3D Printed Hydrofoil Surfboard - Will it Work?

A hydrofoil is an airplane-like wing structure under the water attached to a surfboard that generates lift. In this video I will mount an electric motor that will make it possible to lift out of the water and "fly" above the water.

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Music:
Anda sin Soledad - Cumbia Connection
Oceanic Adventure - Bonnie Grace

[dominik]

I assume that the wings bend and a lot of lifiting power gets lost. Try to Analyse the under water situation by using a GoPro or such. Great video. Love to see part 2

[jayls]

I just want to say that I love the humor laced throughout your builds as you run through the trial and error process.

[JarcodeRover]

The presenting and editing makes it such a joy to watch! Nice job Simon!

[adrienviallet]

Great project ! Your main wing looks quite small, I do kitefoiling and the typical front wings are around 800cm2. Then the wingfoilers use bigger wings like 1000 to 1800cm2. I think you should try at least a 1000cm2 front wing with a 300cm2 rear wing for it to lift you over ;)

[machine]

I always look forward to your videos. You're not afraid to show the development process and the failures along the way. Keep up the great work and you'll hit a million subs before you know it!

[Alex-ggrt]

The foil sticking into the bottom of the board was hilarious! I think you need much much bigger wings. Also wings with a lower aspect ratio will make them stronger and more stable at lower speeds. Look at winging boards for inspiration.

[dries-pederjanse]

I really like your video style and how you show your mistakes and your trial and error, and you have great dedication.



Edit: Is it possible to put jets on and have water cooling run trough the foil in to the board?

[skullcraftcustoms]

What I like about this video is you present even the fails as a fabricator and designer myself I have come up with all kinds of ideas that in theory should work but it takes me forever to perfect and get them working the way they are intended so kudos to you for providing the video footage because people need to understand the amount of work it takes to get a CustomDesign working correctly

[retrohit]

I hydrofoil a lot and if you were to stand back a little more that would of definitely flew in the water. It’s a huge balance game.

[marsgizmo]

great progress on this, looking forward to the next iterations 😎

[ninehundreddollarluxuryyac]

Love the creative ways of putting on the wetsuit. I've been following all the jet-boards with great interest. Hopefully I can make one of my own one day. As an old guy who is 65, I can relate to issues getting it up. You're young and will definitely get it up the next time. The idea of using 3-d printed parts as a shape to fiberglass over is brilliant and should be real useful.

[OutsiderDreams]

Great work mate!
A couple of thoughts:
1. The lift created by the hydrofoil is proportional to the size of the wing and the angle of attack of the wing.
See if you can design a few different airfoil sizes and add a method to adjust the angle of attack and test them.
2. You may need to make the connection between the board and mast stronger. When the board is out of the water your entire weight will need to be supported by that joint.
Consider doing a test on land where you attach the mast to something solid and then stand on the board. If it doesn't break, you're good.

[bobhawkey]

I love how you just iterate past things that don't work the first time. The little editing cuts are hilarious. Since I have no skills I can only suggest some Velcro in the electronics enclosure to keep things from sliding around. Oh and maybe a gasket for the lid. Keep creating!

[aidendunlap]

I built my own hydrofoil through Clearwater foils and things I noticed with that is once you make it out of the water you lose all you surface tension/drag meaning you can go slower once you break free. Also make the wing thicker for more lift…

[chasgiv]

You probably could have gotten it to work but you have the battery components blocking you from standing over the foils. My suggestion, for simplicity, is to add a footstop behind the battery and controller compartment. That way you can balance your weight over the foil. I don't think you have quite enough power to stand in front of the foil at this point. Maybe not even standing over it but worth a shot. Good luck. Can't wait to see your next steps and future projects.

[hoverparagliding]

As a foiler myself all you need to do is move the mast forward which will create more lift. And only a small movement which be very effective. You'll also want to adjust this setting quite a bit so make it adjustable. Great effort by the way, love it 👍

[GoldenHat]

I tried basically the same project last year except I thought the board building from xps would be too time consuming so I just bought a cheap board from my local decathlon. Also did some research and found Ray Velinga' s videos explaining the hydrofoil calculations. he also has a book its a great read, it would help you a lot.
One other difference between your design and mine is that I used two aluminium box section to strengthen the 1 m long spar, İt works great.
now Im building a much stronger v2 cause the first one broke on the board-spar joint while testing.(on sea with me on it while my dad was pulling me with a boat. which was terrifying to say the least)

[iplop]

I'm amazed that the larger hydrofoil mast survived without being glassed. Great job on those new print settings! 👍

[TheSchmuckCreations]

Your speed is fast enough to go up, but your wing is too small. Really impressive to see that the 3D printed mast resists with your second prototype 👌

[PTE]

So many of these kind of projects on youtube are flexing by making it look easy and like ti worked first time. It's so great to see the iterative process.

As for what I'd recommend: A bigger front wing will mean more lift, at the cost of a lower top speed. Looks like you're right on the edge of breaking free.