I spent a fair bit of time away from waves or buddies to drive boats this summer, and when the wind wasn’t there I’d etow with my takuma. I found it to be a hoot. Being straight behind it with little turbulence I could carve like crazy on my prone board. I could also test tweaks easily as well as let go and pump next to it to stay in range, so when I stopped it’d be right there.
Edit: just remove foil and attach rope to back of fuse. Pull rope to right to make it go left, etc.
Doubt this link will work, but video and photos of the setup you describe, for Lift. This answers a question I had, how to fly it without front wing, when lift has the fuselage and 2 wings all connected. This rider made an aluminum mount.
Hi guys, I started winging, then I got foil drive. I went from a 90L wingboard to a 40L prone board w/ FD. I havent touched the wing since I got FD, the reason being I get a much better workout in an hour pumping session versus 6 hours winging (mowing the lawn). Plus the winging on 90L doesnt help much with surf foil goals. I was pumping 2 min on the 40L w/ 1300 axis using small batt (mid-side position). You can get 10-15 launches off a single small battery, and you should be able to do a minute each launch. Trust me you will be toast pretty quick, but it really helps you understand how a foils works, unlike winging. All it took was 2 weeks behind a boat, and I was proning like an intermediate basically on day 1. The foil drive is invaluable as a training tool. Now I am still going to use foil drive, but as a training tool for drawing lines on waves. Actually in order to takeoff on a foil such as 1099, you need to catch a breaking wave 2ft, and you have to do a prone takeoff which is the same as a normal prone takeoff, as you want to release the trigger the moment your board starts planing. Once ur up, you can go the full 20 minutes, catching 30 waves. Its like 6 months of foiling waves in one session. Obviously, its cheating, so you want to do this away from lineups as its still technically efoiling, although the feeling is 75%+ to a normal foil.
Considering you can get a 170hp ski that will do 80mph and tow four people up at the same time for the same $… right now at least it’s just a toy for the uber wealthy.
I feel like a $400 boost fin could be worth it for catching unbroken waves.
You’d have to mount an additional box in your board though.
You’ve nailed it Meow, FD+ on a small board is virtually a new sport, it isn’t efoil or pump, but a mixture of both. It allows us older blokes to learn pump without a dock, which would probably be impossible for us anyway. It’s a great cardio workout, I don’t even use the battery up in a session as I’m usually toast after 20 mins though the battery will last up to 50 mins in pump mode.
No need to wait for wind anymore, a session can be had anytime of day so very family friendly.
I’m on a 32ltr board with the PNG1300, great setup.
I have done lift Efoil and I have fusion foildrive with Cedrus mast assist and Efoil. The difference is run time and flexibility. The lift will have more runtime by like an hour. Lift is a 2.2kw battery vs 864 watt battery for the fusion foildrive. I get an hour and a half in calm water at around 10 mile with foil drive. The lift 5 easily gets 3. Now keep in mind if you run 100% throttle you will not get these numbers but if you run 60% which is more than enough to get my 200lbs flying then you can. Foil size also makes a difference smaller is never the right answer but comfort is.
Now to towing…..I would not attempt to tow someone with a foildrive. It’s not really what it’s designed for. It’s designed to give you the rider your own tow. Slight penalty for having battery but if you go integrated assist mast and a trench your in business. Battery size becomes the big question. That’s a whole other set of thoughts.
The foildrive is more flexible for Efoil and assist. You can literally use any foil setup with Cedrus aluminum. Can save money with min pod and whatever mast you have. Can use on almost any board you have. So cost is foildrive and you can still prone or wing or whatever you want. Can really do that with Efoil like lift or flight or Waydoo.
If ya really want tow in then look at a tow boogie.
Hope this helps