Photo: Red Bull//IG
Hydrofoils have either had a rapid ascent in the surfing world, or a slow rise to the mainstream, depending on where you’re looking at it all from. Laird Hamilton was bolting them on the bottom of boards and towing into giant waves more than two decades ago. A little less than 10 years ago, I remember looking for waves in New Zealand one very onshore afternoon with Zane Schweitzer and his mind was fixated on how different our hunt would be back on Maui — not because he knew the waves would be better, necessarily, but because he was itching to go home and break out his hydrofoil. It was his latest obsession.
He pulled out his phone to show me some images and we laughed at one mid-wipeout frame. It’s not like hydrofoils were completely alien, but you rarely saw anybody actually playing with them. And at the time, it seemed like there were a handful of guys around Hawaii like Zane who were quickly getting obsessed. He made a joke comparing surfing a wave while attached to a hydrofoil to running with scissors, and I have to admit that even after years and years of watching hydrofoil content, that joke hasn’t left my mind. The things still look like a severed thumb waiting to happen. Maybe it’s a sign that I’m officially an old salty curmudgeon.
Why the trip down memory lane (and the reminder that I’m getting old)? Because I came across a claim of a world first this morning: world’s first double backie on a hydrofoil. Suddenly, the last 20-plus years of hydrofoil progression and that afternoon drive with Zane Schweitzer flashed before my eyes. I’ve seen a hundred backflips on hydrofoils. We all have. A double though? I can’t think of another.
The new feat belongs to Greek all-around charger Nikolas Plytas. Plytas spends most of his time on a hydrofoil but he surfs, snowboards, rips around on Jet Skis, flies around on wing foils, you name it. According to Red Bull, the trick took more than 800 attempts before he finally stuck it, and that alone is a hell of an accomplishment.
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