All About the Foiling Freaks

Who we are

Foiling Freaks was founded and built by Ian Lauder, a Pacific Northwest software developer and creative who has spent decades creating automated systems, websites, and capturing adventures on film outdoors.

In the early days of modern foiling, Ian was part of the original Sky Ski hydrofoil scene on Lake Sammamish: a tight local crew known as the Air Junkys. Back in the 90's, that group rode hard, experimented constantly, and spent time with the godfather of foiling, Mike Murphy, during the sport's formative years. Ian shot a lot of the original foiling photography for Sky Ski and the first foiling magazine - Flight Magazine by Tony Klarich.

Off the water, Ian's other life has been in the mountains. It's been a split extreme-sports rhythm for years: climb on the weekends, foil during the week. He is one of fewer than a hundred people to have scaled the tallest 100 peaks in the Pacific Northwest, and he has a long history of instruction as a rock, ice, and glacier climbing instructor for over 15 years.

Along the way: AI development, design work in Illustrator and Photoshop, years of photography, and many book and magazine publication credits, and producing media have given Ian the breadth of experience to produce this project.

The "we" in "who we are" is an acknowledgment of all the foiling freaks who have been part of the journey.

What Foiling Freaks is

Foiling Freaks is a hub for hydrofoil board sports designed to connect disciplines, people, and resources.

• Clear, organized discipline pages that cover every type of foiling board sport
• A growing directory of creators, brands, schools, and community resources
• Community features that help you find all the great content creators, tools, and forums

Why it exists

Foiling is one of the rare sports where progress is hard earned and feels like unlocking a new physics engine. It's also a sport where the learning curve can be steep, the information is scattered, and the "best" advice depends on conditions, equipment, and experience level.

What makes foiling special is the people: foilers helping foilers. The stoke is real, the advice is generous, and someone is always willing to talk you through a problem. Foiling Freaks aims to pull the great stuff already out there into one easy-to-find community hub.

• Find resources faster
• Learn with less trial-and-error
• Connect with the wider foiling world across disciplines
• Celebrate the creative, wild personality that foiling attracts

When it started

Ian first got into foiling in the mid-90s on an old black, powder-coated Air Chair that had so much drag and so little lift it felt like trying to fly a brick at 30 mph. Nobody really knew how to ride a hydrofoil yet, so they tried to figure it out the hard way. They launched off the wake, chased unlandable flips ending in wipeouts. Then one day, Mike Murphy showed up and handed them a few tips that instantly changed the game. By the end of that day, they were riding out backrolls.

With Mike frequently in the area with his board manufacturing happening next door, the Lake Sammamish Air Junky crew became a part of those early foiling years. That era turned into foiling fly-ins and competitions, plus photography work for Sky Ski and Flight Magazine.

As the sport evolved, Ian stayed with it. Decades later, the occasional rider would fly past on a new kind of foil board, and then eFoils started showing up now and then, too. He went deep into boat wake foiling and eFoiling, and from there branched into dock starting, freefoiling, and a foray into winging. His foiling history now spans three decades, and he still foils year-round, a few days a week. He rides at least nine different brands of wings and rotates through five disciplines of foiling, depending on conditions and mood. He was also one of the first 500 recognized pump foilers to break the one-minute mark, and every so often, he still takes a vintage convertible stand-up Sky Ski out with snowboard boots just for old times' sake.

Foiling Freaks came out of wanting a foiling website that feels like the sport actually feels: broad, weird, technical, playful, and always evolving. The idea fully clicked during a long, grueling mountain climb in the North Cascades, far from the water. Foiling Freaks is what happened when decades of time on foil merged with a professional life spent building websites, doing photography, design, and automation.

Where this is going

Foiling Freaks was born in the Pacific Northwest, where lakes, mountains, and a love of outdoor sports create a year-round test lab.

The mission is global, though: build a community hub that helps a beginner discover their first ride, and for a seasoned rider, refine technique or easily find all the resources they need to try a new discipline.

Where it goes from here depends on what the community asks for and what we can build.

Community features

Foiling Freaks is being built in phases. Join the newsletter to be notified when new community resources are rolled out.

• Newsletter for updates and new resources
• Foiling Pin Map so riders can mark a general location and see where the global community is
• What is Foiling articles covering all types of foiling disciplines.

Future additions will add searchable resources to easily find all the great things other foiling freaks in the community have created. More features will be added as we hear what the community wants to see.

Visual storytelling

Foiling is real. Progress is hard-earned. Foiling Freaks uses photography, illustration, and video in a fun way, using its menagerie of relatable foiling freaks as its ambassadors for every discipline.

Our past photography work includes major publication credits, including serving as an official photographer for Seattle Seafair, documenting Sky Ski during its formative years, many book and magazine photo credits, and serving as a senior photographer for the first hydrofoil publication, Flight Magazine. We also do sharks, lots of sharks. Where do you think Rocco came from?

Values & safety

• Inclusive by design: every discipline, every skill level, every foiling freak
• Safety matters: real progress comes from repeatable, responsible sessions
• Respect the water: conditions change, good judgment matters
• Share the stoke: support the awesome people growing the sport

For important safety and liability information, please read the Disclaimers section on our policies page: Policies & Disclaimers

Contact

Have a question, a resource to add, or something cool to contribute? Reach out: Contact Foiling Freaks