CUCV

Nice job! This is another project on my wishlist.

Nice job, looks like the ceiling of the custom shower I'm putting in. How long did it take you to template and install? Can you post a link to what you used around the edges?

Very nice. Where did you have them printed? Do you have a source you could share?

I wouldn't underestimate the positive impact of bow weight, if you have some hidden areas up front to add weight, I would definitely give it a try. I'd suggest adding hidden lead in the amount of "missing passengers in the rear of the boat, so try 500 lbs. Something else to consider might be a different foil. The guys that turned me onto foiling, foil behind a pontoon boat, no gates or tabs and they are able to do transfers. We ended up meeting them when they were peeling off their wave and hijackings ours.

Good point @Waterburger I ended up using Red Balau for the for the upper platform after seeing the price of real Teak last year. Here is a pic of what my platforms looked like at the start of last summer after a quick 120 grit sanding and the Starbrite 3 step Teak oil process. I will need to do it again this spring.

Thanks for posting a link to the Wake9 video. It is definitely worth watching. They do a great job explaining so many of the things I've experienced with my DIY surf system. They highlight how inducing to much yaw (with gates) can rob push. I can totally relate and have created beautiful waves that sucked to ride. One take away I have is that the Flow 3.0 does not have full potential. It's at a fixed angle and they were running it at 100%. That's really the same thing as a more complex GSA tab, they just don't have to retract the tabs as far. I used an 8 channel relay module which is basically 2X of the 4 channel relay module used on the 2 actuator system on one board. All the other components are the same as the two actuator system. I used the low level triggers rather than a high level triggers due to the number of available high level triggers on the Arduino board. I believe the 2 actuator system used the high level triggers but could have used the low level triggers. Perhaps @SONICJKcould confirm.

For most of the summer my preference was clearly Tabs. At the end of the season I started to change my ballast setup and added significant weight to the bow of the boat. With the the new ballast configuration I felt the Tab only and Gate only waves were both great. However, We don't run all that bow weight when we have more than 4-5 in the boat (ballast makes it hard to sit in the bow) or when there is alot of boat traffic. We ended up with the bow under seat bag, The isle bag, 300 lbs lead on the bow seat and 250lbs lead to the stern of the isle bag. The isle bag is plumbed in line with the bow bag currently. Once the isle bag is drained down, I stop the pump and put in an inline coupling to finish pumping down the under seat bow bag. I purchased a larger boat lift earlier this winter and plan to be leaving the bow lead in the boat under the seat. Tabs pros: Easier to steer than Gates Better accommodates various ballast configuration and passenger seating configurations than Gates Gate pros: Easier to fabricate and install than Tabs Both Tabs and Gates pros" Tons of wave adjustability to help find the "best wave" I haven't started designing any of the changes I'm thinking of doing this winter but I'm thinking of doing a flat plate tab so I have a true comparison Tabs vs Gates. I'm also thinking of building a new swim platform so I can make a tab that is higher. Since I have the actuators and controls in place I have also thought of building a Flow 3.0 style plate. wellis77, I'll have to look up the Wake9 video. I agree with you about the other benefits of a flat tab design and is one of the reasons I'd like to implement that for this season. I can definitely talk you thru questions on the wiring. As far as the Arduino side I'm not yet well versed in it and it need a bit more to function as completely as the 2 actuator code but there are lots of work arounds. So I was going to basically "cut and paste" the 2 actuator code for 4 actuators. I asked my cousin who is well versed in coding to look over my shoulder as I did so. Well, we got talking that night about all the other functionality I wanted and he said he would just write the code over from scratch and create a new app, which was amazing! All this happened when I was ready to get on the water. The control box is fully functional, manually without code, but the initial code was done before my first day on the water. Although the code is yet to be finished, it was complete enough to do all the necessary functions. Since, all the other functions weren't necessary... it went on the low priority list.

Thanks for posting the link for the controllers. I hear so many folks say they now foil more than they surf. For the past few years I've been watching foilers on the lake but wasn't getting the itch to try. Then one day we saw a group of guys that could really ride and made it look so fun. We struck up a conversation with them and got a chance to try and had a blast. I just pulled the trigger on an Axis foil and am looking forward to the 2022 season.

Very nice project, well done! I may have to hit you up for some info on the wireless setup. What are you ridding for a foil, I'm thinking of grabbing one soon?

Nice work! A project like this is on my wish list for this winter. Can you still use it partially extended?

So we very quickly found we liked surfing with a tab fully deployed with our initial weight setup and wishing for more tab length or deployment angle. All the pics are tab fully deployed. We typically back off the gate deployment until we just get scaring on the lead edge lip. The first pic is early in the season can't remember much of the set but can see mild foam on the lead edge lip. 2nd pic is really just for a pic not really a fun wave to surf. We were going slower like 10.5 or a bit less, gate is backed off more than normal with how steep it is and the dirty lip. Last 2 pics are from the same ride with slightly less gate deployment in the pic with dirtier lip. Add more gate deployment it cleans up and rolls over the lead edge lip but sacrifices some push. The last few weekends we have been running alot more bow weight and really has changed things. I will try and run thru tab only and gate only tests this weekend and take pics.

No new progress on the controls at this time. It functions well enough at this point to use and just lacks some of the niceties. I just hit "Surf Left" and it fully deploys the corresponding gate and tab fully. I like the tabs deployed fully but as the wave forms I back off on gate deployment. If the rider falls I hit "Home". Eventually the plan is to get the GPS to deploy and retract the tabs. We also want to have savable rider configuration slots.

@berndtmj We need to work on taking more pics of the wave... but here are a few.

Thanks @GaryH Below is a link to a great build thread with circuit plan for a 2 actuator system that you could use for just tabs.

The boat and mods are definitely dog approve, they love the new step too. We have 2 Goldens and they hung with me on the couple all nighters to complete the mods. One night around 11pm I had the garage door open, a skunk walked by the door and the puppy went after it, it sprayed, filling the barn with the nasty odor, that was a very long night. When I drew it up I went back and forth on the height of the thruster vanes especially with the shorter tabs. CAD said it would clear the waterline coming off the bottom of the hull with my desired retracted angle. (I'm trying to balance short and long tabs with the same setup and my limiting factor is the platform bracket) When I first installed the short tabs, I was like,"this won't work" and almost cut back the leading edge of the thruster to get more clearance. So the very first test was... do I get spray off the retracted tabs at various speeds and I don't. I can see where the scaring is coming from and how the water flows over/around the platform. I can remove the scar with increased yaw from the gate or increased roll from draining off side ballast and the platform goes deeper in the water on the surf side. When I increase yaw to remove it, I loose push. When I remove offside Ballast I loose height. Super cool to make these changes on the fly and to see and feel the feedback immediately. With the Bluetooth app in the test stage, the actuators are just named M1, M2, M3 and M4, this has made it easy to communicate with my son which actuator to move.