E-Foil Boards

Foil boards are catching on and spreading like wild fire. SUP, surfing, wake, wind, ... you name a board and someone is putting a hydrofoil on it.
But now there are e-foils. These things are crazy amazing and after talking with a few people who have experienced them, it seems they might be a game changer. Check out a video by Lift e-foils here.
What is really cool about e-foil boards on the IP side is that they open so many doors for possible protection. Not only are new board and foil designs open for protection, but now you have electronic controls built into the board itself. The board is no longer a passive device, but now essential it becomes a powered vehicle, more akin to a car than a board. New ways to integrate a battery into a board, control the motor, etc., will likely lead to an explosion of new innovation, and patent filings.

Figure from US 9,586,659

Already there is IP on powered foil boards, such as US 9,586,659 to Jacob Langelaan. The application sailed through the patent office, and it looks like an important aspect of the invention was the lack of a movable steering system. It will be interesting to watch the IP landscape as more and more manufactures bring a product to market. One wonders whether the e-foil boards will explode like the e-scooters hitting the streets!