Have you ever seen a foil surfer being towed by a sailing dinghy? Probably not. But well, there is always a first time for everything.
Francisco Andrade, a Portuguese Olympic sailor, towed his fellow countryman and surfer, Vasco Santos, across the water and without the need to use any motor-powered watercraft.
Andrade is currently competing in the Moth class, a small boat that sails on hydrofoils and reaches speeds of 60 kilometers per hour (37 miles per hour).
The Moth towed a surfboard that was also equipped with a foil in the Cascais Bay, on the outskirts of Lisbon, in Portugal. Now, the goal is to share the innovative sailing-surfing demo with the world.
"This was just a small training session. We wanted to see how the boat responded to towing a surfer," explains Francisco Andrade.
"But we plan to do a real tow-in session and get a surfer into a real wave. And why not doing it at Nazaré, even if it means training a lot more?"
Challenged accepted. Let's wait and see whether the intrepid duo is able to pull the stunt off in medium-sized waves at Praia do Norte.