I don’t use one or the other but it seems lift has had so many issues w the batteries and on the other hand foildrive has sponsored half of my ig feed and really did an amazing marketing Job…
I don’t know what the full foildrive set up (new fd board, newest fd, and average foil), vs the newest lift foil… this could be interesting
Is this enough to convince weekend Foilers in lakes to buy a foildrive and adapt it to their existing quiver instead of a big efoil ???
I’m not using either so this is just rambling, but I think they’re targeting different audiences, and FD is opening a new market rather than eating into Lift. FD is for people who are trying to augment their other foil sport while maintaining as much as possible of the bare feeling, and Lift efoils are for people who want to efoil. If you just want to efoil, I think Lift offers a superior product and integrated experience, whereas FD requires you to cobble together a setup from disparate pieces which might not work out well together, because of that I don’t see FD eating into Lift, even with their Fusion product.
Another thing that comes to mind is that my friends who ride FD complain about the tear down, rinsing, maintenance head aches, whereas as far as I can tell Lift is plug and play.
I’m lost on LIFT due to their terrible marketing and lack of production. Gear has been back ordered for months. They are a mess yet crickets from them.
Coming from the FD assist+ days. I could say I learned everything I needed to be independent from motor assist from it. But it was a huge pain in the ass setting up the boards, and having various parts break and need replacing and all the batteries. Now I have a tow boat on demand for less the cost of running a foil drive so I’m never going back
Are you saying running a boat is less hassle/cost than foil drive? lol. Maybe I’m reading that wrong. No way you believe that to be true.
Lift and Flite still dominate and I don’t think the core efoil market will embrace Foil Drive’s diy / mix and match style. On the contrary I think FD has complicated it’s lineup with the launch of the Fusion and to a certain extent lost sight of its core customer at a time when Manta, Duotone and Flite Lab are bringing innovative assist products to the market. All this said, we are at a phase (like foiling in general) where supply is seems to be growing faster than demand. And brands which don’t successfully execute their product launches are going to suffer. That’s a positive point for Foil Drive which keeps innovation to a minimum.
the cost to tow foil in bali is under $30usd per hour of towing. For me, thats cheaper than foil drive because the cost of 2-3 batteries with the setup and assuming zero replacement parts, you are already looking at one year of towing every single day. And if you factor that the batteries degrade after using like 100+ times, then you’re probably starting to break even with the towing. not to mention towing feels 10x better than foil driving, because you dont have to spend half of your time and battery going in and out of the water to switch batteries. And if you factor that you have a really hard time foil driving into the wind going back out for the next wave, sometimes i only got like 2 waves per foil drive assist+ battery before i had to get on my boat to switch the battery, it was a nightmare…
Tow Boogie solves all these problems. Practically zero maintenance, just wash it down and lube the zipper. Cheaper than a foil drive bc you don’t have to buy new gear or a trench board. Battery last 2-3 hours. Can be shared with friends. No extra drag or weight on the board. Very reliable and doesn’t break. Just my 2cents being a boogie owner. I’d say the only drawback is it takes up more room in my vehicle and adds about 15mins on either end of the session to set it up and break it down with clean up. The time on foil and amount of waves caught per hour way offsets that in my opinion.
Yeah but where all is towing offered now,
Sanur, Nusa Dua…? When traveling, the foil drive just makes getting in the water easy.
I agree with you, I’d rather tow. Its just not an option everywhere.
foildrive has sponsored half of my ig feed
It’s been a brutal few days on social media 
good opportunity to cull some follows though.
Lift has pooped the bed on the LiftX launch. My foil buddy got one and has had endless issues with batteries, the mast, propeller, controller.. and the service has been terrible.
So while I thought LiftX might carve some surf foilers away from FD, I have my doubts now. And with the Fusion out now offering what LiftX promised, I think FD made a great strategic move to secure their base.
As for FD being more difficult to deal with than an efoil or a Tow driver.. I’ve got to disagree. You don’t have to break it down every time. Freshwater rinse with a Rinsekit handles 95% off the maintenance. I leave my kit together in the back of my truck. It comes apart once in a while…
I’m new to Foil Drive (but not foiling in general) and I’d agree with this. Unless you have a dedicated FD board, mast or integrated system, it’s a PITA switching use case from Foil Drive mode to regular foiling. I could see people looking at the Lift system and liking how clean and simple it is to use despite the extra weight and price.