Sure, first photo was 10:35pm last photo was 11:15pm local time. The interesting thing was that the swirly stayed near same point in the sky for a long time, it didn't seem to track the stars but seemed to match the earths rotation. Maybe just a perception thing, or just a luck thing with how the solar wind was oriented.

Check out the Wake Thief's "freefoiling" videos... and also the world record flatwater pumping guys... it's crazy... they're getting it in the 150 to 180 watt range and going forever. I think the freefoiling wing is under 150W... Of course they're 20 years younger than I am, lean, and fit...

The cardio effort feels about the same as being on a bike trainer at 200 Watts... it's not usually my lungs that give up, but my rear leg starts to get tired which leads to some bad pumps, which spirals into a lactic acid burn and a crash. It's a bit different than a bicycle where you can pound in 300+ Watts in a sprint and stay upright... once the pump technique gets sloppy, you're in the water... There's lots of suggestions in these comments about how to stand up straighter to save your legs etc...

Great video BTW!

Thanks! It's frustrating that these lights are so close to being cheap and good... If you get it working again, the best modification is to just lower the brightness a bit by increasing the sense resistor value. They'll last forever after that...

Thanks! I did electronics for 50 years before I retired. It's fun for me to get the soldering iron out again now and then! I have a KZbin channel now, Schroedman's Shop. Take a look, you may get a kick out of it. Thanks again.@@luxmonday

If you just dock start with no other foiling I think it should take a summer of 2-3 days at the lake a week... If you can get on an e-foil for a day or two and practice the pump motion at low throttle, you will progress much faster. (E-foil is so much easier to learn than dock, wing or boat foiling) For a good drill at the dock, start your session with a few belly-flops on the board from a standing start. This is nice and safe and lets you get a feeling for the glide and center of gravity. Many people like to dock start by keeping their hands (at least 1 hand) on the board so they have a 3D sense of where it is. I don't bend like that so I have a moment where the board is flying without me as I jump on. I think my way is harder. Practice either a one-step launch, or a two or 3 step launch, keeping the run up the same each time. You need speed and accuracy which takes time. Make sure you clear the end of the dock each launch with momentum so you don't hit the dock if things go wrong. Starting with the foil deeper in the water lets you build speed and accuracy, even though it is unlikely you will magically be able to recover from the low mast height... as you get more accurate and get mini-rides bring the mast higher.

@@luxmonday thank you very much

@marcram01 I really need to finish part 2! I'm using a "real" battery that was designed for a customer (passed UN and UL) but it is a prototype. I'm using 9 cells series Li-ion 37.8V max. and 5Ah. One pack gives about 18 to 20 minutes of run time up on foil if I slow down. I can fit 2x batteries in the hull for ~40 minutes of foiling. I would recommend going to 12 series cells. Most inexpensive motor controllers (VESC) will handle up to 60V, and you get a huge power advantage from the higher voltage. My motor controller runs out of voltage before it limits current. (The motor windings are too high a resistance to drive more current). The system needs to perform for the start and pop-up at 2-3x the cruising power, so a higher voltage pack will let you pull more than rated power from the motor for 10 seconds before you throttle back. My motor is rated at 650W and I'm pushing 1200W through it during pop-up. I did stare at Dewalt 60V flex-volt packs as an option... I feel that a few of those in parallel would work great for a safe DIY option.

Thanks! More coming soon... this stuff still takes me forever to edit...

He sure did! I'm close to 60s on the 1150 in a straight line, but my figure 8's are still at about 45 seconds... standing up straight helps a lot. I've been messing with my E-assist EFoil I built... just put a new vid up... that's been distracting me from pump foil record breaking... kzbin.info/www/bejne/rHm5poWiZtispc0

I have a comment below in response to @mihazidar4856 where I outline Naish vs Axis. My main feeling is that Naish are faster foils and don't have great low speed lift (but have good high speed drag)... Axis has made pump specific foils that have great low speed lift that allow easier dock starting. The top speed of the Axis PNG stuff is lower than Naish. When you get the speed right dock starting it will feel like you are jumping onto a stool, you immediately feel the foil flying and providing lift. So I think it's just a speed thing... Here's some other pointers: -The foil should be descending in the water when you get on, that way your weight drives the foil down creating speed and lift. -You might need a running start for a faster foil. A 3 step launch vs my usual standing start will give a higher speed. -You should get on the board in a partial crouch so you can push down and gain speed. The first pump is critical to gaining speed, but of course you need to immediately unweight and gain mast height. Fast cadence can help. -Modify your dock to get as much height as you can handle... the foil should just be underwater, and you shouldn't have to jump too high to climb on the board... This can be really hard depending on what you have available at your local dock... I have one dock that forces the foil really deep, and I'm 50% at best... but the docks that let me keep the foil higher I have better success on. @paygr01 has some good videos on all kinds of different starts.

@@luxmonday I really appreciate you getting back to me so soon. I will change the dock to have space to run and will let you know if something happens.

Great question... my feeling that once on foil you only need about 200 to 250W to keep the PNG1150 flying... this is based on my pump foiling effort compared to a stationary bike with a wattmeter.... Now that doesn't include getting off the water... the motor is using at least 650W here and I have to add probably 100-150W of pumping to help it lift out of the water. So I'd say for this setup a 750W to 1kW burst is needed to break the tension and get up on foil... weight dependent. I weigh about 165lbs... my wife who weighs less than me can just kind of half-pump to break the tension. I think it's pretty safe to over-power the a motor in water for a short period of time. If you use a longer board (barracuda style) you may be able to lift off at 450W or so, which is probably what those flatwater paddle-up guys are pushing out with their massive deltoids and young legs. The crux of all this is the propeller and motor efficiency curves. I need to do a lot of research there. The folding prop is not as efficient as a static prop, and I have no idea at what RPM the motor is most efficient. I feel there's probably 10-15% efficiency wasted here. The prop will have to be designed to be efficient at the motor ideal RPM, and without getting deep into math, this is going to require lots of trial and error.

To add to this comment, I managed to get some telemetry data today... I can pull 900W max during takeoff with a new prop and light pumping... so takeoff is still >1000W. However, I can fly with as little as 600 to 650W. The interesting thing is that at 900W, I'm losing 90W to the battery internal resistance and wiring, probably losing 20% more at the motor by not being in the right RPM, and losing at least 25% at the propeller... So if I can re-design the battery, characterize the motor, and design a propeller to work at the ideal motor RPM I could probably claw back some noticeable power.

You're aweseome thanks!

Funny you should ask that... I just posted this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/apuTnaeJiZd5rLs My current experience is that E-foiling is the way to learn... Being behind a boat is much harder than e-foiling because of the rope and throttle management... My wing experience has just been on a SUP with a center fin... it was the most fun I've had on a SUP, but I haven't managed the foil and wing yet.

@@luxmonday yeh I want to get into wing fooling but I have no foil experience so was gonna do some efoiling first then wing sup before trying wingfoiling! Thanks for the content!

No prop... I think if you started on E-foil or on a big board behind a boat you could get up on day 1 and probably learn to pump in 4 or 5 sessions. But there's a lot of detail in the pumping to get efficient. It's fun going back to a SUP and having it feel like a dance floor!

I've asked myself the same question a few times.

Ha! yeah, it's work but oddly fun... I've got an E assist foil project on the go (like foildrive) I'm hoping to document...

Yup, from one of his many live streams... he digs the stank.

@@luxmonday I've watched his show here in Warsaw. He threw himself onto the crowd of people and broke his finger. Then came the song "it hurts sooo bad that it's good" 😊 Guy is crazy.