquid, it’s revealed that Laird Hamilton and his crew on Maui pioneered standing on a surfboard with a hydrofoil underneath it by sawing the seat off an Air Chair. In its infancy, the design used snowboard boots to stay strapped in. Fourteen years later, the foil craze has become a serious trend, from Kai Lenny to John John to, apparently, the über rich of Silicon Valley.
According to a New York Times editorial, the preferred form of foiling in San Francisco Bay is the kite variety – wherein speeds exceed forty miles per hour.
The piece reveals that for the heavily immersed, it isn’t uncommon to rub shoulders with Silicon Valley’s elite.
“They look you up, or they have a friend, and all of a sudden you’re hanging out with Larry [Page] and Sergey [Brin],” Don Montague, a foil craftsman, told the New York Times, in reference to Google’s founders.
Irrespective of the learning curve, the barriers to entry for kite foiling (or any form of foiling for that matter) are significant – think upwards of a few thousand dollars at least. Two electronic foils set to hit the market – Dan Montague’s Jetfoiler and Lift’s eFoil – will cost some $5,000 to $12,000 respectively.
Notwithstanding, the appeal is clear. Johnny Heineken, 29, a top foiler, and a mechanical engineer for Alphabet Inc.’s experimental technologies lab, X, explains it thusly: “It’s a combination of tactical sailing and a high-performance action sport. And then it just feels great. You fly around the bay.” Other foilers tell the times the sensation is like snowboarding on a powder day.
The profile is peppered with just the right amount of pretension and condescension one might expect from a group of tech bigwigs. Author Nellie Bowles explains how forty-year-old Stefaans Viljoen maximizes time on the water. “I have my C.T.O. book Fridays as busy 11 a.m. onward,” he said, referring to his chief technology officer. Cue the eye roll.
