Laird Hamilton is a surfer known for free-surfing on big waves. In his last video, we find him on a foilboard, surfing... above the water. It feels like he's flying!
This scene was shot on the coast of Raglan, New Zealand, where he will participate in The Ultimate Waterman. This event brings together the best riders in six different disciplines.
A foilboard is a small surfboard, similar to a wakeboard, with a metal daggerboard in the centre. When the surfer is on his board, he gives the impression to fly over the water thanks to the submerged drift. It can also reach speeds higher than those of a standard surfboard. Laird Hamilton has made it possible to exploit this board in a new way, by being pulled by a jet ski in a wave, to exploit the energy of the swell.
Laird Hamilton is an American surfer, having grown up and living in Hawaii. He developed the tow-in-surfing technique, which consists in arriving in a wave, towed by a jet-ski to obtain enough speed to surf waves of about twenty meters.
In 2000, he surfed the Teahupoo pass in French Polynesia, which is considered as the biggest tube ever surfed. Discover it in the 2nd video.
