Foils: the new danger in the surf

By Phil Jarratt

“I looked behind me as I flicked off the wave and all I could see was what looked like a surfboard with a machete attached to its bottom bearing down on me. It was very frightening.”So said one surfing veteran after a holiday season session riding excellent waves on Noosa’s outer bays earlier this month. Another described them as the “silent assassins of the surf”.

Although the popularity of high performance, fast-moving but unpowered hydrofoil (or foil) boards has been growing in Noosa for several years, users have mostly restricted themselves to the beach breaks of Noosa West and the Eastern Beaches where they could find space to themselves for their high-speed runs. But the perfect storm of…