e-assisted foil

juandesooka

OTF status
Jan 12, 2009
346
294
63
A guy at my local break recently putt putted past on a motorized longboard … kinda kooky, but he was an old guy and said this paddling assist extended his sessions. The motor drag would for sure affect board performance, but at his level, it didn’t seem to matter all that much. Anyways, it intrigued me to think of having a motor that could give some boost for foil surfing, just enough to catch waves otherwise un-paddle-able … and then once up and riding, the motor is out of the water, so there’s no drag or performance issues. But he paid several thousand for it….so that’s a turn-off.

But I came across this kickstarter project today, seems to check off the boxes

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/racer23/boost-surfing-fin

Not too heavy, runs for just 8 seconds so it will give a push then turns itself off once up and foiling. Most importantly, it’s pretty cheap for experimenting with something that probably won’t work! [and fully expect a “get what you pay for” experience….at this price we’re probably into Alibaba level quality]

I will probably just try taping it to the foil mast at first. If it seems useful, then I’d consider adding a fin box to mount it.