Hi all.
I am planning to start building a efoil. Please help me through the initial steps, where to start , etc.
This could also be used for any other beginner to star building.
1 Like
The best advice I can give you is to start reading build posts and get familiar with the different components required to build an efoil. Then, you will want to determine whether you want to build your board, buy one or modify an existing one to suit an efoil application. You will also want to determine what kind of batteries you want to use (LiPO or li-ion).
The lists goes on and on but the best way to determine what components you want to get to build an efoil is really by reading the big build posts and asking questions. Most of these posts indirectly include a beginner guide on how to build it. As of now, I don’t think there has been the perfect or ultimate build that is cheap and easy to make, so it will be up to you to take the best ideas from different builds and build the best efoil you can. @pacificmeister, @Mat, @Hiorth are all excellent builds so you should definitely start by reading about their projects.
Cheers and good luck
2 Likes
There is currently a discussion over at New Direct Drive Inrunner 65150 - Propulsion System (Motor, Gears) - FOIL.zone which had 3 direct drive motors being tested by guys on this site meaning that you wouldn’t need a gearbox
1 Like
You can add @MAJA-Board to the list with a second Reacher Tech 100KV.
So now we havea list of 4 100kV :
Maytech: virus, Jezza week 2 of August,
Reacher Tech: MauiMan, MAJA-Board
Flipsky: theone
I think building an eFoil is still a bit of a stretch for beginners.
The good news is that there seem to be a ton of companies jumping into the market now. Lots of new motors, boards, wings and batteries. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone comes out with a quality board for under $7,000 (USD) within a year. Not much more than you would spend in time and components if you were going to do it yourself now.
1 Like
The future is today:
5436usd or 4854EUR for export (5985€ with VAT) here https://www.horue.fr/efoil-en/e-foil-waviator or
3000usd direct from china E-FOIL SURFBOARD - JINHUA HISUN Sport factory
1 Like
Are those actually reliable manufacturers? I know I have seen the names on these forums but I distinctly remember reading only negative opinions of their boards, I just can’t find the topics right now since I’m on mobile.
Waviator used to be wavigator, no?
You certainly refer to
Actually, Waviator.de is a German company reselling Hisun products (Epoch) who has been around for nearly 2 years.
WaviGator is the name of a board sold by Hoverstar, a Chinese electronics company. It is like Toyota selling a car model named AuGi S230 or CheGrolet. Confusing isn’t it ?
Epoch is the owner of the Hisun brand that resell to 4 brands:
1- waviator.de Germany reselling to horue.com a serious kitefoil and windfoil company from France
2- dolsey.com from USA (Mickael DOLSEY) 3- theultrafoil.com from USA
If it wasn’t a correct product (not mentioning it is good), you wouldn’t have this distribution network.
1 Like
Very interesting, thank you for the information. It looks like Dolsey is close enough that I could even drive down there to test one!
Does the Hisun board have a decent reputation? I’m searching the forum but can’t find much information about it.
Please keep us posted. He seems to have been in the business for a long time selling surfboards and seems to back his products.
Hisun product quality ? The sport is young and 6000usd is expensive so difficult to find feedbacks.
I did some searching on their line of surfboards and the reviews were pretty… mixed, to put it gently.
Reddit thread 1: https://redd.it/9pnbbj
Reddit thread 2: Reddit - Dive into anything
SwellInfo thread: https://www.swellinfo.com/forum/threads/michael-dolsey-surfboards.3873/
But for all we know there could 10x as many happy customers who saw no reason to post online about their perfectly normal surfboard.
It’s also possible that the Hisun manufacturer is a completely different manufacturer than their regular lineup of boards…
I’ve been doing some more reading about the Hisun / Dolsey / Ultra board. A couple things stood out to me:
-
It says “Battery is sealed and water resistant”. This seems like a huge red flag to me. Shouldn’t the battery be waterproof?
-
It says the battery is only 36 volts. Doesn’t that seem pretty low? It looks like most people around here are using 12S or 14S batteries for their builds, so minimum 44 volts…
Battery:
| IPx7 | Protected against immersion in water. Immersion for 30 minutes to a depth of 1 meter. |
|---|---|
| IPx8 | Protected against sinking into the water. The device is capable of continuous immersion in water under conditions specified by the device manufacturer. |
Even if they are in waterproof electrical boxes, most batteries cases here are not waterproof (LIFT Lithos battery case is is only IP67 so water resistant. I don’t think that so far neither LIFT nor Fliteboard have stated that their electrical box was IP68.
Voltage: 36V is 10s. Below the standards of the competition. Hisun seem to use outrunner motors which have a much higher torque than inrunners of identical size/volume.
Using 10s is a way to lower the max speed and decrease the potential dangers to anticipate the certification rules of the different countries where it would be sold. Some countries consider that a battery is dangerous above 48v (12s) especially in water.
You could ask the same set of questions in parallel to Dolsey and Ultra … 
Are outrunners more or less efficient than inrunners? Based on what I’ve read it sounds like outrunners are less efficient but I could be wrong. If I’m correct though, that makes me doubt their battery life claims even more (they claim > 1 hour run time).
I’m trying to get in touch with them, still waiting for a response.
Lift’s page says their battery is “enclosed in a rugged, IP68 waterproof housing”.
It’s funny because this is what Lithos say on their High Energy (NCA) low voltage battery pack page:
This pack features a light-weight polymer enclosure that is factory sealed and IP67 rated
To prove your battery case is XP68 (able to survive in water indefinitely), you need (?) to leave it for 2 to 4 weeks in a deep pool (10m or 30’). Does a water surface toy need a costly IP68 battery case over IP 67 ? Overkill and overpriced.
Hello 
I’m new to this forum and got lost in all threads so I will ask here (please feel free to point me to links that explains).
I’m very experienced in ESK8 building, it’s the foil/ board design that new for me.
I will be happy for some explanations about the following:
- Propellor RPM- I have heard 4000 is optimal, is that true? (let’s take the flipsky 65161 for reference)
- Foil- how to choose wing shape and size?
- Mast- what length is recommended?
- Battery- What’ the average consumtion? is 14S6P of molicell p42a enough? (~25ah)
I know these question are very general so I will try to give some context by describing the build design plans and requirements.
REQ:
Rider weight- 230 LBS
Max speed- 40KMH
Range- at least 60mins of riding
Design plan:
Board- custom carbon deck (a friend of mine produce it)
Foil: 80 cm mast (carbon, custom made), 1600cm^2 front wing
Motor + prop: flipsky 65161 100KV + flipsky prop
ESC: VESC 300/75 (300A, 75V)
Battery: 14S6P molicell P42a with 200A BMS
I will be happy to hear your thoughts!
Thanks in advance,
Shlomo.
3000usd direct from china https://www.epoch-power.net/efoilsurfboard/
Please view this video before buying from HiSun. The unfortunate soul who went through this experience bought this HiSun efoil through Alibaba. I did a search on HiSun on alibaba, and i couldn’t find them anymore. It appears they are still selling direct from their website.
