Adam Bennetts' Dreamy Foil Surfing Video Leaves Viewers Green With Envy

The video looked almost too good to be real. Crystal-clear water, a smooth glide just above the surface, close to shore, conditions that most foilers only see in their sleep. Adam Bennetts posted the footage to his YouTube channel with two captions that said everything: "It doesn't get much better than this," and "I love home!"

The reaction was immediate and unanimous: pure envy. If you've spent any time chasing mediocre onshore slop at a crowded break, watching Bennetts float through what can only be described as a dreamscape hits differently. The footage spread quickly, with viewers describing it as hard to watch "without feeling a bit of envy."

What makes Bennetts' relationship with the foil particularly compelling is how reluctantly it started. He grew up riding a regular surfboard and spent time in Bali before foiling was even on his radar. When he first saw footage of someone riding a foil, he thought it looked "a little... bland." That initial indifference makes his full conversion all the more striking. After moving back to Australia and getting on a foil for the first time, his wave-riding trajectory changed completely and permanently.

Six years later, that first session still reverberates. "I foil exclusively these days," Bennetts said. "In fact, I haven't ridden a surfboard in nearly six years since I started foiling (except for two waves at Uluwatu last month). I am at the point now that I can pretty much surf a foil like a surfboard and so to me, it feels like surfing and it just feels so much better in every element. It's like surfing on steroids."

Those two waves at Uluwatu are telling. Uluwatu is also where Bennetts handles his bigger days, pushing the foil through heavier conditions that look nothing like the serene footage circulating now. The range is part of what sets him apart: from glassy, dreamlike sessions close to shore to proper Balinese reef surf, he rides all of it on a foil.

For anyone still on the fence about making the transition, Bennetts' arc offers a useful reference point. This wasn't someone who came up foiling from the start. He spent years on a traditional surfboard, dismissed foiling as boring on first impression, then found it so compelling he never went back. The video makes the case without needing to say another word.