So after 7 sessions I've finally managed to take off the water and not fall, even did some turns. I've noticed that there are many "how to foil" vids and tutorials, and most say its really easy, just one two sessions and you'll fly.

So, lemme tell you my experience and perhaps some total noob's first views and points that maybe help another ones.

0. The board specs and choices

In my case, the thought of getting an efoil was a loose idea that came up when I turned 30 and wanted to get some b-day old fossil present. At first I looked at the jet skis- they are all nice and fun, BUT... Yea the "butt" being:

• You get a jet ski, but you also gotta get a trailer to haul it
  • So you gotta drive 80kph which is outright catatonic
• You need papers and registrations for it
• You can't swim in many zones other than open sea, some larger lakes and perhaps some rivers' sections
• You can't keep it in the seawater for too long, you gotta flush it, do maintenance "as per required by the manual i.e. every time you pull it out of saltwater"

and such.

Since I live in Poland and all I have near water is a small lake near the house I stay at in summer, plus some 2-week Croatia trips every year, I decided that this jet would simply sit in that lake location, mostly outside water, cause I wouldn't be able to drive it there due to some nature zones. So the nearest body of water would be Vistula river and that means I gotta haul ass everytime I'd like to take a swim.

So, if not a jet ski, then what- oooh theres a SUP, but with propeller, right? Gee that sounds fun.

Ok, so there are apparently many brands according to multiple AIs, but the ones I looked at were:

1. Lift
2. Flite
3. Waydoo
4. Sifly

Then, after I addded the requirement "Its gotta fit in the car", Lift fell out, since these are only rigid boards. Waydoo was a black horse, but after I dug some more, including in here, it turned out to be "your stereotypical chinese xiaomi/honor/whatever attempt at efoils" also when I contacted them regarding Europe support, I still didn't get a response, but they apprently also don't have the inflatable ones.

So I was left with Sifly and Flite. At first I was aiming for flite, and the Flite Air for about 9k€ was decent, but then when I entered the configuration, it turned out to be typical "muricanese, everything is a paid addon" scheme- basically for 9k€ I would get only the board, then I'd also have to pay up for bigger battery, separately for the mast itself and even for a quicker charger. Good thing they didn't price the remote too.

So, I looked at Sifly and it was bullseye. For a mere 7k€, I got all I need - a board, mast, LARGE battery (I mean like really, i get 2hrs out of this easily) and a remote + mast case.

I'm 90kgs fatass, so I thought about getting the Lite+, but specs said I wouldn't sink even on standard 110L Lite, so I picked that. When it was delivered, I checked that it easily fits at the back of my car and thats even without folding the rear seats.

ok, so enough about the board's deets, lets get to the points

1. Don't start in the sea

I made the mistake of starting so you won't have to. Sea is a bad idea for the first time simply because of waves. They will drop you, sink you, wash over you. Then are the water currents made by boats and skis. When I first started taking off while sitting after a while, I would get between waves and drop to the water. Pick some lake- not too big ot hve waves, but not too small to require you to turn. Also it would be good if you knew its depths and if there are any obstacles under water.

2. The YT vids are lying about time needed to efoil

Most YT vids talk about one, two sessions and you are good to go. Well, it feels like they are lying. After my first session I was able to get on the board and take it off while sitting, and that flying was more like skipping stones. In the meantime I absolutely scratched my knees from kneeling and falling from the board- the rubber/foam on top of I think every board is super good at keeping you on it, but when ultimately the shear forces are too big, your skin gives up sooner than the board's rubber.

Don't get demotivated by the vids shoving you "a bunch of simple steps" - they are looking simple, but not when just getting on the board feels like balancing on the needle. Take your time to feel comfortable. When I tried to stand up on the board right after getting on it and speeding it up, I always fell and folks on the beach were watching in shock cause it looks quite dramatically when you fall on one side, board takes off and flings in random direction and then you hit the water.

3. The "real" bunch of steps to efoil

1. Just get on the board and don't fall of it- best get on it from behind, using your elbows just move yourself somewhat around center, then move your knees around each of the sides.
2. So now that you are sitting, get to 3 or 4/20 power levels, still with knees in the water- see how to stabilize yourself, how to turn and how does the board behave when you release trigger (it abruptly stops, so ALWAYS lower the speed by the remote to 1/2 before shutting it off)
3. Bump up the power level to 4-5, stabilize, get your legs to the kneel position AT the front of the rubber mat, nowhere near the rear. Otherwise it will go nose up and you'll fall from it. Now you should be able to turn on each side, speed up, slow down. Again don't release the trigger of you will fall through the nose of the board, straight under it and it can hit you with the mast, the board itself (mine hit me in the ribs- I couldn't sleep on one side for at least a week).
4. Get to level 6-7, the board will stop pushing water in front of itself, and will enter the slide/slip. This is the moment that if you bend to the back, it CAN take off. The moment itself can be instant, quite strong and unpredictable, so try not to be surprised. Thats one of the moments you gotta master - the moment when it stops being a boat, and starts being a plane.
5. Circle around while you learn to first skip like a stone on the water, then for some longer time in the air. Also learn when its "too high" - at least in Sifly with prop (so probably other ones too), you first know that "whoa dude hats high", then the prop comes out of the water so you will begin quite ffast decent, and if you really went over the limit, the wing will get out of the water and you will lose all the lift and go almost nosedive. So, don't do that- the prop is absolute limit of "safe" descent.
6. Okie, so now you probably got your bearings while sitting and are fine with flying chill. That's good. Now its time to stand up. Don't make the same mistake as I did and don't try to stand up while flying (you'll crash). Get to PL3/4, when the board is controllable by thrust and doesn't sink when you stand on it. Move your "main" feet to the very front of the rubber, but not over it, and the back one slightly more forward (5-10cm) than the battery latches. Now if you stay in PL3/4 too long, you will feel that you aren't going nowhere, so bump up the power level to PL4/5 or even 6. Around 5/6 you should see that the board stops pushing water and starts to enter the slide "mode". Now - be very careful especially with the back feet, because if you either move it too bar to the back, you you bend yourself to the back- The board will take off and since you can't yet know how to stabilize yourself, you will quickly fall.
7. Go in the slide mode around, dont try taking off yet. More importantly, learn how to turn and how much force you need to apply on the front, to see how the board beahves - it will splash more water when you press the front and the splash/foam zone will move backwards if you lower the pressure at the front. On the other hand, it will be more rigid when you apply front pressure, and more agile when you lower it.
8. Its time to take off. By now, you should be able to notice that slight change of the splashing sound, when board is about to lift itself- its slightly different to the usual skipping ones. Prepare yourself and bend both knees. Now try to bend ever so slightly to the back, and voila, nose goes u. BUT QUICKLY so you gotta stabilize it with a tap on the front. Now apply even some more pressure and you'll land. Don't panic as the board can fishtail at the beginning, that usually means you gotta apply more front pressure to stabilize it.
9. After some retries, you are now flying- imho best for straights is PL7, and for turning PL6 or even PL5. Don't get into turns too fast cause if you lose balance, you will quickly fall to one side of the board.

And that's it- surely not as fast as in the promo videos, but certainly doable.

My moments of doubt:

1. Getting on it - like hell im gonna sit on it when it feels like balancing on the needle
2. Standing up - is no chance that I'll ever just stand up on this, I much more like foiling seated (thats a strong one- on one hand you are technically efoiling, just not stand up)
3. Taking off - yea ok im standing up why would I want to fight with the nose going up, I may as well just pretend its a wakeboard?

Hardest parts:

1. Getting up
2. Taking off, when the board stops sticking to the water
3. Controlling the board between "boat mode" and "plane mode"

I tried posting it on r/firefox but apparently I was hitting some lovely anti-thoughtcrime filters there.

My PC just crashed for whatever reason the GPU stopped responding and couldn't be reset via TDR, whatever- I'll look into it, but I gotta vent.

What I can't stand is that FF just lost all the login data and I gotta relogin everywhere, and its not even recognized by the bank websites, so I gotta do 2FA everywhere now to do anything. It also added some heavily outdated stuff in the combobox autofill.

This was a final straw. Even spyware-riddled Chrome didn't lose its data, no matter what happened and it always worked with sync and stuff. On FF its not the first time I gotta reauth to bank thinking I'm using new device (I have static IP so its not that).

Firefox is afloat only because it still supports Manifest V2 and by that, the uBlock Origin. If Google ever decided to backport or alllow M2 or uBO creators somehow found a workaround, Mozilla would be once again crying for donations.

Hi, so I currently have this setup connected to my laptop:

https://preview.redd.it/i7ibmovlqc3h1.png?width=622&format=png&auto=webp&s=b4827c859441936ce6812204a2e1ce3d550ecdf8

Where:

• 1 is the disabled internal display
• 2 is 3440x1440p 165Hz
• 3 is rarely used 2560x1080p
• 4,5 are FHD

Now - I had a CableMatters USBC->DP cable that, according to definitions, was "active" or something like this, and it delivered stable 3440x1440p/165Hz signal, but now it simply stopped working one day and all I can hear is just constant plug/unplug sound.

I reverted to some cheapass zenwire USBC>DP cable that while technically displaying the same params, makes the monitor go dark every time there is any spark around - say I move my chonky ass from the chair and its dry, bam- I get electrocuted and for a second, display goes dark.

The 3,4,5 are connected through some Wavlink USBC->HDMI,HDMI,DP, plus some USB ports, and somehow they all work in their native displays.

Now- is there a way to either:

• Connect them all via one device, say TB4 -> DP, DP, HDMI, HDMI or DP, HDMI, HDMI, HDMI? There's got to be at least one DP 1.4 to handle the UW1440p at 165Hz, cause my monitor won't go over 100Hz on HDMI.
• Connect the UW1440p through some decent cable, and leave the rest as it is, though I'd need some decent brand for that one.

Specs: 4090m + i9-14900HX

So I'm generally enjoying my Legion Pro 7i, but recently I started seeing larger and larger difference between GPU and GPU Memory Junction versus GPU Hotspot, which I think eventually rises above maximum allowed limit (108c perhaps?) and causes the entire laptop to crash (black screens, fans 100%, shutdown). That is while also using IETS GT600 and while playing Subnautica:

https://preview.redd.it/zqkidhe9tk1h1.png?width=602&format=png&auto=webp&s=228bf2e9d55fe55a26c7954bc92ae5d0f6445956

Is this RMA-viable, or will the service just bounce it back "cause lol its gaming laptop".

They've already replaced entire mobo + heatsinks once, cause apparently it lost all cooling capability and was boiling even in bios, so I think they won't be so generous the second time, especially when this laptop seems to work well besides that issue.

Any ideas how to approach it?