We’re Pascal & Etienne, a duo of aeronautics engineers hailing from France. Over the past 6 years, we’ve been immersed in the world of efoil design and manufacturing.
Our journey started with the patenting of a motor architecture for marine applications. In 2019, we launched an inflatable efoil under the Whimsifoil brand, initially catering to professional rental operators. We pivoted our strategy last year and unveiled a new line of products under the Plume brand, with the goal to provide the best value for money on the market.
In the span of this year, we’ve crafted 100 boards, and while we have a myriad of other products in the pipeline, our primary focus lies in the ongoing development of Plume.
Now, we’re here, fresh to the Foil Zone community. Not because we didn’t want to be part of this incredible forum, but rather to preserve our vision from external influence.
Yet, we recognize the immense value of community collaboration. That’s why we’re reaching out to you today. We believe our unique experiences, technical choices, and lessons learnt along the way might be of interest to some of you.
So, let’s break the ice with an AMA! Fire away with your questions, curiosity, or anything you’d like to know. We’re here, open and ready to share our insights with this incredible community of builders. Cheers to innovation and the endless possibilities that lie ahead!
I get you feel it’s “beginner oriented” but it’s not really the case, we’ve got a bunch of experienced users who loved riding Plume (both testers and clients).
Most of them placing it above Lift or PWR in terms of ride feeling, carving, maneuverability. We’ve got a lower top speed though, we’ve been more focused on flight sensations than specs.
For our board we kinda needed a one size fits all (moulds are really expensive) and we really wanted Plume to be hybrid and thus also needed our board to be usable with a wing, towed, etc… Which is not completely trivial actually.
But to answer your question, we’re also working on evolutions to enhance the user experience: high aspect wings, faster propeller, extended battery, …
thanks, how is your product technically different from a PWR foil which is already providing a very good price/performance/ride experience and made in FR ? That’s likely your only competitor as lift/flite operate in another market (much more luxury foils). Price tag is similar, so how do you make the difference.
in other terms, why people would get a Plume instead of a PWR ? are you boards or any of your parts made in France such as PWR?
We have many more competitors but we actually have several of our clients who are/were PWR clients as well…
But to answer your question, PWR and Plume have different strengths and weaknesses.
As far as we know:
PWR is faster, has a wider products line and has bigger batteries. They also have a much bigger customer base.
Plume is cheaper, hybrid, behaves better in flight and is easier to assemble.
Our motors are made in France (in our workshop). Most other parts are custom made in China, such as all other efoil manufacturers.
I hope this answers your question, we’re not here to praise nor decry our competitors though…