Contact   Imprint   Advertising   Guidelines

FlowFoils! Coming soon. Need advise!

Here you can exchange your experience and datas about your home build boards
Kitemanmuc
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 568
Joined: Fri Mar 20, 2015 11:10 pm
Kiting since: 2015
Style: Big Air, Kiteloops, Hydrofoil, Wave
Gear: Eleveight
Has thanked: 12 times
Been thanked: 14 times

FlowFoils! Coming soon. Need advise!

Postby Kitemanmuc » Fri May 04, 2018 3:42 am

Been working on a little project in the last 3 months to build an american made, modular hydrofoil. Shooting for under $2000 for foil and board. Full carbon.

Im stuck with 1 decision though. Carbon fuselage vs Aluminum.

What are your thoughts.
Messages Image(3202774964).png
Messages Image(453872247).png
Messages Image(355227999).png
31901858_10156137502305610_8467638048241221632_n.png
31841898_10156137501835610_1884184268511379456_n.png
31841898_10156137501835610_1884184268511379456_n.png (22.39 KiB) Viewed 4099 times
31821176_10156137501685610_2744956694575448064_n.png
31821176_10156137501685610_2744956694575448064_n.png (24.85 KiB) Viewed 4099 times
31542682_10156137501455610_3053998356234764288_n.png
31542682_10156137501455610_3053998356234764288_n.png (15.42 KiB) Viewed 4099 times

BWD
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 3848
Joined: Thu Jun 05, 2003 3:37 am
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 81 times

Re: FlowFoils! Coming soon. Need advise!

Postby BWD » Fri May 04, 2018 4:11 am

If you’re going carbon, go all the way.
Unless you can do a “fancy” al fuse like alpine or zeeko.
Al bar fuse is kinda lame.

airsail
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 684
Joined: Mon Jun 22, 2009 8:57 am
Weight: 80kg
Local Beach: Queens Beach North, Queensland, Australia
Favorite Beaches: Queens North, I don’t travel much
Style: Foiling
Gear: Sonic 3 15mtr, Soul 10 mtr, BRM Clouds 8, 6.2, 4.8, 3.7
Lift, Naish and Levitaz foils
Carbonco and home build boards
Ozone and Duotone wings
Naish Hover 95 foilboard
Brand Affiliation: None
Location: Australia
Has thanked: 338 times
Been thanked: 167 times

Re: FlowFoils! Coming soon. Need advise!

Postby airsail » Fri May 04, 2018 12:09 pm

If you can build a full carbon fuselage strong enough so that it can be jumped and abused without breaking, go carbon. But, if there is a chance of breaking go alloy. With a low price point you going to have beginners giving it a hiding, and warranty replacements can become an issue.

BWD
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 3848
Joined: Thu Jun 05, 2003 3:37 am
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 81 times

Re: FlowFoils! Coming soon. Need advise!

Postby BWD » Fri May 04, 2018 1:27 pm

WIth the ability to convert almost anything to foilboard, other cheap options plus a used market, $2000 for board & foil is not really powerful or the bottom of the market.
If you can make the rest of carbon, the fuse can be carbon too.
You just have to use plenty of carbon and good workmanship.
You don’t want the customer to choose a Lift foil for <$1400 + a cheap paipo, used foilboard, or conversion of one of their own old boards, instead of your product.
Because of Lift’s one piece design, there is an apparent positionavailable for a demountable, economical carbon foil. That’s what I would want to shoot for. Or buy myself.
BTW make that fuse really, really strong and be prepared for riders to want extra large wings for freestyle and learning, big wings are coming back...

tmcfarla
Frequent Poster
Posts: 447
Joined: Sun Apr 16, 2006 6:35 am
Has thanked: 9 times
Been thanked: 54 times

Re: FlowFoils! Coming soon. Need advise!

Postby tmcfarla » Fri May 04, 2018 4:53 pm

^ what he said. Best advice you’ll get. Lift is an established brand with a good reputation, so it will have to be either a lot cheaper than lift or significantly differentiated from their offerings.

If I were trying to make a cheap setup, I’d definitely save money by doing a paipo like board instead of full carbon. Material costs for a full carbon board are probably higher than for a full carbon foil.

I personally would want carbon fuselage. I actually wouldn’t mind a heavy aluminum mast, but light wings/fuse are just so much easier to handle in the water. (Not sure about aluminum mast playing nice with carbon fuselage, though).

slowboat
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 783
Joined: Sat Jun 10, 2017 2:55 pm
Style: wave foiling
Gear: This and that
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 95 times
Been thanked: 104 times

Re: FlowFoils! Coming soon. Need advise!

Postby slowboat » Fri May 04, 2018 5:00 pm

tmcfarla wrote:
Fri May 04, 2018 4:53 pm


I personally would want carbon fuselage. I actually wouldn’t mind a heavy aluminum mast, but light wings/fuse are just so much easier to handle in the water. (Not sure about aluminum mast playing nice with carbon fuselage, though).
Exactly. Carbon fuse is more important than carbon mast


Return to “Gear Builders”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 46 guests