Chinese foils hitting the market.

[dns]

https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/New-Coming-Carbon-Fiber-Hydrofoil-Water-Wings-for-Foil-Sup-High-Strength-carbon-Hydrofoil-Thrust-Surf/1967603_32832517441.html

And really looks like they've nailed a bunch of good points. Plate mount, nice fat wing, short mast, GoFoil style fuselage and all carbon. Doesn't appear to be a blatant rip-off of any one design, just a combination of all the features I want in a SUP foil.

[PonoBill]

I've been contacted by three separate outfits about importing Chinese foils. No idea how the decided I'd be interested. All of them look pretty good.

[TallDude]

They are not shy about using name brands on their knock off foils.

[southwesterly]

  Hey, you're only saving 1300 bucks or more.

[JP4]

Interesting. In the bicycle industry, the Chinese direct companies have pretty much taken over the market for aftermarket carbon wheels and frames, among racers and serious geeks anyway. We've been riding their products for years. I should be dead right now because the Chinese products are poorly made and not tested, according the the bicycle industry anyway. Kind of funny since that's where the vast majority of bikes come from anyway. There are probably some crappy products available, but through consumer testing and review, it quickly becomes apparent which products are decent.  Yeah, warranty claims might be difficult, but with the amount of money you save, it can be worth the risk.
There are quite a few bike companies, at least two in Portland alone, that buy this stuff, put their stickers on it, and sell it at about a 300% mark up as their own brand. 
I've bought two sets of carbon wheels and a frame direct from China and had zero issues. Even the customer service can be really good. With the wheels I was able to chat on line with a rep and order exactly the wheels I wanted, a true custom build, and have it delivered, carefully packaged, to my door three weeks later. It would be hard to get that kind of service locally unless you live in a large city.
These foils seem pretty simple to manufacture and I can see this becoming a common source for these things.

[supuk]

Considering it looks like the have a gofoil in the back ground with the tail on upside down, would I trust them with what looks like there own design no very much not. Like bill I have had a few of these suppliers email me about them but  most look shocking.

[PonoBill]

It will take them a while to figure it out--the manufacturers get minimal feedback and have no real way to do R&D. But they'll get there if the market gets stronger than it probably is right now--and somebody establishes a quality requirement. The limitation of the Chinese manufacturer isn't lack of imagination, it's that many of the products they make are never used domestically.

[p06781]

Hey anyone seen one with a deep Tuttle box?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

[TallDude]

Sho Sho...
一定一定。我看过那么非常便宜。

[SURFFOILS]

It had to happen, there were so many new foil companies popping up, like the surfboard and sup market it will be the start of prices falling in competition with retailers importing foils. If the foil market is like the sup market people will vote for cheap.
 The high end foils will have a market with the pros and competent riders but the other 90% will go to the Chinese.
 One solution would be to keep innovating so there’s no standard to copy. If design moves forward by the time the copies are made they are out of date. For such a new product that’s not impossible.

[PonoBill]

^^^You got that right. The only way to battle knockoff is to out-innovate. Make sure they are always building last year's product. Works for a while until you run out of easy innovation.

[comeu]

https://m.alibaba.com/product/60671081903/Gather-Sport-New-Designed-hydrofoil-electric.html?spm=a2706.7843667.1998817009.48.SHZl5P

[PonoBill]

One of the ways US manufacturers create interest and opportunity for Asian knockoff is by managing to sell a few of a new, innovative product at a high price. Foils, in general, are expensive for the amount of material that goes into their manufacture--very attractive to Chinese companies with experience in composite molding. Electric foils have an insane price. That's absolutely candy for manufacturers with appropriate products and experience. Hell, I thought about knocking them off myself but got distracted. A well equipped and engineered electric foil with a one-hour battery will ultimately retail for somewhere between two and three thousand. I base that on the notion that I could build a one-off for about that. If I can do that buying the parts retail, the Chinese can do it for less than half.

 That link Comeau posted looks like a placeholder from a company that knows how to do surfboard propulsion. It's not simple to add a foil to that existing tech, but it's not hard either.

[SURFFOILS]

Bill, yes the lure to attract Chinese knock offs is the profit margin, almost every week there’s another foil company popping up and due to competition the prices are coming down. As the profit drops only the best will want to continue but the Chinese will corner the low end / entry / casual market.
 If foils started cheap there wouldn’t be so much competition.
 The market could be flooded with $99 foils if they went to injection molding.
Innovation is underplayed these days.

[Beasho]

The market could be flooded with $99 foils if they went to injection molding.

Bring It!!!!!

I want to do some flying.