I’m on the fence guys. I demoed a 5’4 with Surf 250 wing. I am 6’1 230lbs and the board felt small. Battery life is my biggest concern. They say 100 minutes but I’m afraid that those numbers are based on best case scenario, like 90lb pro rider, tiny board, slippery HA wing and a tail wind. Then a guy like me buys a bigger board with Surf 250 or 300 wing and I struggle to get 45 minutes out of it.
On the demo board I needed a setting of 8 to stay on foil consistently. That was on a 250V2. If I go to a 300 wing that will allow mw to foil at a slower speed and theoretically less power, will that increase battery life? Or will the extra drag of the 300 make it a wash or even decrease battery life?
My riding style on my kiteboard is “mowing the lawn”. Other than maybe riding ocean swells and boat wakes depowered (with folding prop), my efoil riding style will be the same. My trick days are over. I’m trying to strike a reasonable balance between ease of learning/riding and battery life.
Are there any larger guys riding the larger boards and wings that can share your battery life numbers? Lift and Lift reps want to dance around the battery life issue with no real answers. I can’t get any real numbers other than how to improve it by removing the prop guard. The fact that no one associated with lift wants to talk about battery life tells me that it can’t be good.
You are very heavy strong man … The measured 1.5-2h hour is for a 70-75kg rider, not for 105kg… It’s just physics…
Enjoy 45m , it’s a great workout if you push the limits hard! cheers!
So show me where it says 70-75kg. This is BS. Lift misrepresent the battery range without question. Their Lift App for a 4’9" F says 120 minutes! I weigh 195lbs and only get 60 minutes, a 40% reduction on their 100 minute claim. To pay $12,000 and have this kind of reduction in ride time is atrocious. Lift need to be honest and outfront giving consumers a lot more specs on ride time based on certain criteria.
I’m not asking for 100 minutes as obviously weight is a factor, but 40% less! Lift replied, and I quote, " with better riding skills, a HA foil and removal of prop guard with a tail cone installed I’ll be able to increase my ride time. Thx Lift, let me find another $1000 dollars to compensate for yr over exaggerated claims.
The app is useless, it does not know your weight and conditions… 60 mins is pretty good for your weight, probably with more skill, HA wing and removing prop guard you can reach 80 min eventually. Cheers!
230lbs here. 250ha and 300 surf. We get a solid 90 minutes out of it. 120lb stepdaughter, flying, slow speed, 300 surf got 1:45.
Wont’ be a huge difference from 250/300 but some for sure. Bigger flies at lower speeds so if you fly at the minimum speed to be on the foil then it would last longer than the faster speed on a smaller wing. Not much drag from the foil itself. The 300 is a lot of fun and SO easy to learn to fly on, stable, low speed. Just nice.
The 5’4" (what i have) is only 88liters of floatation volume and won’t float me for sure. I would really have enjoyed the biggest board for learning. Have to be on the throttle as I’m getting onto the board, need the forward momentum to stabilize.
BUT once you get flying you really want the smallest board you can use, even if it’s with some difficulty early on.
LIft people are all surfers and mostly skinny guys. They came to foils long before they made an Efoil.
I believe what they say if you weigh what they do and ride how they ride.
Seen others say less. Depends on how much you fall, max ride time is ALL on the foil for sure.
Personally I’m worn out at an hour max, but I’m working on that.
Once you have one and experience all the variables in person you can see how different things like “ride time” are from person to person.
High Aspect wings apparently ARE a foolproof way to longer ride times. But are much trickier to ride and often described as “for the veteran rider” or similar. We have little time on ours but found it harder to turn and stay flat and i especially had trouble getting back down on the water after flight without torpedoing into the water and crashing.
We plan on using HA all summer and will be interesting to see the time on that and with our better riding skills hopefully translating.
FWIW
I’m 180 lbs on a 150 surf and get 45 minutes max. I have 3 boards but mostly ride the 4’ 2” lift. I cruise between 21 and 24 mph and cover around 15 miles per session. I’m happy with that. I used to bring a spare battery but I never used it.
