Meet Todd Reichert, the world’s fastest human who has been involved in the study and the application of biological flight principals to human powered flight. He is a Canadian aerospace engineer and a biomimicry expert on “Kinematic Optimization in Birds, Bats and Ornithopters” who also designed and built the Snowbird Human-Powered Ornithopter, the first human-powered flying machine to fly straight and level by flapping its wings.
Todd can pedal a bicycle along flat roads at record speeds at over 140 km/h and even fly using one, but for the past few years he has been learning how to fly on the water. At first sight, freefoiling looks like an effortless activity that takes just a pump or two, but it seems that there is more than it meets the eye. Todd reassures me that learning to pump Beta Foils is hard.
So it isn’t for the instant gratification generation, I said, and his smile was all I needed. He pumps foils, speed skates, bikes, skis, kites, a rugger rower, and a fellow sport polymath. A sports visionary on the quest to innovate and push the limits of endurance while mastering flight on the water.
“I can see myself taking just a credit card in my shorts pocket, hop on the Beta foil and go for a multi-day tour”, Todd says. “Each day I might be able to go for a 20k pump session, put the freefoil back into my backpack and grab a lunch at the waterfront restaurant, hop back on and do another 10-20k in the afternoon. I would also love to join 50k canoe race this summer, a pump foil marathon adventure in works.”
His main goal is to push Beta Foils as far as science and modern materials can handle. Countless iterations and a new sport that introduces radical two masted foil design and pump foiling with both the wing span and possibilities never seen before.
It is his shop where all the magic happens, sanding, cutting, heating and reshaping high end carbon fibre, and redesigning Beta Foils design to push it as far as physics and imagination can handle. Once a decision is made on what is this year’s model, which takes countless digital and craftsman hours of iterations, Todd has to pay about 15 grand to machine an aluminum mould with virtually no domestic manufacturing capabilities that could make the product price competitive nor create reasonable margins needed for dealers to even offer their products for sale.
In a nutshell, one of the best aerospace engineers in Canada can’t find a domestic partner that could meet advanced carbon materials manufacturing processes combined with the price competitive structure. Quality control and advanced composites used to build Beta Foils would make it hard to outsource production, and in house design and manufacturing is the only option left at this point in time.
Freefoiling is an evolution in pump foiling design solving the current limitations where a person could pump the foil board for only few minutes at the time. Either energy of the wave, a paddle, wing or e-foil assist electric propulsion needs to be used with all other designs in order to sustain flight above the water for a prolonged period of time.
When there is no wind or waves, which is about 70% of summer days in Canada, Beta Foils should become your go to hydrofoiling toy in the arsenal. Combine that with the beautiful geography, lakes small and big, East or West Coast and you get Canuck athletes pumping Beta Foils far and wide around The True North strong and free.
Aside from design and manufacturing, growing a new sport takes time. In the big buzz of foil, freefoiling and Beta Foils is competing with marketing, promotion, and the hype of SailGP, E1 Series, efoils and other manufacturers on the market. Make no mistake, Beta Foils is an unpretentious foiling beast.
Freefoiling has yet to explode and it will no doubt continue growing as a sport that will appeal to dedicated and determined athletes who like to push the limits. Moreover, it could very much become a unique complement to any endurance athlete routine working on stamina and Maradona’s thighs.
Hydrofoiling industry has been around for over a century now, but this is the first attempt to use human strength alone with no aids, propulsion or other natural or man-made assistance, yet traverse mind boggling distances at the time. If the industry used the Gartner’s quadrant to rate its designers and manufacturers, with challengers, leaders, niche players, and visionaries, Beta Foils would be placed in all four.
One of company’s growth strategies was to visit Switzerland and showcase Beta Foils. Swiss have a vibrant community of avid pump foiling enthusiasts and wake thieves who only need a launch dock to showcase their hydrofoiling skills while gliding on beautiful lakes. And it was all nice and dandy until they tried to pump the foiling Jumbo Jet, a whole next level something like the last level in a computer game where you meet the big boss.
It takes about a month to get comfortable flying for about 30 seconds, yet Todd can do it for hours at the time. And that is a month for a guy that is in good shape with decent athletic stance and balance. Your hearth rate skyrockets with legs getting heavy and it is rather surprisingly hard initial learning curve and an awesome work out.
I started daydreaming about the Beta Foils, pump foiling competitions and other ideas to showcase this amazing sport. Cherry Beach in Toronto comes to mind with different age groups as well as weight classes and to top it all a pro freefoiling challenge around the Toronto Island as a perfect way to finish the weekend of pump foiling festivities. Combine that with the Foiling Week North in Canada, and the first metropolitan to host such event, shaping Toronto’s Waterfront and its beaches to become a foiling water sports destination.
There are various nice places to demonstrate Beta Foils locally from beaches to Ontario Provincial Parks, and having a subscription based model where freefoiling enthusiasts would be able to learn and experience the product before committing to purchase it seemed like an idea to explore. Very similar to scull rowing clubs where one can try the equipment and learn the sport before making such a positive life changing decision.
At $6500 Beta Foils, might seem like a big investment, but that is what an average motorcycle or a good quality road or mountain bike costs nowadays. Unless you embrace freefoiling as a sport other pump hydrofoiling products might be a more adequate option with different capabilities altogether.
Stay tuned, pump it, and visit Beta Foils for more information
