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Waydoo arrived on the electric board scene at a time when excitement for eFoils met with disappointment–they were all crazy expensive. The Flyer One+ continues Waydoo’s success in providing an eFoil at a little more than half the price of similar platforms.
We tested the EPP version of the Flyer One+ and experienced going from being cautious and critical about the product to being super stoked. The EPP covering–like soft top surfboards–makes it very forgiving when learning the ropes. It also protects your car and house when moving or storing it.
As far as performance goes, there’s plenty of power with a 6000W motor. You’ll get anywhere between 45 and 70 minutes of ride time off a single charge depending on your level and body weight. Charge time is around 2 hours from around 10% we found.
Things we like:
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Most affordable eFoil in its class -
Beginner friendly
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Easy assembly and maintenance
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Quick charge time
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Good ride time
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Fun, fun, fun
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Foam coating is forgiving
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Storage box can be convenient for yachts
Things we don't like:
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Perhaps a little noisier than Lift and Fliteboards
Starting to Efoil
With the Explorer wing set, and the board floating on its head with the mast up, the Flyer One+ isn’t all that fun to tow out to depth. On account of having a remote controller in one hand and the other on the board, towing any board isn’t all that fun.
Most riders won’t be able to lie prone and kick when the mast is finally turned downward at 4 feet or so. That’s because the size of the board doesn’t provide enough buoyancy for riders over 175 lbs to lie prone on it without it submerging. Heavier ladies and gents like the 3 from Boat & Sail that tested the Flyer One+ had to swim slowly out.
The good news is that once in deep enough water everything gets easier.
- Weight: 62 lbs
- Ride Time: 120 minutes
- Capacity: 220 lbs
- Max Speed: 25 mph
- Power: 6000 W
- Range: 21 miles
- Charge Time: 2 hours
Getting Up
The controller is intuitive and smart–setting a power limit and adjusting using “+” and “-” rather than knobs. The design of the controller is one of the best of all electric surfboards and efoils. Other models will have a throttle that’s spring-loaded. Squeezing at constant pressure is the way to maintain speed on those models. And the hand can get a bit tired of that. Beginners especially.
Once set to 7-9 out of 20, grab on to the nose handle and pull the trigger. There’s good power and once some speed is achieved, the experience on this Waydoo is like an electric boogie board. It’ll be necessary to increase the power on the controller for heavier set folk, in order to have enough thrust to get to the next stage of standing.
If you’re not familiar with efoiling, you’ll start by getting on your knees while motoring. From a kneeling position, it’s possible to get a feel for directional control. It’s even very possible to get enough speed and, with a centered balance, get the Flyer One+ to generate lift and start to foil. For absolute newbies, it’s better to try to stand while skipping across the surface.
Beginners will find this board fun while they seek to find their balance like this.
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The surface area of the board has just enough room to find where your footing should be. One foot forward and carrying a little more of your weight and the other just beyond the halfway mark toward the back.
Once you manage to make it up, that familiar flying sensation is amazing! If it’s your first time, doubly so.
The Waydoo Flyer One+ will carve through chop and provide a smooth, serene experience for the rider. The sound of the motor is a wee bit noisier than Lift’s and Fliteboard’s, but not really by much. Not really enough to ruin the experience. In glass water coves, where sound echoes, it may be more of an issue, but that’s nothing we experienced in open bays and canals where sound from other boats or people wasn’t far.
Efoils have longer ride times than electric surfboards and the Flyer One+ proved to have as much battery action as any we’ve tried. More, in fact.
The more you ride upon the hydrofoils, the more time you have too. In other words, beginners might find that their ride time is on the lower end of the promised 40-60 minutes. But, for those that can immediately get up, ride time will flirt with an hour.
Where The Flyer One+ Compares to Other Efoils
As noted, our experience with the foam-covered EPP Waydoo started with skepticism and quickly turned to glee. The soft material is quite a pleasant experience compared to the epoxy boards we’ve tried. Since there’s no drag when this efoil is lifted up on the hydrofoils, there’s no downside here. It’s only in the beginning, when starting off in the water, that the EPP will be slower than epoxy surfaces.
As far as power goes, the Flyer One+ will seem plenty powerful. with 6000W of power generated by the jet, the 25 mph speed is amazing when sailing over the surface of the water.
In short, the expereience is awesome. Awesome like the Flite, like the Fliteboard. Just cheaper.
Portablility
It’s heavy but has a smart suitcase, also made of EPP, and the plug-and-play battery system cuts down on wires and makes maintenance easier than many other models as well.
Things we like:
-
Most affordable eFoil in its class
-
Beginner friendly
-
Easy assembly and maintenance
-
Quick charge time
-
Good ride time
-
Fun, fun, fun
-
Foam coating is forgiving
-
Storage box can be convenient for yachts
Things we don't like:
-
Perhaps a little noisier than Lift and Fliteboards
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Comments
We sell Waydoo since the start. And it is amazing how the product developed over time. I feel at this point riding experience is at least equal to Lift and Flite.
Wondering whether you really tried the Waydoo ONE plus as it is super silent. It doesn’t make any noise especially not when compared to Fliteboard which makes clearly some n noise.
Hi Jochem. Ya, we’ve been using the Waydoo One+ for a while now. Actually, it was the first efoil we started testing a couple years back. As we convey in our review, we definitely like the One+ and love how it’s price makes it more accessible. The experience is just plain fun. I’m not sure what you mean by super silent, nor can I respond to the comparison as you don’t mention which Fliteboard you’re measuring it up against. But the One+ makes a hum that is not distracting or loud but it is noticeable. As is all the others. We’ve not measured the decibels for these–our assessment is purely from the experiential point of view. The newer Fliteboards and Lift efoils are, from our experience, having a quieter hum than the One+. They also cost significantly more. But I respect your experience and welcome some more elaboration to help me gather more info. Cheers.
I have a Waydoo Flyer One. It is a good product for the price, but when something breaks under normal use, don’t expect ANY support from Waydoo. The motor in the mast began failing intermittently this summer (third summer of use). I swapped the mast for a friend’s to isolate that the mast was the problem. It took 2 week of emails back and forth before Waydoo said that the best they could do was sell me another mast at a HIGHER cost than they are being sold through resellers in the USA. Also in the process of troubleshooting, their FlyerUpgradeTools app rendered my remote unusable. There is some bluetooth security issue. Even on a rooted Android device with all permissions granted it still failed.
The product isn’t terrible, but the support is once a day email back and forth to China and they do not stand behind their products at all
We’ve seen this deficit in support a couple times. It’s unfortunate, as they’ve made a decent product at a more accessible price. There are indications that Waydoo is trying to improve their post-purchase service end of things.