Every surfer dreams about flying gracefully over the water and e-foils let you do it with ease. These motorized boards give you the most fun you can have while riding the waves through their unique control design and performance, provided that you have the right board for your needs.
Generally, the best e-foil brand for you is the one that best fits your skills, style, and budget. However, models from the following 7 routinely fall on people’s best e-foil lists.
Best eFoil Brands
Brand | Price | Weight | Ride Time | Board Quality | Foil Quality | Max Speed | Battery Life |
SiFly | $7,104 – $9,293 | 23-75 lbs | 2 hr | lightweight, forgiving | durable, budget | 45 km/h | 2 hours |
Aerofoils | $16,420 - $17,515 | 20.9 -18.7 lbs | 1.5 hr | Amazing, lightweight | Steady power | 45 km/h | 2 hours |
Lift Foils | $11,995 - $20,948 | 1.5 – 2.5 hr | fully customizable | fixed, minimal drag | 45 km/h | 2.5 hr | |
Waydoo | $7,567 - $9,999 | 62 lbs | 2 hr | soft top, very forgiving | noisy, easy maintenance | 47 mph | 2 hr |
Fliteboard | $9,495 - $13,195 | 43 - 50 lbs | 45 min | lightweight, solid, soft, forgiving | smooth, stable, quiet ride | 33 mph | 90 - 150 min |
Awake | $13,900 - $14,900 | 44 lbs | 80 – 120 min | stable, double concave hull, forgiving | smooth flight, reduced noise, buoyant | 30 mph | 2 hr |
Jetsurf | $10,499 - $15,490 | 40.8 lbs | 2 hr | Ergonomic, easy to clean | Durable, smooth | 34 mph | 2 hr |
The Top 7 E-foil Brands
A new board sport is making rounds using a vertical airplane-like wing to tilt the board above the water. These electric, motor-driven, hydrofoil-equipped surfboards, or e-foils, will let you power through offshore swells or carve out inland lakes and waterways. All you have to do is control the throttle using the board’s handheld Bluetooth controller.
With these boards, surface conditions become meaningless. As long as you have a charged battery, you can handle any wave or rough water with ease. However, not all e-foils are equal.
While they all bring innovation and new niches to the world of surfing, you want something more than just lightweight. Instead, you want the highest quality in:
- Weight
- Price
- Battery life
- Ride time
- Board and foil quality
- Maximum speed
Luckily, the following 7 e-foil brands are renowned for their excellence and reasonable prices.
SiFly
SiFly produces soft mid-market e-foil boards for beginners and intermediate riders. Sporting a forgiving outer shell, these boards offer decent performance and durability for their prices, making them practical for tricks and aggressive carving.
They are also upgradable through add-ons and widget apps, letting you customize your board for your skill level. For instance, beginners should go with the stock 55-centimeter mast and wing set. Meanwhile, advanced riders should switch to a 75-cm mast setup for better control during freestyle tricks.
- Popular Models: Rider, E, Stellar
- Ideal for beginner to Intermediate
- Construction: carbon fiber, light EPS
Aerofoils
The Aerofoils e-Tron e-foil brings the power and technology of Audi electric vehicles to watersports. Available in two sizes, the jet-powered e-foil sports a small motor with a sleek carbon fiber mast that resembles a yacht rather than a surfboard. All that luxury minimizes drag for improved cruising performance and battery life.
Aerofoils also offers one of the best user experiences as well. The e-Tron uses a robust, low-maintenance, direct-drive e-drive system with an easy-to-use hand remote and smart display. Combined with a good board surface, this e-foil is truly fun to ride and worthy of praise.
- Model: e-Tron
- Ideal for beginner to advanced
- Construction: carbon fiber
Lift Foils
Lift Foils specializes in battery life. Their latest offering, the Lift4, has so much battery life that you can stay out on the water for more than 2.5 hours. Then, you only have to wait about 30 minutes before you can go back out again.
Lift Foils’ ride performance is no slouch either. The carbon-fiber mast and modular propulsion offer a smooth ride with minimal vibrations. You can even customize the e-foil to reduce its weight and make it run silently. You can even customize the pistol-like controller to support a color screen, milled titanium trigger, and numerous GPS and tracking apps.
- Model: Lift4
- Ideal for all skill levels
- Construction: carbon fiber, aluminum
- Battery charge time: 30 minutes
- Fully customizable and modular
Waydoo
Considered the market disruptor, Waydoo offers great boards at half the cost of other brands. These are not cheaply made boards either. Instead, they are rigid and light aluminum frames wrapped in EPP that support 6000W lithium-ion batteries. You can easily cruise along at 47mph for 2 hours
Waydoo e-foils are also highly customizable with plug-and-play parts. You can easily swap out the battery and mast to make it fit your style. The modular assembly also makes these e-foils very portable and easy to store and transport. However, the boards lack any other form of customization.
- Model: Flyer One
- Construction: lightweight aluminum, EPP
- Low-cost but high-quality boards
- Ideal for all riders
- Financing available through Klarna
Fliteboard
The Fliteboard brand is all about customization. The entire board is modular including the propeller and jet drive. You can change it as much as you want or need. That makes it a great choice for intermediate to advanced riders, even though the base configuration is smaller and less buoyant than other brands. You can even use these boards as scooters.
Fliteboard e-foils are also very well made. They have a high-quality, lightweight body with a shimmering gold metallic finish. They run on a lightweight, 14-pound lithium-ion battery which can give you 45 minutes of running time. The only real issue is that they are made in Australia. That makes them expensive and have a longer shipping time.
- Popular models: Pro Series 3, Ultra L. Air
- Ideal for all skill levels
- Configurable as a scooter
- Large 31.5” mast allows for excursions into rougher water while carving deeper turns
- Drive system configurable as an enclosed jet or high-performance prop
- “Virtual” gears for smooth power delivery
Awake
Awake makes simple but beautiful e-foils. Both Awake models are easy to assemble with their highly innovative and customizable Click-to-Ride system that uses no screws, cables, or hatches. They even have a beginner-friendly learning curve, making them great boards regardless of your skill level.
Riding the boards is equally smooth. Their double concave hull sports a wide front and high volume for stable, controlled, and forgiving take-offs and landings. This system also lets you enjoy up to 80 to 120 minutes of ride time at a cruising speed of around 30 mph. Just expect to pay a premium for that performance as Awake e-foils are on the more expensive side.
- Models: Vinga 3. Vinga S
- Click-to-Ride system allows for quick and easy assembly.
- Double concave hull provides stable, controlled, and forgiving take-offs and landings.
- Best-in-class jet-propelled drive system
- Ideal for all skill levels
- Expensive
Jetsurf
While not technically foils, Jetsurf boards use jet propulsion instead of a motorized propeller. This makes them excellent for areas where open-prop boards are prohibited. Either way, they have solid but forgiving cores with a decent 2-hour battery life. They can also reach speeds up to 34 mph, but they are some of the more expensive boards on the market.
- Model: Cruiser
- Financing through Light Stream
- The drive system uses jet propulsion
- Compliant with most local laws
Conclusion
E-foils provide a fun way to ride the waves. They can also reduce the learning curve for people looking to get into surfing. To reach that goal, these seven e-foil brands offer the right features and customization for heading out into the water.