Foil board 2.0 - new construction ideas

[surfcowboy]

Don’tSink brought up some good ideas in the straight tail forum and I wanted to pursue them.

The core idea was a plate (wood/glass/carbon) you could mount a foil to and then a foam body to fit around it. My idea was plate on top but I like your take of foam on top.

The body will need to have some stiffness (EVA is only a top, not stiff. Foamies use EPS inside.) I’d think a glassed body would get you there. You could put EVA over it if you want. Have to watch the weight but if it didn’t have to be 100% weight bearing you could do it a few ways.

The benefit? Faster construction and keeping the complexity in one reusable unit (the plate and mount.)

You’d also get rid of the leak point by separating the mount into the track. And you could finally let go of longboard boxes. I’m going to dig into this more. It feels like something that should at least be prototyped.

Need to solve making the top out of something light but that could hold some stiffness without crazy weight. For a small prone board EVA like a yoga block is made of would totally work I’ll bet. Pick your volume and CNC it. Bigger boards might need less weight but I’ll start looking at what large blocks of EVA cost. That could kill the deal there. But getting  rid of a ton of hrs of labor could offset that fast. Hmmmm... post up ideas folks.

[Solent Foiler]

The proof of concept of what you're suggesting has been done to a certain extent on inflatable boards, just without the modularity.

I was wondering about a concept which had a pocket foil board as the core element with different size inflatable 'rafts' which could integrate with the board to give whatever volume you want. (similar to the concept of converting a jet ski into a rib) Given the trend for straight tail boards, the lack of underwater shape of an inflatable would not be a real disadvantage.

The real problem would be weight - think it would be much heavier than either a hard or inflatable on their own... Also not sure if the inflatable technology is there yet. The idea would be that the pressure from inflation would help lock the board in place, but you might need to be cute with the shaping of the inflatable which I don't know is possible.

I think this has been discussed here before when inflatables first came out?

[Dontsink]

The DIY Efoil guys use just that, inflatable boards that have a space for the foil base and battery compartment.

[Solent Foiler]

Haha! That's brilliant! Execution looks great but perhaps not in the volume range I'd be wanting (35L and 70L)? Totally what I was thinking of though, and love that someone has already built what I was wondering was possible....