E foiling day!

With the wind dropping off to almost nothing for our last full day in Bonaire, it was time to hang out on the leeward side of the island.

Flying on the little Lift E-foil

We started with a sunrise yoga session with Ladina at Ocean Oasis. 

Morning yoga

Nice beach at Ocean Oasis

Cheesy Dutch post yoga breakfast

Nearby CrossFit at the abandoned hotel site

Then a quick breakfast there and back to our room. Jen and I went snorkeling for a bit - there were definitely a variety of fish but the corals are suffering.

Finding Nemo?

I managed to arrange a 1:30pm eFoil session with Salu WaterSports who have a concession right at Delfins. I was able to register and pay on their website and after a bit of back and forth via email it was confirmed. Jeroen arrived with two foil boards. A small lift3 with an exposed propeller and the large version - a generation 4 lift efoil with a shielded prop.

Learn to fly!

The gear for e-foiling

That exposed propeller scares me….

I’ll admit to being frightened of the exposed propeller and gladly took an impact vest and helmet. Jeroen wanted to test a new controller on the g4, so he sent me out in the smaller unit since I said I’d done it before easily on the bigger version last year. This time it took me quite a while to get the hang of it on the smaller board! The smallest Lift Efoil board under my almost 100kg weight would sink so much that it often lost signal to the controller and would cut out before getting going.

I got better at keeping the board up and getting to my knees and eventually had a few flights. I didn’t come anywhere close to the propeller each time I fell and was very careful with the controller when mounting the board. By then Jeroen was out on the larger board and it was working fine. So we switched boards. 

Jeroen helping me get going…

Not quite getting flying…

I have to mention that the whole time we were using BBTalking headsets similar to the ones Dasher used for my wingfoiling lesson. It makes such a difference being able to talk back and forth with the instructor! Jen even had the headset on for a bit so she and I could chat.

The other fun part was Jeroen enjoyed my limited German so we had a good deal of our conversation auf Deutsch. On the bigger board I got going immediately. The heavier and wider Efoil was so much easier to stand on and get flying. The enclosed propeller doesn’t really have any downsides - it gets going and kept me up on the foil just as well and feeling safer.

I had some great long runs and was quickly at the 45 minute mark of my session. We traded back boards and now I was easily able to get up on the smaller one. The board did cut out on me around 4 times mid flight- I think it was when I got my right hand close to the controller in my left hand, the signal would cut out. 

Happy with my foiling!

All done!

Doing some S turns on my last run

Some fails on the small board then success on the slower big board
Finally some higher speed on the small board

Garmin foil track with a few weird spikes when
I had my hand underwater! (I didn't run aground.)

Google Earth image of my run (edited with no spikes)

I finished with a nice little run back to the pier with my hands far apart. Jen was kind enough to take video for a lot of the session. After some nice high fives Jeroen said I should be proud of myself for getting that smaller board going. „Du kannst stolz sein! Ja ich werde meine Mutter davon erzählen“. Yes I’m proud and will tell my mom! I loved the experience but I'm not sure yet that for the price that it is a perfect solution for teaching people wingfoiling?

Thanks Jeroen for the lesson!

Thanks Jen for the support!

The BBtalking hat

The efoil boards - exposed prop on the smaller left unit

Jen and I then did a little shopping in town, filled up the rental car with $40 USD of gas and started packing. 

Last photo of the day

A little dinner and a moonlit swim in the pool and it was time to set our alarms for our 8am flight back home. 7/8 days on a windsurfer, windfoil or wingfoil. And 1/8 days snorkeling and E-Foiling. 2 great dinners with friends. Jen’s knee rehab going well. Some wingfoil coaching from Dasher. Great food and memories of past family trips. What a great vacation.

Early flight the next morning!