What is the best efoil?
Buying an eFoil is a big investment. An efoil can cost as much as a used car, so it’s something you want to get right! An eFoil is a lot more fun than any car at the same price though, so I encourage you to keep reading to see our top picks for the best eFoils to buy in 2022.
When choosing an eFoil there are a few attributes you’re going to want to look at when comparing which to go with. Here’s a breakdown of the main features we’ll look at to compare all of the products.
The board and hydrofoil are going to control how the board rides, how it feels, how stable it is, and more. It’s the most important factor to consider other than price.
Let’s start with the eFoil board itself. Volume is the measurement of how much water the board would displace if it were submerged in a tank of water. It’s effectively the measurement of the Width x Length x Height of the board.
A board with a higher volume is going to be more stable, especially at low speeds or when standing still in the water before it’s up on the foil. The key number to look at here is the “volume” of the board, usually measured in Liters (110 L, 120 L, etc).
Heavier people will need a board with more volume in order for it to be stable and buoyant enough to operate before the board gets up to speed up on the foil.
You might prefer a board with less volume if you’re looking for the most speed/maneuverability and a lighter weight foil. It will also be easier to transport given the less space it takes up.
The hydrofoil that attaches to the board is going to control how easily the board lifts out of the water, the top speed, the ability to turn while foiling, and basically all of the flight characteristics.
The nice thing about hydrofoils is most of the parts are interchangeable, so you can swap out different components over time for a different feel. The most important part of the foil in terms of the ride characteristics is the front wing.
A front wing with a larger area, as measured by centimeters squared (cm2), generally provides earlier lift out of the water at lower speeds and more stability while foiling. A smaller wing will be less stable but usually allows for greater top speed and the ability to whip turns more aggressively (if you can maintain balance).
The mast is another key feature of the foil. The mast impacts the distance between the wings and the board itself and thus how high you can fly over the water while keeping the wing submerged.
If you plan on riding your efoil in mostly flat waters, then a shorter mast will do just fine (around 60-70cm). This will be lighter weight and you will be able to ride in more shallow waters.
If you plan on riding mostly in the ocean or lakes with a lot of waves/chop, then a taller mast might do you good (80-90cm). This will allow you more room to ride over the chop without your board hitting the water or your foil wings leaving the water.
eFoils are powered by electric propellers which get their energy from large batteries built into the board itself. The important features to look at here are
One important thing to note in all of this is that heaver riders are going to get worse performance when it comes to riding range, ride time, and stop speed. Simply put, it takes less energy to move around a lighter person than a heavier one.
Now that we know which features are important to look at when buying an efoil, let’s look at our list of the best efoils on the market.
Price: ~$12,495
Warranty: 2 Years
Models (Volume): Fliteboard (100L), Pro (67L), Ultra (54L), Air – Inflatable(150L)
Mast: 60cm or 75cm
Foil Wings: 10 options available depending on skill and riding style
Battery: Two options – “Sport” (Ride Time 60 minutes), “Explore” (Ride Time 90 minutes)
Top Speed: Anywhere from 20-40km/h (12-25 mph)
When a product is designed by a kitesurfing world record holder (Dave Trewern), and he cites his influences as Porsche, Apple, and Tesla, you can be pretty sure it’s going to be sharp and well made.
Fliteboard is one of the industry leaders in efoils at this stage and they’ve recently released their “Series 2” of eFoils. One thing that is setting the Series 2 apart from a lot of competitors is the variety of options they have when it comes time to configure the board.
To start with, their most popular and “middle of the road” option is the Fliteboard model. It’s 100 L, 5’8″ long and 28″ wide. This is a good all-around board that fits any style of riding. It comes in 5 different finishes.
After the Fliteboard, we have the Pro (67L, 5′ x 24.5″) and Ultra (54L, 4’2″ x 23″). These are aimed at the more “extreme” advanced riders that want the most responsive and lightweight eFoil riding. Given the low volume, you’re going to need good balance to get started.
The Ultra is actually the smallest eFoil on the market.
The Air is an inflatable eFoil board which is also pretty unique and exciting to see. It’s a very large and stable board at 150L and 6′ x 30″, so it’s great for beginners, surfshop rentals, yacht toys, etc. It’s also nice that it packs down for transportation and storage.
When it comes to Fliteboard batteries, they offer two different models. The “Sport” battery is standard and will give about 60 minutes run time. For $400 more at checkout, you can upgrade to the “Explore” battery, which offers 90 minutes of run time.
If you wanted to buy a spare battery, the Sport will run you $3000 and the Explore is $3400 on their own.
Price: $12,000
Warranty: 1 year board, 2 years foil/wing, 1 year battery
Models (Volume): Pro, Sport, Cruiser, Explorer (Volumes not given)
Mast: 28 inch / 71cm
Foil Wings: Classic (three options) or Surf
Battery: 60 to 90 minutes ride time and 120 minutes recharge
Top Speed: 40km/h (25 mph)
Without sounding too much like a fanboy, Laird Hamilton rides the Lift eFoils. Enough said!
All Lift eFoils are $12,000 and don’t offer quite as many customization options compared to Fliteboard, which can be a good thing if you’re an intimidated beginner.
Lift eFoil boards come in 4 sizes – Pro (4’4″ long), Sport (5’0″), Cruise (5’6″) and Explorer (6’2″). As the names suggest, the bigger boards will give you a more beginner friendly ride and better stability, whereas the shorter boards will let you be more aggressive with your turns and how you want to ride it.
For the foil wings, Lift offers a variety of options under two categories – “classic” and “surf”. The Classic wings are one-piece, meaning the front wing, fuselage, and rear wing cannot be disconnected or swapped around. The Surf line is newer for 2022 and it’s more of a mid-aspect wing than the classic, meaning it’s a bit wider. This should offer riders more stability once they’re up and going.
Price: Starts at $6875 – $8000
Warranty: 1 Year
Models (Volume): Carbon 65L, Inflatable 110L and 145L
Mast: 65cm and 80cm
Mast: 65cm, 75cm, 80cm
Front Wing: 1600cm2 Carbon
Battery: Up to 90minute ride time with 40km range
Top Speed: 40km/h (25 mph)
The Mantafoils Volt is a more affordable option than the first two eFoils on our list. These ship direct from China, so they cut out some of the middlemen and deliver what’s probably the best value in eFoils for someone without $12k to spend.
Mantafoils offers a carbon board with 65L volume that’s for more advanced/sporty riders, as well as two different inflatable sizes. The 110L is a good option if you’re looking for something to start out on but still won’t outgrow.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about Mantafoils is what they’re doing with their masts/propellers, though. If you get the Volt Starter mast, you can remove the e-propeller, disconnect the battery, and use the board as regard wing foiling board.
Also just as interesting is their Volt Pro mast, which uses the propeller as the fuselage!
I would be wary of going with the Volt Pro unless you’re experienced as a rider. You really don’t want to bang that propeller up against some rocks and damage it. You also lose the ability to use the setup as a regular, non-electronic foil with the Pro setup.
Price: $4,999 – $7,999
Warranty: 1 Year
Models: Standard, Long Range, Performance
Mast: n/a
Foil: n/a
Battery: 2.6kwh phase changing. Up to 90minutes ride time. Up to 29km (~20 miles) range. 120minute charge time
Top Speed: 45km/h (22-28 mph depending on model)
“Foil” is a new company with a pretty slick website and a great-looking product. Foil only offers one board, and no different options for foil wings. They do offer 5 different colors, though.
The only decision in buying a Foil is what kind of motor you want. The Standard and Long Range have a 7.5 MPH motor whereas the Performance model has a 9 HP motor which will take your top speed from 22 MPH to 28 MPH.
Foil promises slightly higher top speeds than other brands, and works for riders up to ~250 lbs.
Foil is also on the more affordable range of products. Currently, you get a $1,000 discount when you pre-order, but the boards are still backordered at least 4 months out at time of writing. $6,999 will get you the Performance model if you preorder.
This looks like a great brand for beginners that don’t want to invest too much money and really aren’t that interested in customizing your foil or getting too much into the technicalities of eFoiling.
Price: Price not yet released
Warranty: 1 Year (extendable)
Volume: 191 L
Mast: 71cm
Front Wing: Veflow Foil, 84cm wide (surface size not given)
Battery: Vecell Lithium. 40-50minutes of ride time
Top Speed: 32km/h (20 mph)
We are really excited by the prospect of the VeFoil. The boards look beautiful with gloss finish options and funky designs, while Vefoil says that their propulsion system offers unrivaled performance and safety.
The unique thing about the VeFoil is the propulsion unit. If you look at the photo above you’ll see no propeller. Instead, this board uses an impeller which is fully enclosed.
This has some benefits and drawbacks. The drawbacks are this isn’t as powerful as an external propeller which can get you going at faster speeds and are probably a bit more efficient.
The benefits are that no exposed propeller is much safer for everyone and it has less moving parts which means less likely to have maintenance issues. VeConcepts also says you can close the throttle while riding a wave and still get a good ride, whereas the drag from a propeller stopping would quickly kill your speed.
Currently only one setup seems to be available, but they hint at having other front wing options in the future would could increase speed.
We’ll have to follow up with more details once this company gets their production running.
Summary
The invention of the eFoil has opened up a whole new world of water sports. These incredible products allow you to foil absolutely anywhere, at any time, on the ocean, lake, or even river.
We all love wing foiling – but how do we get on the water when there is no wind? The eFoil is a great toy to spend time on a calm day on the water. Great for fun for you and your friends but also a perfect tool to learn and improve your foiling skills.
This article will give you some info about the best eFoil 2021! Thanks to Mike Zed from jetsurfingnation.com for the great work.
The new exciting sport of electric hydrofoils or efoils is taking over the world with new efoils appearing almost every month!
Let’s have some fun and take a look at the best and most promising electric hydrofoils – the best eFoil 2021.
This time we’ll exclude all untested efoils, DIY efoils, and prototypes, Chinese ripoffs of the legal brands sold on Alibaba marketplace, and boards that are not ready for sale yet!
In case you are wondering, most efoils have very similar characteristics – about 28 to 35 kg weight, around 1.5 hours of riding time, 2.5 hours to charge, and the price range from 6 to 12 thousand USD. True, they are pretty expensive luxury water toys but remember it’s a next-generation product and that involves a lot of expensive research and development especially in making a powerful electric battery that can be safe for use and fully waterproof.
Efoils are easy to learn even if you have no surfing experience. They are fun, addictive, and can be used everywhere – from calm lakes to wavy oceans. A zero-emission electric motor is noiseless and provides an amazing feeling of flying over the surface of water.
Before we go any further, make sure to hit the Subscribe button and check all our in depth reviews of electric hydrofoils and jetboards on our channel to find out more about these amazing boards.
Are you ready for the best eFoil 2021?
Here are our top picks for the best eFoil 2021 by the JetSurfingNation team!
There is no particular order, they are all great products and provide very similar flying experience but differ in quality, price, and customer service.
LIFT FOILS
Lift Foils is one of the oldest original electric hydrofoils; one of the main pioneering machines in this industry. Lift is a product created by Nick Leason and his team from Puerto Rico. Currently, Lift is one of the market leaders shipping a big amount of high-quality efoils around the world and developing new models of wings and styles. Lift Foils is known for its wide range of board shapes, a foldable propeller, and a big and active community of Lift fans and followers. You can watch a detailed video review on our channel to learn more about this exciting product.
Flying rodeo
Rodeo is an exciting efoil from Slovenia, this machine was developed by the talented engineer David. We had a chance to meet David and his team and tried out the board last year. Flying rodeo is lightweight, sturdy, and provides over 1 hour of exciting foiling action. Unfortunately, the board is custom made so it will ship only in small amounts.
Waydoo
Waydoo is a new promising Chinese brand formed from Kickstarter that offers several models such as Waydoo Flyer ONE and Carbon version which feature Plug&Play design, the world’s first cordless battery, and affordable price. It’s also very lightweight and fun to ride. Unfortunately, for its low price point, it comes with several known quality issues (as expected) and the motor is pretty noisy compared to other efoils on our list.
E-Takuma
e-Takuma is also known as Avante efoil in North American markets. This company offers a fun and affordable foil from Takuma Concept, a famous French-Japanese brand that is also producing traditional hydrofoils and wings. It features a modular system and should let you ride up to 75 minutes, gliding at a speed of 35 km/hour. Their new smaller model called carver is lighter and has a longer mast which makes it better for pro riders and wave riding.
Powerfoil
Powerfoil is a promising French foil by Chris from Redwoodpaddle – maybe the best eFoil 2021? Like in many other boards, the electric foil is separated from the board, which will allow the board to be adapted according to its weight, but also the possibility of changing boards according to the evolution of one’s own practice. A beginner will easily start with a large inflatable board, for example, but will be able to move on to a small rigid board overtime for more maneuverability.
Ewave
Ewave is a very interesting revolutionary concept that combines both efoil and electric jetboard, two in one! The Ewave electric jet board has a 6000 RPM engine promising the top speed of up to 56 km/hour and a battery life of up to 35 minutes. The best part about this board is its new dual system which lets you switch between jetboard and hydrofoil attachment, making it the first “two in one” solution on the market combining jetboard and efoil together as an interchangeable system. The riding time in efoil mode is significantly longer and provides you with more than an hour of cruising above the water surface. This machine lets you enjoy the rapid turns, jumps, and adrenaline rides! Make sure to check our full tests and interview with the developers of ewave before you buy it!
FLITEBOARD
FLITEBOARD is an outstanding efoil from Australia which combines the quality and the top features that every hydrofoil user desires. Fliteboard comes in several shapes and sizes, including the inflatable one for easier learning. Everything about fliteboard screams high quality, and that’s why it is one of the top picks among all hydrofoils this year! Make sure to watch the interview with the developers and our tests on our channel to learn more about it.
There are many other hydrofoils on the market but most of them are either not on sale or barely tested so we can’t recommend them yet as the best eFoil 2021.
Such efoils include Chinese Hover Foil H5 by Havospark, candy-looking foil from GetFOIL which should be finally shipping this year, PegasusFoil from Singapore with modular click design, CabraTec which is a Czech Republic development, Neptune X from Efoilfly, Manta efoil and many more!
That’s all for today. I hope you enjoyed our list and become a part of this exciting new sport of motorized surfboards and efoils.
If you want to learn more about each board from our list, make sure to check other videos on our channel where we meet the developers and ride and test their boards together!
Thank you for watching, and don’t forget to subscribe to Jetsurfingnation!
I’ll see you in the next one! Cheers!
Pictures: Rider Rachel Shenton photo by WINGFOILDAILY.
WINGFOILDAILY / Equipment
