THE ROBBY NAISH INTERVIEW

HI ROBBY.

Let’s start at the beginning – what are your first recollections and experiences of foiling craft?

The first time I ever tried a hydrofoil was in about 1977 in Kailua. A friend of mine named John Speer made a really cool wooden hydrofoil with four big wings for a windsurfer. It worked reasonably well but was no faster than a normal board at the time. More recently was about 20 years ago when we all started playing with Airchair foils both for tow-in surfing and windsurfing. Rush Randle was killing it on his windsurfer foil back then… But it never really caught on. I converted a wave board and used an Airchair foil… tried it a couple of times and lost interest. Same goes for tow-in surfing… The idea of surfing with snowboard boots and a jetski just did not do it for me.

What do you think are the main drivers behind the current explosion in the popularity of foiling in its various formats?

As is often the case, everything has its time. And I