Among the participants were Mark Stevenson (middle), who shoots a tube on his paddle board. The man doing the flying was Dunedin resident Simon Sutherland (54), an experienced surfer and architectural draughtsman, who, since June last year has designed and built his own hydrofoil ''dream machine'' surfboards.
''It's an amazing thing. It's incredible,'' he said.
He was initially inspired by the use of foils in recent America's Cup racing, and said foil surfboards had become popular overseas.
His home-built foil surfboard often produced longer rides than standard surfboards, and also flew easily over choppy or flat water that was difficult for conventional boards.
''You can make it fly. It's a whole new take on surfing.''
He believed he was the only surfer at St Clair using a foil surfboard, but others were likely to try it in future.
