Will eFoils kill Wake surfing?

[CaptainMorgan]

Guy on an efoil passed me this evening and I saw registration stickers on the side...guess maryland figured it out. 

 

On 9/15/2023 at 7:44 AM, Five Cent Worth said:

Super dumb question - how can I can tell which model is best for my family?  Are the dealerships like a traditional dealership experience where you can go in and they have product displayed and so forth?

I know a handful of boat dealers sell these on the side and have demos or ambassadors; my friend even rents his out periodically.  There are also a handful of efoil rental tours out there (like a Segway tour but for a harbor or bay).  

[dizzygti]

On 9/16/2023 at 9:04 PM, The Hulk said:

More and more E-Foil's on our lake every week.. and less surfing on our lake every week.. just sayin surf boat MFGs beware... You are being replaced whether you realize it or not.. 

 

There are tons of surf boats on our lake.. people just don't surf anymore.. they're for looking cool That's about it anymore.. unlike a few years ago it's a rarity to see one actually surfing.. The wake surf hype craze whatever you want to call it is over... efoils are dominating.. and Brunswick was late but smart...

Ya'll can argue about the social aspect of surfing... But at the end of the day efoils are the new "surf" craze.. and while still ridiculously expensive... It's still unbelievably less expensive than a surf boat... 

Maybe that's your observations, but those seem pretty subjective.   Most wake boats I see are surfing or occasionally wakeboarding.   Yeah the sudden spike in foils is a thing, but not to the point where surfing is a dead sport.   We have a local group that promotes the sport, arranging ocean surfing trips, organizes lake surfing events every two weeks, offers mostly surfing but also foiling, etc.   There are usually 3-6 boats that volunteer to captain and if needed teach basics to people new to the sport.   It's open to experienced surfers and newbs alike.  The group has grown in popularity over the past two years (just started last season), and the session sign ups fill up earlier and earlier every week.   Sessions are on Sunday afternoons starting in May and last from 3:30 to 7:30pm.   This Sunday is the last session of the year and has been full for three weeks.   It's a way to expose people to the joy of riding waves, it builds a network and community, and it lowers the barrier to entry for the average person.   At first, my wife and I thought it was just a one time deal, and they wouldn't want the same people to come back over and over.   We were wrong, and they encouraged us to do just that.   Obviously I've bought a boat in the time since this started, but the point I'm making has to do with foiling.   There is one boat that offers foiling (would be more if there was more demand).   That boat might get one or two sign ups and eventually as we get closer to the event date, they fill it with surfers.   Foiling isn't the hottest, most popular sport, surfing still is by a long shot, at least in my area.   

[RyanB]

I spent Saturday with the pro shop manager for a Malibu dealer that also sells foils (lift I think).  She’s in love with the eFoil but says they haven’t caught on. They sold 3 this year. 

[UWSkier]

Question for the e-foil experts.  How hard can you turn on these things?  Can you lay out to the point where the board is just about touching the water?  Thinking a new sport may be born.  E-foil slalom.  Would need timing systems, but I imagine whomever can navigate a ski slalom course by getting their pylon around all 6 buoys and out the exit gates fastest would be the winner.  Kindof like downhill slalom, which is timed, instead of waterski slalom, which is based on rope length.  That might be sweet.

[CaptainMorgan]

1 hour ago, UWSkier said:

Question for the e-foil experts.  How hard can you turn on these things?  Can you lay out to the point where the board is just about touching the water?  Thinking a new sport may be born.  E-foil slalom.  Would need timing systems, but I imagine whomever can navigate a ski slalom course by getting their pylon around all 6 buoys and out the exit gates fastest would be the winner.  Kindof like downhill slalom, which is timed, instead of waterski slalom, which is based on rope length.  That might be sweet.

brilliant idea!  could be done for time, or 1v1 knockout brackets or just around arbitrarily space bouy's/mooring balls -- sign me up!

hardest part is finding a critical mass of efoil'ers -- while i really like regular foils, after 20min of gliding around on a buddy's efoil its scratched my itch...but racing around buoys would add a totally different/fun element.

 

[pauley71]

until you catch to bouy line!  lol

[UWSkier]

2 hours ago, pauley71 said:

until you catch to bouy line!  lol

spectator friendly!

[The Hulk]

Laying out would be dangerous IMO.. sure you can do but your going against the board and it's wanting to lift towards you.. I would imagine if you're in a tight turn and fall below board defenders going to come up and nail you and if you end up going over the top same thing you're going to go past the board and the fin and will likely have a bad outcome.

I wouldn't be going anywhere near a buoy.. I was doing about 20mph and got close to one of the buoys where I knew it started to get shallow but I didn't know the weeds had gotten out of control and and we're below the water about 3 ft.. I barely caught any weeds and it was like the board just stopped.. In reality it wasn't a dead stop at all but just a tiny bit of drag and it threw me off the front of the thing with ease.. perhaps with foot straps you could overcome a little bit of that but without there's no way you just go flying right past like the roadrunner off the cliff.. haha