Endless Pool Foil Ride?

[Dave_5280]

Wonder if one of those swimming exercise pools with the current in it, would allow someone to ride a hydrofoil in it.

[dice]

No real life experience with foil yet. But if you have a handlebar attached to a rope to keep yourself in place or you are pumping to keep yourself in place, it should work in theory.
But I wonder how fast the water has to go to counter the energy required to keep the foil in place.
Is it possible to foil at the speed of a swimmer? Or is that way too slow?

[Peter_Frank]

No real life experience with foil yet. But if you have a handlebar attached to a rope to keep yourself in place or you are pumping to keep yourself in place, it should work in theory.
But I wonder how fast the water has to go to counter the energy required to keep the foil in place.
Is it possible to foil at the speed of a swimmer? Or is that way too slow?

I think it might be too slow, depends on the tank.

Average swimmers are around 3-4 km/h.

The elite can reach 10 km/h.

If the water can go 10 to 15 km/h I think you should easily be able to foil stationary with a big wing, as you CAN go this slow without special equipment.

Of course, if loads of wind, you CAN go a lot slower, just hanging under a powered kite, so even walking pace 3-4 km/h is possible.

Peter

[jumptheshark]

Flumes are kinda turbulent. Would be a bumpy ride, esp if you can crank up the speed.

Most consumer grade ones don't go all that much over 5 km/h for safety reasons.

[Peter_Frank]

Flumes are kinda turbulent. Would be a bumpy ride, esp if you can crank up the speed.

Most consumer grade ones don't go all that much over 5 km/h for safety reasons.

Makes sense.

A really big wingfoil can go a lot slower, and a lot more tolerant with turbulence/white water bubbles.

So a kite, on a wingfoil board - would be the best take on this idea.

Maybe a wing could be used, but not the same lift as a bigger kite, so more speed needed (unless its nuking).

Peter

[jumptheshark]

Just looked it up and the most sophisticated flumes used for elite level stroke evaluation and materials development boast a top laminar flow speed of 2.3 m/s ( 4.47 knots, 8.28 km/h, 5.14 mph)

It is a massive installation compared to the common back yard swim flume.

https://tenerifetoptraining.com/en/flume-2/