You need to keep in mind that he's pumping to stay on a reflected outgoing wave on the way out and pumping to stay on an incoming wave on the way in so he's only doing half the work that a flat water pumper would be doing.
That is really pretty incredible. Glassy day too. Have to wonder what is going through the minds of the other people in the water that day catching 3-5 second rides. It's just so much more quality riding time.
I certainly don't envy the pumping. I can find it amazing and still not want to do it ! For so many of us with only wind driven waves its not really an issue.
The real interesting part to me is where the wing shapes will evolve. Will surfing wings be different from kiting wings from windfoil wing from pumping wings etc.
You can already see it. Its quite evolved. I dont tell that there will be much progress but hydrofoil as they are now are quite mature. They are standing on giant shoulders in material technology and also shape wise from aviation. Pumping wing needs to be BIG surface wise - otherwise your energy is not transfered efficiently. Good analogy is bass speaker - you have huge gain in efficiency if speaker area is big. Otherwise is like paddling with just paddle pole. Big surface to be fast and less resistance needs to be quite high AR. Enter Albatros. Now how much extreme is limited by handling. A both extreme in AR are explored so we have quite exact picture. wave kite and prone surfing are almost same - similar to wave boards - almost same gear kite/prone. WS and kite race will be different according to planed use / speed maneuverability etc. Same as airplanes - there are no universal planes. I think least evolved right now is WS gear. They have quite unique power transfer and asymmetrical stance so they have to be different.
what is not explored is how extreme big you can go for pumping and everybody thinking about some gradual energy release /from pumping/ with some designed elasticity in wings /like fins for freediving/
But nobody achieved something which is better than rigid wings /yet/
You can already see it. Its quite evolved. I dont tell that there will be much progress but hydrofoil as they are now are quite mature. They are standing on giant shoulders in material technology and also shape wise from aviation. Pumping wing needs to be BIG surface wise - otherwise your energy is not transfered efficiently. Good analogy is bass speaker - you have huge gain in efficiency if speaker area is big. Otherwise is like paddling with just paddle pole. Big surface to be fast and less resistance needs to be quite high AR. Enter Albatros. Now how much extreme is limited by handling. A both extreme in AR are explored so we have quite exact picture. wave kite and prone surfing are almost same - similar to wave boards - almost same gear kite/prone. WS and kite race will be different according to planed use / speed maneuverability etc. Same as airplanes - there are no universal planes. I think least evolved right now is WS gear. They have quite unique power transfer and asymmetrical stance so they have to be different.
One breakthrough could be pumping a monofoil. There is less drag, so the efficiency would go up quite a lot. It might require a different design of wing though to make it more user friendly.
Oyvind explains how low the drag is without the stabiliser at 3 minutes in this clip.
Yea but all monos are almost unpumpable right now. Stab gives you drive through pump. Something to push into. Pumping are very physical vs riding on monos which is super finesse. Mono wing had its appear from dawn of aviation but only couple of success.