EDF kiteboarding?

dirkdiggler

10 kW
Joined
Oct 17, 2012
Messages
641
I know there are a few kiteboarders on this site and thought I'd run this by people that know more than I do. I'd rather get my own efoil or surfboard going, but I had a thought the other day about using kites with edf motors attached. Ten years ago when I'd just started kiting my brother told me instead of waiting for wind all the time, why don't you just put some big fans on the kite. A totally stupid idea at the time, but now that I know how powerful and light the current tech is, I do think this could work. My idea would be to add two EDF motors on the kite leading edge with lipo. How much power would you need with a foil, just to get you through the lulls and generate apparent wind? Then I'd use an RC remote for the throttle on the bar. Besides the obvious dangers, lipo in a kite loop!, any thoughts?
[youtube]irxISgZLncw[/youtube]
 
I only imagine how one can work around placing motor weight on a relatively frameless (besides the inflated leading edge) foil kite. The vid shows a framed kite, but more importantly, without a tethered line adding resistance to the kites tendency to updraft, the motor seems to be used to allow the kite just enough equal balance from nosediving and losing control of the updraft.

Ugh, that paragraph is loaded with jargon, but I hope you get the drift... :lol:

That guy has an idea though. He should use the same concept on a bigger, more elaborately decorated kite. I'd put it on a pterodactyl kite, with a long range remote. Wait for a big wind, then head down to the school playground. :mrgreen:
 
There's no point trying to drag the kite along if there's no wind. These guys did it with a drone.

[youtube]BuRf6r0LuL8[/youtube]
 
I have thought about this many times while sitting in the water on low wind days drifting towards somewhere I don't want to be and waiting for a good enough gust to relaunch my kite. I think the much better plan is to have a powered board so that you can generate apparent wind in the lulls and/or tension the lines enough to get the kite back up in the air when it is down and there is not quite enough power to relaunch.

Granted some of these exist with motorizing the board, but these are challenges that I think you will face with kitesurfing combined with electric motors in the traction kite:

1. Saltwater!!!
Do not underestimate how powerfully electronics and saltware don't like to mix. I have ruined RC boats with only a few minutes of use in the waves before... but damn was it a fun few minutes!

2. Every extra protrusion on the kite is 10 more ways to cause a kitemare.
Especially because this type of adaptation would only be useful in low wind days you are going to have higher odds of wrapped lines from oddball crashes with lulls and gusts where the kite might hindenburg or bowtie

3. Extra mass on the kite sucks.
It is going to make the crashes harder, it will create new stress points where they could tear, or even pop your leading edge on hard crash. Most of this mass is going to be the battery. You just couldn't pay me any amount of money to put a battery on one of my kites. They can come down really, really hard I would think you are destined for a fire and or killing someone with an unlucky, direct hit.

4. Legislation
These f-ing, blue haired, condo dwelling a-holes that hate seeing anyone have more fun than them are already doing everything in their power to limit our access and legislate against this sport. They are using every excuse in the book from public safety, to 'it scares endangered nesting birds' and all in between. Add motors to kites just gives them one more thing to fear and start calling it a motorized vehicle or airplane, etc. I think technically by adding a motor you would officially be reclassifying your kite either FAR 103 and at the very least believe it or not it would also fall under drone laws as well and need to be registered. Yes, anything over 250grams with a motor that goes in the air must be a registered... and yes, even if it is tethered to the ground.

There are several other reasons in my head, but these should be enough to help convince you to try doing it with a motorized board first. If you decide to go ahead with this please take some video, because I would love to watch the carnage and/or help you tear up $800-$1200 kites by the dozen. :mrgreen:
 
If these guys can ride without a kite:
[youtube]8YUH8PhpQ7g[/youtube]
I do think its workable. Like you say, probably going to have some carnage with it. I messed around a few weeks ago with a 2m trainer and small 35mm EDF that I have from busted plane. There was no wind to speak of. The kite didn't even budge. I tried putting it into the middle cell of the kite. Maybe a ridged frame of an inflatable would have helped. Granted not having to use a kite would be optimal, but the jumps on an efoil aren't going to be as epic. Also a much easier thing just to strap some fans on the kite as opposed to all the issues involved in getting an efoil to work. Just really a money issue having to buy the EDFs.
All kiters have sat in the water on a light wind day, hoping for just 5 more mph's of wind to get back to shore or keep us riding a little longer. Could be another light wind alternative with a foil or a way to drop kite another kite size. Not worth the hassle if the winds are good. This should be a fairly easy concept to test. I just don't have any big EDFs like the guys in the youtube video have.
 
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