Over the last few years the sailing, windsurfing and kiteboarding worlds have been rocked by little pieces of carbon fiber and some pretty tricky engineering. Boards and boats now hover above the waters surface, with little but a whisper coming from the foils as they support the weight of everything above it, on just a few square centimeters of carbon.

Speeds have increased, but so have costs in some regards, not to mention the technical skill that's only a little shy of requiring a pilots license to ride a hydrofoil with some level of competency. But the mainstream adoption of hydrofoils has breathed new life into the sailing, windsurfing and kiteboarding worlds, at a time where participation levels were beginning to stagnate, in windsurfing's case, the sport was in a staggering decline. Could it do the same for Stand Up Paddling?

This week Naish superstar and all round waterman, master of wind, kite, surf and SUP - Kai Lenny was snapped with a little yellow Naish SUP on his shoulder. No biggy, that kind of image gets posted every day, but what was big was the fin bolted to the bottom of it!

It was an Aguera hydrofoil, with a standard sized main wing and an oversized anhedral stabilizer. In simple terms, a SUP hydrofoil, and he was heading out into the waves with it. "Conditions have been perfect for my SUP hydrofoil." Told Lenny, "Small, glassy conditions and riding waves with no body around."

He's certainly not the first to try hydrofoiling on a SUP, brands have already released dedicated boards that can be surfed both conventionally and on a foil. Several surfers have tried bolting kite foils to their boards, all of which having successful trials out in the waves. Nobody has worked out how to get flat water paddlers up and flying yet though, the problem being the long time in between strokes. Flat water hydrofoils have been done in the kayak world, helped by the dual blades on a Kayak paddle. As a stand up paddler lifts the blade from the water and reaches forwards with it, the current hydrofoils just don't have the lifting power to keep flying when the board decelerates. At least not without making larger foils, and to do so would destroy the benefit gained by foiling in the first place, because raceboards are so sleek in the first place. It will happen though, and you can be sure that the upper echelon of SUP designers are thinking about.

The interest levels from the SUP community are there, but the concept has just not quite got up on the plane yet, foils are knocking on the door of SUP, and it's only a matter of time before we let them in. Would you be interested in SUP Hydrofoiling if the brands made it more accessible? The discussion is open in the Stand up paddling forums, right here on Seabreeze.

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