DIY electric hydrofoil - More and more projects from students - E-Surfer

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DIY electric hydrofoil - More and more projects from students

One of the first DIY electric hydrofoil student projects started already summer 2008 under the leadership of Prof. Jakob Kuttenkeuler and was called the "Evolo project”. The idea was to develop a water vehicle for one adult person with an electrical motor of about 3 kW and a speed of 15 knots (28 km/h) while minimising emissions, noise and wakes.

The outcome was the probably first electric hydrofoil which can be seen in the photos and videos above and below. The team of students from the KTH university in Sweden published a 551 pages report in 2009 about their findings. This project motivated many others around the word to explore the opportunity of building a DIY electric hydrofoil.

The Evolo Team with their DIY electric hydrofoil

In 2018 students from the INSA (Institut National des Sciences Appliquees) from Lyon in France also started such a project and got a lot of help from the efoil.builders community which is a forum for DIY electric hydrofoil projects. This forum is the must go for all considering to build an electric foil on his / her own.

In October 2019 we got contacted from students of the RDF-Fachschule Nürnberg which are also currently developing an E-Foil. We offered them to visit us to try the Lift Foils eFoil to get an idea about shape, components and of course the feeling to ride an electric hydrofoil.

Just 2 weeks later the 4 students Johannes Stepanenko, Jürgen Steinert, Clemens Lasser and Frank Eymold came by and tested the eFoil. They had a lot of fun and are looking forward to build their own electric foil.

The team is looking for sponsors and sent us following description of the project:

The way to your own DIY electric hydrofoil

DIY electric hydrofoil - The idea

Among water sports enthusiasts, the term Hydrofoilboard is no longer a new concept, but the name is increasingly being circulated to circles that have little or nothing to do with water sports. More and more often the social media platforms are reporting on electrically powered surfboards and numerous videos have been posted. Thus we too: Johannes Stepanenko, Jürgen Steinert, Clemens Lasser and Frank Eymold became aware of this exciting topic.

Currently we are students (specializing in mechatronics) and want to build their own hydrofoilboard as a school project.

Sponsors search

Immediately we went out to find suitable sponsors for our project. After a short time, we were able to receive donations from surrounding companies, who considered our project to be exciting and technically demanding. We also presented ourselves on the Long Night of Science in Nuremberg, 19.10.2019 with a model of our surfboard in front of more than 10000 visitors, whereby we again received great interest and, above all, donations for our project.

The right person to speak to

But we did not miss an important point at this time: none of us ever rode a hydrofoilsurfboard ourselves. So far, everyone had experience in the field of water sports, but only with waterski or wakeboarding. So we had to look for a test opportunity.

We quickly became aware of the website of Andreas from E-SURFER. We contacted him immediately and told him about our project. He then offered us his support for the project. Since he himself is a long-time enthusiastic Hydrofoilboard rider and also a reseller in Germany, he was exactly the contact person we needed for our project. He even offered to test his own boards. Thankfully we accepted this offer and immediately arranged an appointment.

The first time Hydrofoil ride

On October 29th it was time. We met with Andreas to test the board. First of all, he introduced us to the board and explained the technical details. He also gave us tips and suggested solutions for our own board. For us, the exchange of information with him was already a great help since we now got a much better overview of what are the key factors for a well-functioning board.

Each of us had the opportunity to test the board 30 min. Andreas gave us a helmet with a headset instructions how to learn driving as fast as possible. We quickly realized that driving is not so easy for beginners. But in the end everyone was able to get out of the water a bit safely with the board using Andreas's instructions. After riding, we still use the opportunity to talk with Andreas about electric foils before we pack up our stuff at dusk and made our way home. Already on the way home we discussed our further procedures in our project.

DIY electric hydrofoil - Conclusion

For us it was a day full of helpful information and above all fun! Thanks to Andreas, we are now a long way ahead and will be assembling the board in just a few weeks. We would like to thank Andreas very much for his dedication and his time, which he has taken for us.

Support

As a team, we are constantly looking for experienced hydrofoilboard riders or companies interested in financially or materially supporting our project or helping us to market the project to the outside world.