LIFT4 Electric Foilboard Review

Fun on Foils

Let’s get this out of the way immediately: You don’t need a LIFT4 electric foilboard. Want on the other hand, well, want makes the world go ‘round. And after running around with my son atop a pair of $12,000 lithium-powered Lift 200 foilboards, I want one.

If you’ve been living under coral lately, foils are the rage not only for boats, but boardsports. The concept is remarkably simple: You’re standing—or even lying—and flying atop a lightweight epoxy or carbon fiber surfboard that’s mounted to a hydrodynamically shaped pole that is then attached to an underwater wing and tail stabilizer setup. The problem is, balancing atop foilboard can be fiendishly difficult even for an experienced surfer. Whether behind a boat, on a wave or with the wind, there is a long and painful learning curve because you’re dealing with roll, pitch and yaw. And man, yaw wrong, and you can get pitched—hard—and those wings? Ouch.

Enter the e-foil. Because you can start out slow, an electric foilboard can potentially drop a months-long learning curve down to a day. To put this to the test, my 14-year-old son Fritz and I met up with JP Lurkin and Instructor Colin McQueen of Charleston’s Force Kite & Wake. McQueen explained the handheld bluetooth remote—basically a wireless trigger throttle—along with first steps; start out lying on the board to get a feel for moving through the water. Standing wouldn’t be much different from popping up on a surfboard; plane at a modest stable speed and pop onto a sideways stance before going fast enough to lift onto the foil. Then cruise around until we felt confident enough to give sufficient juice for the foils to engage. The other thing about a foilboard, said McQueen, “You have to learn to fall properly.” Most injuries come when people kick the board outward and then fall onto the boom or the blades. Thus, dive or jump away from the board. Oh, and the propeller is surrounded by a skin-protecting shroud, but the instant you fall, release the throttle.

A half hour later, Fritz and I donned helmets and dropped the 65-pound fully-assembled Lift boards into an Intracoastal tributary. McQueen dialed the throttle back to a low level for our first foray. “It will still be plenty, and you’ll get well over an hour of runtime,” he promised.

We first rode prone on these nearly silent, powerful little machines—seeking the moment the foils would take over. Typically, at that point, our weight would be too far back, the board would zoom skyward and we’d wipe out. It actually seemed easier to stand, so after a few false starts and endos, we managed to gain a foothold. From there, the experience was both challenging and amazing. Though it has elements of traditional boardsports, because you’re basically flying, foiling is an entirely new sensation. At first, we were frankly, perplexed, wiping out again and again with no damage done except to our pride. Then, slowly, we began to figure out how to foil just a couple of inches off the water. Then a couple of inches more. Then a couple more. When fully airborne, the speed increase was an absolute rush. Up on the foil, there’s a bizarre quiet. Turning was another lesson in fine-point balance. The foils only need a very modest weight shift to arc you into a turn. Then came the bizarre sensation of confronting boat wakes. You’d motor towards a wake expecting to be bounced around, but the foil just cut right through like butter.

It was bizarre. It was fun. After an hour and a half, Fritz and I were both worn out—as were our batteries. So, we headed back to the dock with a whole new set of motor skills now tentatively wired into our brains. We want one.

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This article originally appeared in the December 2023 issue of Power & Motoryacht magazine.

Source: https://www.powerandmotoryacht.com/gear/lift4-electric-foilboard-review