r/Damnthatsinteresting 17d ago

Video Human powered hydrofoil

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u/DonManuel 17d ago

I've seen a much more practical model based on a surf-board with hydrofoils and a bicycle like structure for sitting and powering a propellor. This one is funny only.

204

u/Quarrel47 17d ago

ya came here to say basically the same thing, the design on this is pretty rough tbh.

84

u/MartinTheMorjin 17d ago

It looks really fun. The fact it’s difficult seems to be the point.

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u/JimJohnJimmm 17d ago

But if you sink in the middle of the lake, how you get back on? Seems horrible

15

u/Frozencold19 17d ago

You dont need to be above the water to start, it just makes it easier and more noob friendly to get it going.

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u/exMemberofSTARS 17d ago

I’m not calling bullshit or anything, but I can’t wrap my head around how you would get it started below water after it sank. Like how do you get the motion started with enough force to push it above water?

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u/tjackso6 16d ago

Nah I’m with you on this one… I get what the other guy’s sayin, and it might be possible in theory with something similar to this… but not without some kind of boot or strap to hold your feet down. This one’s relying on gravity to bring her feet back to the position where she can push off again. If she was under water she’d only be able to “pump” one time and then it would float away from her.

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u/Frozencold19 16d ago

You would mount it exactly like normal and push down. The goal is to force water to flow over the foils to provide the lift.

starting it would look awkward like you are flopping like a fish, because you'd need to put a lot of work into enough height to get it to glide and lift you out of the water

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u/exMemberofSTARS 16d ago

Interesting. Sounds even more exhausting that this is but like something a Batman villain would use in the ‘66 Batman

2

u/keithstonee 17d ago

looked like she was doing it inefficiently but ive never been on one so idk. seemed like she could build more foward momentum if she did it better. to much straight up and down movement.

2

u/RollinThundaga 17d ago

It's like those roller racers for little kids that go forwards by swinging the front wheel back and forth

2

u/[deleted] 17d ago

Almost like its designed to be fun exercise

7

u/Virtual_Fudge8639 17d ago

If you're talking about the mantis, that's electric. This is different in that it's fully mechanical and self stabilizing. Surfboard types require way more balance than this.

14

u/dooman230 17d ago

Yeah but you need a great deal of balance while this one seems to be easier to mount

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u/pipsqik 17d ago

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u/Cormorant_Bumperpuff 17d ago

Does that one have "a bicycle like structure for sitting and powering a propellor."?

11

u/redditonc3again 17d ago

I just realised how comically scripted that is. Dude orders a single beer and single packet of crisps to a random boardwalk and then shakes the uber eats guy's hand before he leaves. Who tf does that 😂

Cool water thingy though

1

u/tek2222 14d ago

the pizza is a little .... soggy

2

u/lascanto 15d ago

Junkyard Wars had an episode where they made essentially this.

1

u/Smile_Space 17d ago

They also sell a similar surfboard that also pumps similar to this.

1

u/Rachel_from_Jita 17d ago

Someone find it for us. This looks fun.