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What’s a foil? Presumably the image near the top of the article is one. What do you do with it? It seems to involve being in the water. That’s all I can tell.
There are a couple of old videos at the end. Otherwise, this whole thing reads like jiberish to the uninitiated.
A “foil” is a physical concept - the analog outside of water being an airfoil or airplane wing. It’s just something that creates lift based on an angle. Im not familiar with this stuff but as mentioned airplanes, sail boat sails, sailboat foils, and the water sporting “foil” all leverage the same principle. Am not sure how the sport works really and got lost in the jargon. Am curious to know more about why these hooks exist but didn’t really like the writing/voice of this article to dig deep
It is a wing you attach to the bottom of a surfboard so you can hydrofoil (ride the board with only the foil in the water).

You need energy to move forward. This can come from a tow boat, a kite, waves, jumping with your legs ("pumping" in TFA) or a small propeller ("e-foil").

It's fast because the drag is really low. Same as any hydrofoiling boat like some ferries or America's Cup sailboats.