I’ve put together a solid efoil, spent a ton of time on it this season, picked up some tricks, sanded the foil and prop, sealed the nose cone, and swapped the ESC from 75200 to 75100. Now, I’m at a bit of a crossroads on what to improve next.
Should I try a smaller motor? Or maybe build a smaller board for next season? I’m wondering what benefits that would bring. I really like the size of my current board – it’s light and buoyant enough to stand on. But what could I gain if I went smaller?
I will tell you my attitude to all this.
My goal is enabling me and others to do water sports together. Sport - to do extreme+healthy activity on the water using natural resources - waves+wind.
That goal is my real motivation. Despite me enjoying the build, it is a means to the goal.
E-foil gets boring fast for me, it was a gateway to pump foiling, surfoil, making it easy to accumulate a lot of time on foil quickely.
Being able to lend the setup to my wife, relatives, for them to experiance foiling without the involvement of learning pump foil or the struggle of going wingfoiling.
Small sinker board and smaller foil is a good challenge, I went from 75lt to 25lt, and from 1700 to 1050cm2 foil.
The start needs to have better technique, and then the flight is more interesting due to lightweight board and sharp foil.
Keep the current setup to share, build a lightweight setup for yourself to challenge your skills with less power and lift
Size of a boogie isn’t really an issue, about the same as a wing board or a couple of 5m wings packed up. It’s heavier than an assist or efoil, but that only matters off the water.
Use a trolley if you need to walk far to the beach.
So is a motorbike being driven through a shopping mall, or on a foot path. People need to have a bit of responsibility and don’t use boogies and assists around surfers. The good thing with tow boogies is that the great battery life means you can find your own wave anywhere with in 5km either side of the launch spot. I’ve never once wanted to go anywhere near a traditional line up, there are so many better uncrowded waves around.
You can pump and do rope pick ups. Motoring and spluttering back out through the line up is why surfers get annoyed with assists and will end up with bans.
As far as user experience goes, I’ve had around 25 people demo a Boogie, sold their assist and then bought a Boogie. No one has done that opposite.
If your getting bored of efoil, definitely look at DIYing a boogie.
On higher goals, I was thinking about starting an efoil manufacturing company, and my friends encouraged me to do the same when they found out how cheap it would be for me to make efoil.
I transitioned from windsurfing to e-foiling because I had reached a certain level in windsurfing and started to feel bored. Additionally, I grew tired of always waiting for ideal weather conditions with good wind to get out on the water. I anticipate feeling the same way about surfing eventually. What I appreciate about e-foiling is that it’s far less dependent on the weather.
And what is the goal in starting a company? The goal of business is ofc money, but what is your goal?
Amidst progressing through prototypes, I think about the next phases.
Eventually a company consists of [ research > development > manufacturing > customer support > selling > marketing ].
At this stage of life I understand what excites me the most, choose to prioritize in the order listed above that occupation, limit and delegate other occupations.
I don’t think so. The tow boogie is less efficient, heavier, bulkier, and takes up more space both in the garage and the car. With the e-foil, I can ride for about 40 kilometers and over 2 hours non-stop, but the tow boogie will deliver much less on the same battery.
I enjoy engineering and briefly considered starting a company but decided against it. My goal is to pursue something I’m passionate about while also earning a living.
So your reached a level or world champ? Because if you didn’t that statement makes no sense…
I’ve never ever heard a surfer say that they are bored of surfing.
On the the other hand, Efoiling on a flat lake becomes pretty mundane quickly. I know a large number of guys selling their efoils because they are tired of the setup time and faff that goes with it. I’ve even stopped using std efoils because the weight is just a pain to deal with.
Improvements for you to consider.
Motor size: minimally effective wattage, motor, and battery size needed to stay on foil for 10 minutes while pumping at around 13mph after a dockstart. Smaller motor=cheaper parts for future kits.
Board shape: see sea plane hull design for optimization of shape for lift off rather than to plane. Make sure to eliminate all swing weight by aligning the COP of wing with the COG of the board with no foil on it.
Actually, it makes sense because I can get bored, even without achieving world champion status.
Ask a former surfer; they might have a different view.
I understand the concern. I can reduce assembly time, and fortunately, I can bring my board fully assembled right to the lake. The weight isn’t an issue for me, especially since I can park right by the water. Compared to a large windsurfing board with a sail, it’s quite light and easy to handle, even if I need to carry it a short distance.
Yea i got bored of surfing, foiling has reinvigorated my love of waves though. There is so much development that has yet to happen for foiling and lot of improvements can be made. Do you want to share pics and details of your board, foil, etc and maybe we can make suggestions for progression.
@Pavel I think you sort of have two paths of “progress.” Progress in terms of building and making something different or progress in terms of actual foil riding experience. For the latter, I think finding a different Naish front wing or stabilizer might be interesting for you, the main challenge might be locating a suitable used wing. Or you could explore adapting different brand wings onto the Naish mast/fuselage.
