14 DAY TRIAL // Surfing may be a sport usually carried out at the seaside, on the large, foaming waves that the wind and tides send barreling against the shore, but there are plenty of people who perform flatwater surfing as well. It is those potential customers that Seattle-based Current Drives is targeting.
The company has launched, or at least set up a project it hopes will eventually allow it to launch, a special fin that will provide momentum to surfboards.
The fin is actually only half a fin, so to speak. The most important part about it is that it boasts a propeller which, thanks to an electric motor, can push water and, thus, provide kinetic force to the board.
Called ElectraFin, the surfboard attachment is made of three main components: a polyethylene-bodied motor/propeller/fin unit, a power cord, and a waterproof battery pack.
The polyethylene-bodied motor/propeller/fin unit can be slid inside the fin box on the underside of pretty much all existing stand-up paddleboards (SUPs). It supposedly only takes one minute to slot it in.
The power cord connects the unit to the waterproof battery, the latter being installed on the top of the board.
Driving everything is a wrist-worn wireless controller that allows the rider to control the speed of the propeller and, by extension, the speed of the surfboard.
For those who want technical details, the motor is a 240-watt unit and the battery is a 14.6-volt lithium-ion power unit.
Altogether, the SUP accessory weighs 6.4 kilograms, or 14 pounds, which shouldn't be too much for the surfboard.
Once you have it on, a full battery charge should be able to keep you moving across the water at 5 miles or hour, or 8 kilometers per hour, for four hours, meaning 16 miles in total (26 km).
As for the remote (which also displays motor charge level), it is, of course, waterproof and should be able to last for 100 hours on a single charge. And you don't have to worry that the board will get away from you like a car with faulty brakes either.
If the two are separated for more than 10 feet / 3 meters, the board motor will shut off. Clearly, if the wrist remote power fails, the board will interpret it as it having gone out of range, so it will shut off in those situations as well.
The ElectraFin is still gathering funds on Indiegogo, but Current Drives will ship you one if you pledge $850 / €616.84 and the minimum funding goal is reached. $1,600 / €1,161 will get you an inflatable SUP as well.
Flatwater kayakers will be pleased to know that a kayac-specific version of the ElectraFin is being made as well, but it's installed like a standard flip-up kayak rudder instead.
