When you want to enjoy surfing on the water, you need waves. Other than that you also need to have the best balancing skills to stay on the surfboard.
But that’s only if you use the conventional one. There’s a surfboard which not only can be used over water without waves, it could also fly over the wet surface.
Called the eFoil, this is an electric-powered hydrofoil surfboard or more commonly known to be a flying surfboard. It is the brainchild of Lift Foils, a company based in Puerto Rico.
Photos by Lift Foils
Video by Lift Foils
Flying at a top speed of 25 mph, it works by having a submerged hydrofoil to lift the actual board of the surfboard out of the water. The design uses wing-like structures to provide life and stability.
The surfer doesn’t have to do so much since the eFoil has an electric motor in the hydrofoil which allows a smooth ride without actually doing any work.
To understand simply, this surfboard can be thought of as an electric skateboard, but instead of the pavement, it shreds the glassy surface of the water.
Photos by Lift Foils
The entire thing is controlled using a wireless handheld controller which is connected to the board via Bluetooth. By any case this controller is dropped into the water, the user can find it easily as it stays afloat.
Meanwhile, the battery packs two kilowatt hours, enough to let you use the eFoil for 45 minutes. The charging time of the battery is at 2 and a half hours.
There are two varieties of the eFoil: the standard E1 eFoil and the E1 Sport model. Nick Leason, the founder of the company, shared that the standard eFoil is more stable with the bigger deck, while the smaller board is more nimble and turns quicker.
Interested buyers can take an eFoil home in four different colors: carbon black, carbon free, carbon blue, and carbon purple. It should cost you $12,000 for each – a price that seems to not bother surfer wannabees as the waitlist is almost full.
Production starts September. The company expects that the volume will increase by October.
Leason said, “We’ll be scaling up production one step at a time, and I’m currently bringing on additional suppliers for each of the components and we’ll continue to scale up production across 2018 in preparation for manufacturing a broader range in 2019.
“The aim is to have a couple of different price points and a couple of boards with different construction materials. I’m hoping for a linear growth in our production capacity over the next few years,” he added.
Source: Digital Trends
