Rob Pirios | Team Rider Profile
Tell us a little bit about yourself, how long have you been foiling and where are you from?
Being born on the Gold Coast in Queensland. I’ve always loved the ocean and my parents joined me up into the Surfers Paradise Surf Life Saving Club when I was only 4. Surfing and waterskiing are second nature to me and in later years I moved onto the snow fields and started riding the very first Sims snowboards in 1982.
I first foiled behind a boat on a Rush Randel foil board with snowboard boots way back in 2005 with Dale Chapman but that didn’t last too long as it was incredibly hard and dangerous. It wasn’t until 2016 when I was learning to kite surf I picked up a Cabrinha Double kite foil board that I started foiling full on. The following year after I saw Kai Lenny foiling on a cut down 14 foot Sup in Hawaii, I said to myself "that’s me." Unfortunately no SUP foil boards were available in Australia so I gaffer taped my Cabrhina kite foil board and foil to my JP 8-6 Sup. This was actually the first Sup foil board in Australia and the rest is history.
This is the video of that day:
My primary love of foiling is the prone, but with a background of professional water sports my shoulders have taken a beating. I had my second shoulder reconstruction mid to late last year and on top of that just as it was almost healed I went tow foiling and broke my hand. All this happened just prior to the release of the Gen 2. I was fortunate enough to get my hands on one of the early releases and I was out foiling again with a waterproof cast on my hand. Now that I’m healed I just can’t get off the Foil Drive, I just love it and my froth metre is at 10. It’s like towing and proning all in one, I call it power proning, it’s just sick.
I’m only just now getting back into paddle proning again BUT have to say it’s not my No.1 anymore (LOL). I love Downwinding but since I’ve joined the Foil Drive club my SUP has been retired and I just Downwind now on the Foil Drive and Wingding which I still really love, I don’t use the Foil Drive on my wing I’m pretty good at low wind starts without it. Session times vary but when I prone I have 2 max battery’s and a sport plus I have a charger in my car which will recharge both my Max’s so my Foil Drive prone sessions are generally 2 to 4 hours.
I never looked back from that day chopping and modifying any foil system to achieve my goal to free foil in the ocean and that was also the birth of the Von Pirios chop shop.
What sparked your interest in Foil Drive?
What was the learning curve like with Foil Drive?
My learning curve was pretty fast as I had good efoil background but the Foil Drive Gen 2 is an amazingly easy rig to ride, however just like proning you never stop improving.
What is your go to Foil Drive setup and why, and what’s your weight?
I pretty well just ride one board for proning, downwinding & wake thieving. It’s my DC 5-5 x 20 x 55 litre purpose built prone board. For my 88 kg this board is just amazing. Incredible hull speed lets me flat water start no paddling front wing down to around the 800cm2 mark. I just love this board surfs great and just do easy to start and ride, it also extends battery life rather than struggling on shorter low volume boards.
Tell us about which type of foiling you’re most in to, what’s a standard session out foiling for you?
What is your next adventure with your Foil Drive?
I have a good school mate who owns the Fiji Beachouse on the coral coast . I’m back there this April May for 3 weeks and will be introducing the Foil Drive to the Fijian crew. Also be looking at shooting my 3rd movie. “Living The Stoke 3 Foil Drive Fiji“
Who would you think would benefit the most from having a Foil Drive?
The Foil Drive is for everyone and especially old salts like me who have the passion for the ocean but not the knees or shoulders to scratch around trying to catch waves. This truely is greatest surfing advancement on the market today. It’s taken my prone sessions from 6 waves to 60 waves a session. Whether you are on a Prone, Sup or wingding the Foil Drive will take you to another surfing dimension. My one piece of advice when you order a Foil Drive is get an extra battery, you simply don’t fatigue like you normally do so you will last twice as long , which means you will want an extra battery.
Check out the Rob Pirios Podcast Episode
Foil Drive Podcast | Ep 07 | Rob Pirios | Foil Drive Team Rider
Follow Rob
📸 @rob.vonpiros 📺 YouTube
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