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E-foil surfing is the big new water sport – and if you have a modicum of balance, you can do it, says Catherine Cooper

Gone are the days when you needed the perfect swell and to spend hours paddling and bobbing around in the water to catch that perfect wave. New hydrofoil surfboards, which come with a fin-like foil underneath, mean you can get your surf on with no waves at all – if you opt for the e-foil version.

“The great thing about a hydrofoil surfboard is that you can surf just about anywhere,” says Tom Ashwell, who runs FoilRide, on the Menai Strait in Anglesey, north Wales. “You can also get more [from] your time surfing. While a typical surfer might spend two hours on the water to ride a wave for 30 or 40 seconds, on a foil board you can potentially be riding during most of your time spent out there.

“I see it a little like when snowboarding became a thing – it opened up where you could go and increased the possibilities – foil-surfing does the same.”

Basically, the boards allow surfers to hover above the water. Because such a small part of the board is in contact with the surface ( just the foil blade), far less propulsion is needed. And while hydrofoil surfing is usually best left to fairly expert surfers, e-foiling – where there is a small electric engine attached to the board – can be tried by just about anyone with a modicum of balance. No wonder the sport is growing quickly.

Ashwell and his team gave 500 e-foiling lessons this year and sold 40 boards costing about £12,000 each. Meanwhile, over on Lake Annecy, in France, Izyfoil – which also produces its own ultra-lightweight e-foils – gave twice as many lessons in 2021 as in 2019. And in Puerto Rico, Lift Foils, which has been producing foils for more than 10 years, has seen similar growth. It sold about 75 per cent more boards in 2021 than it did in 2020.

The e-foils are powered by a handheld remote control and almost anyone can quickly learn to ride a board on their knees. Many will be able to progress to a standing surfing position after one or two lessons.

There are now plenty of other places where you can try e-foil surfing while on holiday, including the Four Seasons Resort Maldives at Landaa Giraavaru, and Caesar’s Palace in Dubai, where

they have gone from having just one board in 2018 to offering 12 now, in order to keep up with demand.

However, foil-surfers aren’t welcome everywhere – some view the sharplooking foils as dangerous and others are alarmed by the high speeds they can reach. Anglet, in France, forbids all foilboards during peak hours in summer on supervised beaches, and there is a similar ban at Bondi Beach in Australia.

Nonetheless, the increased accessi

bility of foil-boarding and the freedom it offers mean the sport is likely to increase further in popularity as more and more discover its thrills.

E-foiling sessions start at about £58 in Annecy (izyfoil.fr); £200 in Anglesey ( foilride.co.uk); from £395 at Caesar’s Palace (caesars.com/dubai); and from £245 at the Four Seasons at Landaa Giraavaru ( fourseasons.com/ maldiveslg)

i Who needs waves? You can surf just about anywhere on an e-foil