Chinese KB Hydrofoil : 300 USD + shipment

[Europ2]

There we are... here are the first Chinese aliexpress/alibaba kiteboard hydrofoil around 300USD + shipment

[Edit] Please post here if you have useful information, or if you have questions to ask.

List of suppliers and known prices for a complete ALU or CF Hydrofoil (2 wings, mast and fuselage):
General method: type "Hydrofoil" in the search box of https://www.alibaba.com or https://www.aliexpress.com

Xiamen Great Phoenix 3 known HF models 1 alu SUP + 1 alu Kite (4 colours) + 1 CF Kite: Catalog here 280-400 USD + shipping
Sublimationsports https://sublimationsports.en.alibaba.co ... hText=foil - Board (with mast rails) + Foil 200-600 USD + shipping - Foil only : 280-600 + Shipping
Contact is raphael@sublimationsports.com - He emails pic of the finished product to confirm before they ship.
YD Yeah Sport: offers KF Box stub, C shaped mast https://yeahsport.en.alibaba.com/search ... =hydrofoil 150-390 USD + shipping
Cimi Sports Nice Foils + Top Board with mast rails https://cimisports.en.alibaba.com/produ ... OFOIL.html 200-320 USD USD + shipping
Z&J Sport High quality prepreg models https://zjsports.en.alibaba.com/search/ ... =hydrofoil 400-600 USD + shiping

Example:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/100-car ... 52639.html

JNJ HF plane.jpg (60.75 KiB) Viewed 5542 times

[BWD]

Autoclaved high modulus carbon?
Papier mache?
Cast pot metal?
What is the secret?

[airsurfer]

Autoclaved high modulus carbon?
Papier mache?
Cast pot metal?
What is the secret?

"secret" most likely slave labor

[kiterocky]

In china there are the biggest carbon parts fabric... Bike car plane ecc eccThey made all on request..

[juandesooka]

I look forward to a review from someone willing to take the risk.

Assume it's a copy of an existing foil...anyone recognize the brand / model?

a pop up window said "new to ali express? Click here for $100 coupon"...if true that might pay for the shipping.

[BWD]

Assuredly, the country can produce everything from space ships and mega yachts to paper bags and dog-b-que, but which is it that is for sale for $300, which for $300000000?

[tegirinenashi]

Autoclaved high modulus carbon?
Papier mache?
Cast pot metal?
What is the secret?

"secret" most likely slave labor

Nope. Most likely absence of sponsored riders, marketing, distributor expenses, and dealership fees. Holy Moly, LF carbon fuselage alone retails for more than that, and what is fuselage, carbon tube? For the reference carbon tubes run $20 per meter on aliexpress.

I would buy one as soon as I master gybes (because learning on high aspect ratio wing makes little sense).

[Faxie]

Tempting....

[juandesooka]

Nope. Most likely absence of sponsored riders, marketing, distributor expenses, and dealership fees. Holy Moly, LF carbon fuselage alone retails for more than that, and what is fuselage, carbon tube? For the reference carbon tubes run $20 per meter on aliexpress.

I would buy one as soon as I master gybes (because learning on high aspect ratio wing makes little sense).

I am the first guy to jump on a knock off deal, so I can't really criticize. But to be fair, the one thing you are missing in your equation is R&D. Coming up with new stuff, designing it, building prototypes, endless testing to get it right ... that either takes some $$ investment or a whole lot of free work. Knock off companies don't come up with new stuff, they just copy something that already works, so at that point it's more about materials cost and labour to produce it, as there's no R&D to recover. Some of the companies involved in foil production are big corporations with teams of people involved, but I am guessing most are a handful of people hacking around and not exactly getting rich doing it. The prices for the products are recouping that time and investment in getting something that works.

But while i understand this, it still doesn't mean I intend to pay $2000 for a foil, $800 for a bar, or $1500 for a kite. (because I'm a cheap bastard ) I think knock off companies thrive when there's too much of a disconnect between product cost and price, with quality mixed in. In other words, room opens up in the marketplace when customers feel there's too much surcharge in prices for fixed cost recovery and profit. An example might be ray-ban sunglasses, the real ones are super nice and some people are willing to pay that, but the rest buy the Chinese knock offs, ranging from $10 crap to $50 ones that are indistinguishable from the real thing. And then others, like me, want to DIY it even if super half-assed....so if I could buy ray ban lenses separately, maybe I could create franken-glasses out of wood and and fibre glass and duct tape, "they don't look like much but they work fine" LOL

[windmaker]

There we are... here is the first chinese aliexpress kiteboard hydrofoil around 300USD + shipment

And 19% taxes...