The Zapple from Appletree

Designed for Foil Drive!

Let us introduce to you the Zapple, a fully Foil Drive compatible board! The board was designed together with the Foil Drive team to make sure the board fits the Foil Drive seamlessly to minimize water turbulence. Its recessed layout reduces drag and keeps the battery weight closer to your feet, giving you greater control during tight turns and high-speed runs.

Key advantages of the Zapple:

Reduced Drag: The recess decreases surface area, significantly minimizing drag.
Improved Weight Distribution: Positioning the battery closer to your feet enhances control, particularly in turns, by reducing the tendency of the weight to shift outward.
Surface Skipping Capability: When motoring back to the lineup, the board can skim across the water without the battery box causing drag, allowing for smoother rides and higher prop placement on the mast.
Enhanced Foiling Performance: The reduced likelihood of the prop hitting the water improves flow during non-motorized foiling sessions.
Extended Battery Life: Lower drag optimizes battery efficiency, enabling longer foiling sessions.

Dimensions:

No more signal issues.

The Zapple effectively tackles one of the most common challenges: signal interruptions caused by water and carbon fiber. The Zapple has an advanced signal optimization, eliminating interruptions, even in demanding conditions.

We designed a special nose for the Zapple, acting as a “signal window”. The antenna for the Foil Drive is located in line with the track, to help the signal pass into the board, so make sure the foam strips provided with your Foil Drive kit are packed in there, to avoid signal blocking by water.

So as long as you have at least a part of the nose above the water and you pack the track with foam there should be zero issues!

Get away with riding a small board.

The Zapple is available in three sizes: 38L, 46L and 54L. With the added power you can get away with riding a very small board. But the bigger sizes also make sense, as they make getting up in the flats easier and also will provide this extra security when doing downwinders far out at sea. The boards are essentially mid length models, with the foil placed quite far forward, this makes the extra length and volume less noticeable.

Easy battery replacement.

Ensuring the trench is fully compatible with the Foil Drive battery was an obvious choice, as it eliminates voids that cause drag and drain battery energy. To add convenience, the Foil Drive team has developed special barrel bolts, making battery replacement as straightforward as on a board without a trench. Easy and seamless.

Precision built.

Our unique vacuum infusion technology we use on all our boards, allows us to make complex shapes with ease and ensure a very durable construction. We did a big test with all our board models and the Foil Drive, and we found that our 2024 midlength prone boards worked the best, by a long shot. So those were the starting points to add the recess to.

Every aspect of this board’s design has been tested and perfected together with the Foil Drive Team, from its layup to the positioning of the foil box.

Including a deck pad.

The Zapple comes with comfortable pads with plenty of grip and a kick tail so you can feel where you are on the board. Inserts for straps are available as a custom option.

FOIL CONSTRUCTION:

50K CLOSED CELL FOAM

It all starts with the core and every board we make starts with a foam core of our very own 50K closed cell foam. This foam is formalized exclusively for us, it is not used in any other board in the market.

The foam can withstand 50.000 kg per square meter, while staying very light, and most of all very flexible. Another plus of our 50K foam is that it is closed cell, meaning that the foam will not take in water, and the board will not blow out when it gets hot.

100% CARBON FIBER CONSTRUCTION

All our foil boards are produced in our 100% carbon fiber construction. You want carbon fiber in a foil board for its stiffness and strength. A stiff board will give you the best control and response from the foil. Also stiffness will make pumping the foil much more effective. With carbon fiber we are able to make the board extremely strong while really light at the same time.

The most stress in a foil board is in the connection of the foil to the board. So this is where we put extra care and attention to make it the strongest connection available. The foil mount is CNC cut with the board, for the highest precision. We only use FUTURES oneshot boxes as they are the strongest in the industry. The boxes are placed in a panel of ultra high density PET honeycomb. This PET honeycomb itself is sandwiched in carbon again. Meaning there is carbon fiber both inside the board and outside. The honeycombs open structure ensures a solid connection between inside and outside, fusing everything together into a solid block.

Our lamination is completely different as well. We use a vacuum technique developed in house, where we layer all the carbon fiber, and reinforcements on the board dry. Then we extract all the air from the bag and inject the epoxy resin under pressure. This results in the tightest lamination possible, with the best ration between fiber and epoxy. It also gives 100% connection to the core so the boards do not delaminate. Extra patches under the feet prevent heel denting.

Inserts in our foil range are made from blocks of high density material. And can be customized position wise. These blocks are also fused to the core so they never pull out.

The Zapple comes with:

Foil Drive Signal Window
Full black EVA deck pad
The Appletree long foil boxes
A matte finish, in clear carbon

Videos:

Links:

Foil Drive Gen2 Assist Max

**If you have questions or need to coordinate an order call us at either of our stores.

Houston Kiteboarding
281-508-6485 sales@houstonkiteboarding.com

Pacific North Sports
360-794-1688 sales@pacificnorthsports.com

Appletree Zapple Foil Drive Board