About a decade or more ago a new fad emerged: the human powered hydrofoil, the aquaskipper.

Basically it is a device that allows a human to skim over bodies of water, powered by nothing but their own body.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfjDqiyEMOE

And being a wee boy back then I was absolutely thrilled at the very prospect of such a thing. I wanted one! No matter the price. Unfortunately the price was too much after all and the aquaskipper itself was difficult to come by, having to be ordered over the internet. Not a great combo for a boy without money who didn't know how the postal service worked.

However, last summer I had the chance of buying what is probably the only aquaskipper that exists in a very, very wide radius of kilometers around me. Finally my dream had come true! But as it turned out, not all was well yet. The assembly set had been used by someone before me and was missing a single, simple part. I had that one custom made by a metal worker, easy enough. And now it was finally time to live out my boyhood dream of aquaskipping. I took it down to a lonely freshwater harbour and launched from the quay. And fell backwards into the cool water. I swam to the skipper, dragged it back to the quay and tried again. And again. And again, never managing to skip much more than a meter.

Suddenly I realized that one reason I couldn't skip was because a little piece of plastic (a foil tip) had fallen off the end of one hydrofoils. And it was gone in the murky water.




And that was basically the end of my aquaskipping adventures so far. I have tried getting a replacement foil but few online stores still have them stocked and one I contacted was reluctant to sell. Another thing I did was trying to shape a piece of plastic into a new foil using acetone. Didn't work well the first time but I gotta give it another try.

Clearly, this is a very niche problem but does anyone here know of aquaskipper stores or have a fix idea for an easy solution?
Thanks!

You could also try getting some polycaprolactone and forming it around some foam to make your part. Or make a fiberglass part by forming it around some foam.  Or cast some plaster into some foam.

Did I mention that you should get some foam to shape the part?

Depending on how difficult I would probably make my own. Fiberglass cloth dipped in epoxy and wrapped around the shape of choice.

That is very cool man. I hope you can get it working! Dont give up on the dream! Ive always wanted to try kiteboarding but im sure I would probably end up hurting myself lol. Looks so fun though.

Recorded a video of my aquaskipping skills.

https://www.bitchute.com/video/eOnU7BFyXCSM/

That's brilliant !
Never heard of those before.

Looks like fun and one serious workout !

I do remember when the concept of tilting hrdrofoils was discovered.
There was a chap who was building wave powered boats.

Never could understand why it never really caught on.

And yep, looking at the machine i could make those parts fairly easily.

Just need exact dimensions and pictures and I can create some stls (stereolithigraphic files) for you that you could take to a local makerspace and get some 3d printed.

Petg would be the ideal material.
Salt water resistant, and pretty tough.

Not much I can't reverse engineer these days

These days, making your own plastic parts or getting someone with a 3d printer to make them, is usually the best option.
The sheer range of materials we can use is simply staggering.

Rat Man wrote on Aug 15^th, 2021 at 8:25am:

It is very exhausting. No joke.



Curious Aardvark wrote on Aug 15^th, 2021 at 8:34am:

It is probably a combination of:

1. Steep learning curve
2. Environmental needs for use

It is quite difficult learning to use. One needs to learn 3 things: taking off (ie. you need a good kick forward), how to tramp and keeping your balance.  Taught it to two of my friends, both perfectly healthy and fit young men. The first one spent 2 hours simply being able to get a certain distance straight forward. The other good adept at it after an hour. At that time both were completely exhausted.
So if you rent one for a vacation one needs first spending a day learning how to use it and only then you can actually have fun with it. That has probably scared off a good deal of people.

The second reason is that you need a fairly specific place to launch it from. That is, one needs some terrestrial ground to stand on and kick off from to start the aquaskipper. Have seen videos of people running from the beach but it is most easy to jump from a pier. And if you fall into the water, well then you have to swim the skipper back to some place where you can pull back up on the pier. 


Curious Aardvark wrote on Aug 15^th, 2021 at 8:34am:

I was amazed to recently find out that the aquaskipper was a copy of an existing (and EVEN more obscure) invention from 1998 called the trampofoil (http://human-powered-hydrofoils.com/hydrofoils/trampofoil/) (aquaskipper was invented in 2003) with the only real differences being the entire front of the trampofoil consisting of a spring (this is just a little part on the aquaskipper) and the prize.  Then a year later another copy was invented, the pumpabike which uses a metal spring http://human-powered-hydrofoils.com/hydrofoils/pumpabike/.

And now the company originally designing the aquaskipper has made a new and improved version no less https://store.inventist.com/products/aquaskipper


And allow me to rant a bit more.
There is another kind of hydrofoil which is basically just a bike https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLboyOqi6R8.
And this thing, which is basically just a surfboard with a hydrofoil https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BECaeJhP7Lc&list=PLRVUTcvx7LpEcw1GDORuGq34fgWCxt...

The problem with all of these is that they can't be launched from the water.

The only hydrofoils that can are like the waterbike but with pontons http://human-powered-hydrofoils.com/hydrofoils/pogofoil-parker-mccready/ or a kayak with hydrofoils https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQRtgEIs--k&t=62s.
I don't understand why the hydrofoil, ponton bike has not broken through. Seems very accessible a fair competition to small boats.



Morphy wrote on Aug 15^th, 2021 at 8:52am:

Well... you can buy the NEW and IMPROVED aquaskipper morphy...
But yeah. It is weird the company was like that. Why not just take down their webpage if not they are not selling?

different levels of insanity for different days of the week !

It is obviously Tuesday