Yes definitely bouncing between them, with a few fleeting flow state moments in the middle. And totally agree, a coach or some 3rd party accountability is a great way. Rather than relying on your own mind, you can build a system that keeps the momentum when your interest flags. As they say, you need to earn it.
Regarding surfing - this is a personal failing, never progressing beyond competent beginner (“Hawaiian”).
Some interesting comments in this other thread around frustrations
This specifically, relevant to the 3 year shelf life element:
This is the truth for probably the bulk of foiling (surfers live in cities or popular surf areas, both have above problem), and eventually things may go the way of banning foils in busy lineups (this decision is hanging in the balance in many regions).
Pessimistic take would be that a bans would pull up the drawbridge behind us in terms of accessibility for new riders and so we reach peak prone foiling for a few years, plateauing sooner than we’d have expected due to lack of accessible spots. Most of the good spots I know of are prime beginner surf locations, and the two don’t really mix.
All of this happened with longboarding (the skateboard type). I was deeply involved in this and it felt nearly exactly the same as foiling does now, it had a big push in the late 2000’s, epic growth, new gear etc and then largely ran out of steam. For me it was just too hard on the body and got boring, same as kiting in early 2000’s. However downhill skateboarding almost 10 years to the day is having a minor resurgence with new world series. What I find really interesting is that in the slower years, the performance and skill level continued to increase, probably even accelerated. The level is barely conceivable to when I left it.
Another parallel is snowboarding smart alecs of the 80s, which has had years of ebbing and flowing alongside skiing, only across decades does it look to have progressed.
My bet here is that we are just at the early stage of a few decades of innovation, with some slower years at some stage before going properly mainstream after this sudden surge in innovation as the dust settles.
We are the green part of the Early Market, with the Chasm ahead, and if we fail to make the jump, go back into relative obscurity for another cycle before going truly “mainstream”. I imagine foiling will genuinely benefit the most from the Olympic windsurfing turning to foiling, validating the whole lot of us alongside to varying degrees.
What happens if not is a probable slow down due to hitting the limits of most surf spots. Maybe the most interesting thing is that foiling opens surfing up to suboptimal surf regions, rather than transforms surfing in existing surf areas.
*sorry for essay and typos