A 10kW (15HP) electric surfboard. Wow.
With a 200 kilometre and some of the best waves on the coast of Europe rolling in from the Bay of Biscay, the Basque country – sandwiched between France and Spain – just might be be the ideal place to develop electric surfboards.
Aside from the attributes nature provided, Bilbao – home of the famous Frank Gehry-designed art gallery – is a technological and design hub known for its innovation and vision.
So when the Bizintek Engineering & Product Design company started work on the assignment with a mandate to “create a new water sport that is popular, silent and environmentally-friendly”, they came up with Onean electric surfboards.
Onean offers two kinds of boards: The Manta is a stand up board designed for relaxed cruising, while the Carver is designed to get the adrenaline pumping. The Carver-X even more so.
All of the boards have electric jet propulsion systems and wireless remotes, but the difference is in the motors themselves.
The Manta? A 750 watt (1 HP) motor with a top speed of 8-10 km/h (5-6 mph).
The Carver, on the other hand, is slightly faster (ahem), with a 5 kilowatt (5,000 watt) motor and a top speed of about 30km/h when carrying a 75kg/160 pound rider
And the Carver-X? Well, why not put TWO jet motors in it, side by side, so the total power is 10,000 watts and the top speed is, well the top speed isn’t even published.
It might be that the X is just getting ready for release and hasn’t been tested. Or maybe it goes so fact they don’t want anyone to know just yet!
Stay tuned. The Onean website says the Carver-X is due to be released this month.
