As always, if we believed the people who say that this is not possible, we would still be living in the Stone Age
The smaller the volume of the board, the bigger the prop should be in order to achieve a high starting thrust. This is the quickest way to get to the water surface and to glide with a little angle of attack.
Greetings Frank
NO Iām not. I have kitesurfed plenty before, so know all the inās and outsā¦ Iām just looking at this board from a practical and logical wide-user-base point of view, considering he plans on āmaking 700 units per monthā.
Do yourself a favour. Get a Go Pro, then try take off with your kiteboard 1m under the surface of the water. Then provide the videoā¦
No itās not. If youād done both you would understand why I made this comparisonā¦
No beginner will have an easy time on that Supernova board regardless of the GBS. Most beginners struggle to even stand up easily at first. Hence why all the companies make high volume board for this exact reason. This is well proven worldwide with all the rental companies and I have also taught people to efoil.
The mere fact that you made this statement explains everything! Wakeboards have just about an endless amount of options for the boots. Kiteboards can also have their straps shifted backwards and forwards. I have tow-surfed as well and you always customise the straps to your stance as all surfers prefer something different. PSā¦I donāt wakefoil with straps, itās not worth it unless you plan on jumping the foilā¦
But we already know he did. The info for the battery tech is widely available online with a simple google search (for those that already donāt understand it). It has half the energy density than Li-ion which automatically means he needs a battery twice as heavy. Then thereās the simple fact that the motors he is using come from China, so heās using whats already on the market (again this can be seen on his first board in the videos).
Get yourself a bodyboard and try surfing (from lying to standing) on it. I can and have done this, but for a beginner itās near impossible. But this will help you understand the complexity of trying to stand up on a small board in a non-stationary environment.
Taking the nonsense specs heās presented out of the equation and putting a small high discharge battery in the board, If you started on your stomach and then stood up, an experienced rider would probably be able to foil the board. But that doesnāt mean its a practical or good design!
If you then do add his specās in, the simple physics of it make it pretty much impossible. No one wants a 20kg battery on their board!
Of course you can question things, and in some points I even agree with you!
But still you sometimes put forward theses that cannot be followed, e.g. your motor comparisons or claim which motor is identical without going into winding diagram, magnet structure, wire size etc.
Why donāt we just let ourselves be surprised at what Supernova might see at some point.
You can stay careful.
I e.g. have no problems with small volume boards because I have no volume myself
Low volume is not a problem , i see the board just as a stand for my feet and a case to hold the battery not to small not to big ā¦
For its design ( beside the fact that a lot of power will be needed at start ) it is the open space in the middle : water will go over the board , even with speed , take off will hard , not impossible , but really hard , and this space can be used for the battery so why not use it (?)
Yo might see it as negative, but itās more a place of being realistic and knowing that there are better approaches.
As Alexandre has pointed out, there lack of battery space, the holes will also catch water.
Then thereās the whole issue around the fact that polycaronate is MUCH MUCH heavier than a foam-carbon combination. I would guess that the board (without foil) probably comes in at about 10kg alone. The polycarbonate is probably 6kg of that!
Hi everybodyā¦
Iām reading this topic and laughing a little bit. Coming from a wingsurfers group, I used to āfightā with Isabelle Quatre as she spammed the group everyday with poor quality vids that showed a custom board heavily flying and a so called engineer unable to ride it.
When I wrote that this kind of product had nothing to do with wingsurf, she answered that they wanted to allow disabled people to use a foil.
I now read your posts about waterstartingā¦
The only thing Iām sure is that they change their mind everyday and donāt know where they are going.
I could do that but the demo is tomorrow so, as @JetboardCologne suggests, letās wait and ā¦ see. 1m under the surface ? No way. The question is just whether or not a rider can lay and then stand on a rigid bodyboard with electric foiling abilityā¦ . Looks quite doable to me so long the board supports both your elbows and the middle of your thighsā¦ keeping arms and legs straight while standing, foot-hooks do help if cleverly positioned according to the foilās centre of lift. Wing ailerons controlled by servos in an enlarged fuselage (as in RC planes) would be a huge bonus for the set balance.
Event nĀ°1 SUPERNOVA on the water on the 25th December, Wed. 13:00 UTC (UK time, Paris 2:00pm) Ā· Efoil Supernova Ā· Meaux
+++ Comment from video posted on 2019-12-17 08:51 āSee you again in another videoā¦ with more detailsā¦ the 25(th) December after I can show you everything (ā¦) the motor, energy inside : battery, the weight, how you can take-off out of the water, how you can ride one hour with 15 kilosā¦ itāsā¦ really efficientā¦ā
Event nĀ°2 - 31st DEC. 00:00 TUES, SUPERNOVA PRO RACE IN ACTION
The night before new yearās eve then. We donāt know if it is UTC or Paris time (UTC 11:00)
So, here we are. I live in the same time zone. Any news ? Call me old game but I donāt have any social media account so I donāt even follow him. Would love to read any update
I do see how it can work. Almost like barefoot water skiing.
It is the starting that will be a challenging feat. When in the air the balancing also needs consideration, but a board then too is just a cantilever.
Have you barefoot waterskiād before? Itās the starting part thatās the hardest. Either using a board and stepping up or lying on your back till you are going fast enough.
Iām not sure how he thinks heās gonna start it, but definitely canāt start it underwaterā¦
But why not? Surely there are things that needs figuring out, but not impossible.
Pretty sure your e-foil starts underwater. Like everyone elseās.
Itās the planning part in which a board up to this point in the e-foil evolution , that makes the modern e-foil possible.
Dunno. Maybe reconfigure the foot position ? Maybe add intermediate level foils? I say make it work. I would like it to.
About barefoot skiing. Well when I was younger Iāve tried in the Wailua river. Never got any good .At that break neck speed, it wasnt fun for me.
Heck they use to run chair foils there too.
When you start with a board or foil underwater you have to lean back in order to get the board or foil at the right angle to rise up. This shifts the center of gravity way back. When you are attached to a jetski or boat, the ski rope will enable you to pull your COG back forward again. However you donāt have this with any form of efoil. So once your COG is behind the foil itās always going to stay there and you will fall backwards.
I admit , the barefoot skiing comparison is not what was intended and a bad example.
It was the point about starting underwater intended. Nevertheless, the initial start maybe trivial but I do see a solution. Remember the phrase āweight controlledā.
The rider facing the direction of travel, the best analogy is certainly the Flyboard by Zapata Racing (ZR). This strange riding position for an eFoil is supposed to allow you to do backflips at 2m high in the Airchair/Flyboard style which you cannot do with feet placed like on a surfboard.
ZR is a French innovative company makingā¦ watertoys (Flyboard) and airtoys (Flyboard Air which crossed the Channel last August plus the impressive demo on the Bastille Day @Alexandre )ā¦ Isnāt it strange that the Supernova generic name is called the ā¦ Flyfoil and now the ā¦Flyshoes ?
A floating vest should be necessary, maybe the reason why all the strange advertising for the Decathlon product late November on the FB page.
A disappointing video but consistent with statements āA video live of the Supernova in/on the water on 25th Decemberā a play on words obviously. Weāve discovered a second line of product though. The following promise made on December 18th is āIām going to give you a demonstration on the water with this SUPERNOVA PRO RACE just after Christmasā