That’s a good point in my opinion, but this doesn’t consider the fact that on waves lift also comes from laterally upmoving water when cruising along the wave, especially at the heart of the wave. When looking at it this way, I think your foils address this better as able to make lift from water coming from other directions then the direction of move. Glider like wings are probably better for flat water.
Always thankful for what you have provided, but didn’t you say you’re going to get some video of the foils in action?
Hi Monkstar1, I did get some video a few years ago for a guy who requested it…
I organised a rider and a still photographer, Ben. Chipper from here and another guy Adam Rawlison to do the videoing, we all met and videoed the guy surfing the foils and posted it. I spoke to the guy who’s wanted the video for his reaction. He said It looks oK but he’s not into surfing anymore.
So Im not really going to make that kind of effort again.
. However if it’s a sunny day tomorrow and I’ve got a friend with a GoPro, ill post what we shoot.
It’s a sunny day and I’ve got a GoPro and 2 boards to test. The prone boards are best for new designs because I can touch and see the foils when they’re lifting in the water.
Shite surf but it foils, even without me. Maybe better surf tomorrow.
The connection between the board and foil is always a problem. For paipos it’s easy to use screws, for the glass boards I use FCS ‘C’ plugs but the best is my new version with plastic struts and 3M double sided tape. Spread out over 4 struts it doesn’t need to be a huge adhesion area for each strut. theres no glassing involved so it’s simple to use.
There’s not always someone willing to video while you surf, so this is a simple solution I’ve used before to get foiling video. It’s a technical angle to view the foiling process rather than for entertainment.
Getting video isn’t easy on your own so I’ve built a new invention for filming several feet below the surface. Deeper than a snorkel but without an air pump.
The problem is that if you want to hold your head and camera steady and Completely Underwater a snorkel isn’t long enough to keep it free from water ingress in the surf.
A longer snorkel isn’t possible due to the volume of tidal breath and volume of the tube if your breathing in and out the same tube and hydrostatic pressure.
I’ll leave you to ponder while I test it further but heres the surface float prototype which does give the concept away.
Amazing how far you’ve come, thnx 4 sharing!
Bret, you are so far ahead of everyone. Hard to keep up. Both of these look like winners. I’d bet on the glass papio for ease of riding.
Thanks Huck, it doesn’t always go constantly forwards with the foil design as there’s other things to invent along the way.
The underwater breathing system has had a change with the surface float, initially I had a wedge shape to ride obove the surface spray but as it turns out there’s no real ‘ forward’ when you take into account the wind, current and surface chop.
So it’s moved to a round shape where every angle is forward and it’s a lot better. It’s got the Maritime Diver Down blue and white colours and. an air filter in the yellow tube so no water gets in.
More to come…
But all u need is a camera down there, right? So why the breather?
It’s always hard to get a good shot underwater, with the breather I can position myself and the camera constantly 2 or 3 feet underwater waiting for the wave and rider to arrive,
It’d also be good for boat maintenance, scrounging along a reef, goofing off in a pool, whatevs.
It’s like shallow water scuba for pennies.
Ah, makes sense now. Cool that it will have other applications as well!
You don’t have to come up to the surface to breath and clearing the snorkel was always a pain if you didn’t get it right first go. You may as well spit it out, drain the snorkel and start again but now you don’t have to.
It’s cool just to lurk fully submerged as part of the scenery.
I’ll pretty it up and show how it works.
When we were kids (55 years ago), we had some snorkels that had a cylindrical cage at the surface end. The top of the snorkel tube was curved down. In the cylindrical cage at the bottom of the curved top tube, there was a ping pong ball. When you went under, the ping pong ball would rise and block the snorkel air intake — to stop water from filling the snorkel.
Back to the foils. The surfcraft needed isn’t hard to work out, the foil design isn’t difficult but the connection between craft and foil is the conundrum.
And it’s only the connection of mast to craft that’s. A worry because we’re riding a glass skinned block of foam. Unless you’re riding a wood board then basic screws will do fine, but for glass craft it’s all about resin and that involves skill and patience and making a mast that fits into the volume of the spcraft be it a Tuttle box or FCS plugs.
In the end all the variations are complex until I thought of using double sided tape that 3M make. It’s the same stuff GoPro use for their board mounts and luckily for me I use multiple masts/struts so I can spread out the forces likely to rip the foil off the board. I rang 3M and they sent over some samples to test, some of them have a 10 year marine guarantee.
So now I had a new system to attach foil to board but I needed to make custom struts to use the 3M tape.
The tape works best on hi energy surfaces like polycarbonate and I’ve got sheets of that in clear 6mm. It’s the stuff they use as bank security screens, it’s hard to scratch, almost unbreakable and clear so you look like you’re flying over the water. Colours are OK but clears the best.
I needed to make from the polycarbonate a footing to be adhered to the hull of the craft , a vertical section and a footing to connect to the foil. The simplest way would be to thermoform single pieces of polycarbonate and stick one end to the board and the other end to the foil.
Grab a heat gun and some polypropylene for testing and cut out struts.
Place one end in a vice with smooth aluminium angle so as to not wreck the plastic in the jaws of the vice.
I also rounded the aluminium angle to get a smooth rounded bend.
Heat the line of the bend, fold over with a smooth piece of wood and clamp into position. When cooled, it doesn’t spring back so you get a true 90 bend every time.
The struts are permanently affixed to the board but that’s not a big deal if you have a few spare around the house.
The struts flex and I think of them as shock absorbers, rather than jumping and twitching at every ripple and power surge, the flexible struts smooth out the ride.
Bret, I see black, blue and white struts. Looks like you’ve made quite a few but no clear ones? Also do you find any speed difference between the variable lift versions shown before versus the constant lift shown in the last two pictures?
All the best
Loving your progress.
You don’t foil the struts?
Red