Like the title says, why? Those of you that have sold you SUP's and foil only (wing, prone, downwindsup), can you explain the joy of it?
I haven't sold my surf SUP but I am quite dedicated to foiling now. For me, it's location. Living at the Columbia River Gorge it just makes sense. I used to drive 2.5 hours to SUP surf when the kiting wasn't good in the gorge. With wingfoiling, I get so many days so close to home. Today was session 50 for the year for me. Normally I don't get that many days in until July.
I think the joy of the foil comes with advanced skill and experience. Every single wave I catch on a surf SUP brings joy. For foiling, it takes a long time to get the skills and gear tuned in to the point where it's great, but when you do, you feel like you're surfing waves while simply riding swell close to home.
I'll still SUP surf, but I won't drive for it if there's swell close to home.
There's hard core surfers at my local spot who haven't been to the surf since winging happened.
A piece of wind-blown slop can be a piece of joy on a foil. 25-30 knots can push up shoulder high magic.
Wave counts go from single digits to 40-50 an hour.
No more hour and a bit each way drive for a potentially crappy surf. Bugger if the tide or wind is wrong when you get there.
Sessions every day there's wind. There was a guy visible at 7:30 this morning on the local cam having a session on an e-foil on the way to work (I assume). I can't see me doing motors but I had a magic session yesterday in 12-15 knots late in the day.
No more fighting for the best waves. There's heaps of waves for everybody. Sometimes it's fun to track behind your friends and hoot their waves.
Carving a turn onto an ankle high ripple on a foil, and finding the wave just glides on and on and on. The grin is way out of proportion to the size of the wave.
Other than that, no good reason.
Imagine your best bottom turn to cutback combo ever in glassy overhead conditions on a sup, times the speed by two and that equals the feeling on every foil wave, smaller the better. Only miss the barrels.
as much as i enjoy winging, i'd never stop SUP surfing. there's a different feeling between the two, and after doing a lot of one, i look forward to getting back to the other. sure, foiling allows you to ride smaller bumps, but when SUP surf conditions are just right, it's still one of my favorite activities. there's something about being more connected to the water when SUP surfing that will always appeal to me.
Your question is a paradox. Why would one sup when it's windy?
Given my skill at windsurfing, kiteboarding, and surfing I'd much rather do either of those than foil if looking out at Hookipa on a 5-8ft day and the appropriate wind value. Looking at Kanaha, I'd grab a foil board of any sort that matches the wind value.
Given my current state of wear and tear and location not near Maui, wingfoiling on a bay close to my home is quite fun.
Sup surfing is fun in thigh high mush with no crowds and is an easy way to master wave riding. In the same conditions, foiling is the hardest way to master wave riding.
You have to suffer to have fun.
This may also illustrate the why:
Today I was surfing, with my wing flagged out, on knee to waste high swell, for 1.5 mile long "waves" down the river. Then, instead of getting caught inside, dealing with any crowd, I just sail back upwind, and start another, 1.5 mile "wave" ride back down.
I racked up 40 miles of travel which potentially means 40% wave rides? So, I scored 16 miles of wave riding in 3.5 hours, or almost 90 minutes of actual on wave riding in my session. When is the last time any of us got 90 minutes of wave time in an entire year?
All that being said: Actually riding a SUP on a real wave is very different. It's magic. Just like riding a surfboard is. It's all different forms of magic and it simply comes down to what is available on any given day. When the surf is good, I still want to SUP surf waves. I just don't want to drive 2.5 hours to SUP surf when I can get 3.5 hours on foil 30-60 minutes from home.
