Hi. I am totally independent of this company and imported two of their model boards into New Zealand for trial. In some ways they were āprojectsā in that I did a lot of finer finishing to bring the boards to the standard that I wanted ⦠such as adjusting the hatch locks so they worked as intended, etc. The experience has not been fault free by any means, but they did send out a replacement remote to me when one failed, and likewise no hesitation to send out a replacement ESC when one become faulty. The photo here looks the same as the boards (but not the foil/mast/motor assembly) that I imported. I have found this board to be very forgiving in the chop and for beginners as the board pops up easily on touchdowns. The foils on the boards I imported also proved to be more stable than the originals on Waydoo e-foils, to the point I purchased a set and converted my Waydoo over to use Yuhuan-medās foils (I posted on this earlier). But the foils on this new e-foil are different so I cannot comment on them.
An advantage of the two boards that I have is the simplicity of the design WRT to comms ⦠there is no handshaking required that is not sealed in the various receiver/ESC bricks. I mention this as I have used these boards over a year in sea water (I try to get out at least once each week, sometime three times) and still going ⦠whereas I had to retire my (older model) Waydoo to fresh water use only (otherwise it regularly needed more time in the workshop than I got on the water). Of course the downside of less comms is safety ⦠but at least it is not 400V at the battery terminals that you need to be worried about.
I am an engineer with a start up background (but not in e-foils) so I guess I am a little more tolerant of startup issues. I can see that the company will get there if they continue to improve their equipment, finishing, etc. I have not yet seen their new e-foil board other than in several videos and therefore I cannot comment on whether they have already got there.
I have been looking at purchasing their new e-foil as the ones I have are 3000W and I am now looking for a little more power (for towing ordinary foils) and a little more battery (we foiled from Sourching Bay to Oriental Bay and back this w/e, around a 16km trip, on 65% ⦠would like a little more) which the new model should provide ⦠but the chair of the in-house financial committee first requires our e-foil wardrobe to be downsized.
⦠rambling here, but also forgot to mention cost ⦠they are one of the cheapest on the market (and made it affordable for me to get the originals and get hooked after spending much the same making my own and not getting anywhere the same time on the water).
Personally, I would suggest that the company get their e-foil out in the market and get some independent reviews through this ⦠and also be very open as to what stage they are in the startup phase (in my field, we use to count on 20 failures a month, then 10 the next, 5 the next, etc. ⦠are they at a <1 failure per month stage? Noting a 0 failure rate is an ideal that is very difficult to achieve in this e-foil market ⦠especially at the lower cost market level they are looking at).