I’ve been making an attempt to journey this electrical hydrofoil board for over an hour now, and have been bleeding for almost half that point. The open wounds are on my hand, inflicted after the electrical jet propulsion motor shot me and the eFoil board up and out of the water, and we splashed again down in a jumble of moist limbs, metallic, and carbon fiber.
I don’t know what a part of the board hit me this time. It’s onerous to maintain observe of which fall has whacked which physique half. I float for a second, panting, hand bleeding, toes, knees, and elbows bruised. Then all I need to do is pull myself again up on the board once more.
The attraction of an eFoil might be apparent: It’s a small, self-contained watercraft much like a brief surfboard, however with an electrical hydrofoil beneath that propels you at as much as 30 mph. The motor is mounted on a mast beneath the water and has fins hooked up to its sides. When that motor engages, the board pops up out of the water, gliding a foot or so above the floor for a easy journey that appears like flying. Efoils surged into prominence a couple of years in the past, when Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg turned the unlucky pasty face of the product after he was photographed driving one. Now the business is rising, and firms are providing extra methods to allow you to soar over the water than ever.
Flite is an Australian firm with a number of eFoil fashions in its lineup priced between $7,000 and $17,500. Flite needs to make these flying surfboards extra accessible to learners, which is the place its $12,995 Flitescooter is available in. This beginner-oriented mannequin was launched at CES in January 2023. Flite has positioned it as an easy-to-learn system that’s supreme for resorts, yacht goers, and families.
Flite needs you to think about the Flitescooter as a type of Segway of the ocean—an simply mounted surf-skimming system that may attraction to learners and water-sport mavericks alike. It’s meant to be a enjoyable, chill time, however in my expertise, the Flitescooter just isn’t precisely easy crusing. The truth is, the Flitescooter easily tumbled me into the water repeatedly as I struggled to get used to driving it.
The Flitescooter’s inflatable platform has a carbon-fiber core, a design which aids each buoyancy and portability. The foils, stem, and board can all be disassembled to make transit less complicated. A detachable deal with that resembles the handlebar of an electrical kick scooter ostensibly makes it less complicated to regulate, although I discovered that the deal with didn’t at all times make issues simpler. (Extra on that in a second.) Inflated and assembled, the Flitescooter weighs 61.7 kilos by itself. Flite presents three battery sizes, which are available in 13-, 24-, and 32-pound choices. So it’s extra transportable than a jet ski, however tougher to lug round than a surfboard.
The oblong batteries are swappable; they snap into the board’s core simply beneath your toes. Flite says the battery for the hydrofoil lasts round an hour and a half earlier than needing a recharge. I rode it for almost that lengthy, and the battery received down beneath 20 p.c, so the corporate’s estimate feels proper.
Flite’s foilboards have quite a lot of propulsion choices, from spinning propellers to jet engines. Flite’s newest foray into its motor tech is the AMP Jet, which is constructed instantly right into a newly designed board. That mannequin is unfortunately not out there for testing but. The Flitescooter, considered one of a number of Flite fashions you may already purchase and the one I rode, solely comes with Flite’s current jet motor. The jet engine on the Flitescooter is absolutely encased, so there’s no hazard of shedding any digits to a spinning propeller. That mentioned, the fins on the edges of the hydrofoil are sharp and broad, so it takes some mindfulness to keep away from kicking them when splashing round—or falling. Which you’ll be doing rather a lot.
I am going to pause right here to supply the teensiest of credentials. I’ve wakeboarded, surfed, snowboarded, and lounged round on paddle boards. I am certainly not a watersports skilled, however I am at the least first rate at preserving my stability on these sorts of fancy rafts. Regardless of that, no matter kraken had apparently chosen to own my Flitescooter clearly wished to maintain me down within the deep.
