I’m skeptical about the price point. Looking at the completed builds here, the cost of the materials/components alone is around $3K. It would be awesome to get a $4K eFoil off the shelf but I’m afraid it’s just another scam.
Is it realistic that someone could mass produce an eFoil for $4k each? Probably.
Will Waydoo be the company to pull it off? Probably not.
Interesting to see they’ve now switched to Fliteboard’s design. I do think it’s the superior design out of the two major brands, but that seems like a big last-minute change since Waydoo’s previous prototypes (as recent as 3 months ago) all looked more like a Lift eFoil with the motor mounted several inches higher than the wing.
Interesting KS link. We know more about the product than from the official site itself.
Waydoo have been in the business since 2018 and were present at the Las Vegas CES show as early as Jan 2019. https://e-surfer.com/en/waydoo-flyer-electric-hydrofoil/
When you buy a Reacher Tech motor for 100usd instead of 430 sample price… everything is possible.
So yes, 4000USD + shipping (0$ for the US-CA-AUS, 1500$ for Europe ) including tax is possible as their RRP for August is 4500+tax.
Will you get a good quality ? A not so risky bet IMHO as last month, they have set up a European selling network in the Netherlands.
My question would be “Why do they launch a Kickstarter campaign as they are a known company and they already have the selling network ?”
It looks like they made some pretty drastic design changes. Their board used to look just like the Lift eFoil, with the motor mounted several inches up on the mast.
Now it looks just like the Fliteboard (or Pegasus), with the motor at the bottom of the mast – same height as the main foil. The whole detachable assembly looks just like Fliteboard’s too.
If they’re just copying the design then I’m pretty skeptical of their ability to deliver a high quality product and even more skeptical of their ability to support it.
Waydoo have their own in house propulsion unit. starting from the motor to the propeller and duct. I believe they also developed their own wings and mast. This allows them to greatly cut the price of their product.
Also, a so tempting price means they plan to produce a lot of boards too, way more than Flite or Lift, which also helps to decrease the prices.
Flite might sell their boards to 5k€ if they ever produce 2000-3000 units per year too.
Commercial strategy is confusing. At least for Europe. A month ago I’ve been in contact with their European reseller based in Netherlands (Flying Fish). We’ve discussed about the model he was selling in May with 5 weeks delay and called “Flyer”. The retail price was 7622€ including VAT and shipping to France (300€).
A month later Waydoo comes with the “Flyer one” with different specs and a lower price. I’m glad to not be an early buyer of the “Flyer”…
KickStarter approach reminds me VeConcept adventure
I wouldn’t say that as they not only master everything with their Flyer model experience but they are delivering a mature product just a couple of weeks after the start of their KickS campaign. Chris set up VeConcept to collect money while learning and sharing his knowledge (motors, remote, propellers, batteries, …) announcing he would produce at cost… Here, the Flyer v1 was Waydoo’s demonstrator, and its higher price reflects the inital costs and investments. The One is the first efoil board of the industry designed and engineered to be mass produced. The Waydoo guys are just applying the DJI drone knowledge/model (DJI is a Waydoo investor) to the efoil market. So this is is the first deliverable 2.0 efoil (sub 5000usd))
Btw, Supernova should launch tomorrow.
You’re right.
The only regret we could have with Waydoo is they do not share efoil community spirit. I’ve asked for FR propellers compatibility but they did not accept to answer or provide engine ref or prop axis mensurations to check with David.
I personally can understand why. They put lots of money and effort to make their own propulsion system and don’t want to disclose anything for now to avoid being copied.
Still a lot to learn about this product and brand but that sounds promising!
Flyer One has an EPS foam board and no carbon board option for now. That could explain a bit the agressive price.
I was looking through the eFoil Facebook group and saw an interesting comment from David Trewern (Fliteboard founder) about the Pegasus eFoil:
Looks like a blatant rip off of Fliteboard unibody fuselage and Flitebox system. (Both of which are patented). The battery design is also derived from Fliteboard, and the hand controller looks like a 50/50 blend of Flite/Lift hand controller. While renders look nice, a good ride and durable system comes from endless testing and refinement.
The Waydoo eFoil is also a blatant ripoff of the Fliteboard design, so it will be interesting to see if they run into any legal trouble. I don’t know much about patents but this seems to be what David is referring to: WO2019104378A1 - Powered hydrofoil system - Google Patents
Anyone with more patent experience know if that would be enough for Fliteboard to stop sales of the new Waydoo unit?
Correct. Evolo was the first efoil with unibody fuselage in 2009, followed by Don Montague who’s first prototypes were also unibody. That was way before David and I got our DIY experiments going.
What I wanted from this thread was to check the credibility of this Kickstarter campaign before pledging any money. Kickstarter does not issue refunds and does not guarantee you will get anything from campaign owners.
First, I reached out to Kevin Wade, the “verified” creator of this Kickstarter campaign, via Facebook asking to confirm he was indeed related to this project. I got no reply.
Then, I emailed to https://www.waydootech.com asking whether I can buy 2 boards directly from them via PayPal. I got a reply from CEO explaining that their business PayPal account will be ready by late July, and meanwhile he offered me to wire $9K to an account in China. I replied, insisting on paying via PayPal or any major CC, to get at least some buyer protection. Also, I offered to pick up the board in person from their distribution center in Charleston, SC. I got no reply.
I still hope this is not a scam and wish them good luck delivering a commercial $4K efoil with decent quality.
) including tax is possible as their RRP for August is 4500+tax.
