Appletree ZAPPLE Trench Foil Drive Board

Appletree ZAPPLE Trench Foil Drive Board

The ZAPPLE  is a Trench Board specially designed by Appletree for Foil Drive, with the objective of minimizing water turbulence.

Appletree designed this board together with the Foil Drive team to make sure the board fits the Foil Drive seamlessly.

Its recessed layout reduces drag and keeps the battery weight closer to your feet.

This allows you to have a better control during tight turns and high-speed runs.

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.

Two important notes

1. Signal Reception for Foil Drive Remotes
Appletree worked together with FoilDrive to solve reception issues caused by carbon fiber construction.
The Zapple features a special signal window in the nose of the board, allowing the remote’s signal to pass through easily.

2. Battery Accessibility
While the recessed design requires removing the Foil Drive box to swap batteries, we’ve streamlined the process.
New quick-release bolts and accessories are being developed in collaboration with FoilDrive, ensuring minimal hassle.

Key advantages of the Zapple

Reduced Drag: Inserting the Foil Drive in the board recess significantly minimizes drag.

Improved Weight Distribution:
Positioning the battery closer to your feet will give you more control.
You will notice this specially in turns and carvings.

Surface Skipping Capability:
The board can skim across the water without the battery box causing drag.
This will allow you smoother rides and to place the propeller higher on the mast.

Upgraded Foiling Performance:
The reduced likelihood of the prop hitting the water improves flow during non-motorized foiling sessions.

Extended Battery Life:
Lower drag will optimize your battery efficiency, enabling longer foiling sessions.

Precision-Engineered Recess
The Zapple’s defining feature is its trench area, custom-designed to house the Foil Drive box seamlessly.
This design minimizes drag and improves water flow, creating a smoother and more efficient ride.
Additionally, the recess positions the Foil Drive system’s weight closer to your feet, drastically reducing swing weight and enhancing balance during tight turns.

Optimized Shape for Speed and Stability
When designing the Zapple, we faced a choice: go wide and flat for more planing surface or longer and narrower for speed.
With foiling trends leaning toward longer boards, with narrower shapes, we chose the second.
The Zapple’s elongated profile delivers faster lift onto the foil and better performance at high speeds.
Touchdowns are also smoother, thanks to the slightly thicker design and hard rail lines that run along the board’s tail.
This combination ensures stability without sacrificing agility, making it perfect for advanced riders.

The Zapple design

In mid-2024 we began exploring how we could optimize our boards for the requirements of Foil Drive systems.

Our initial goal was very simple: to reduce drag caused by the battery.

But as we tested and refined the design, we uncovered even more advantages.

After extensive testing with various shapes and sizes, we discovered that a board with a trench for the Foil Drive offered unparalleled performance benefits.

As we reduced the drag, wenoticed we also get to improve balance and tighter turning capabilities.

Soon the Zapple became a board that exceeded our expectations on every level.

We made the Zapple in three sizes, targetting a wide range of riders:

5’0″ (38 liters): The most compact and high-performance model.
It’s the best size for advanced riders up to 95 kg.
Our thicker shape ensures it feels agile on the water, despite its 38 liters.

5’4″ (46 liters): The versatile, all-around option.
This size is suitable for both advanced and intermediate riders.
It has the perfect balance between performance and ease of use, especially in flat conditions.

5’8″ (54 liters): Beginner-friendly yet performance-oriented.
Its stability and extra volume make it great for those venturing into longer downwind sessions.
It’s also a great shape for heavier riders

The boards are essentially midlength models, with the foil placed quite far forward.

This allows the extra length and volume less noticeable.

Appletree ZAPPLE Trench Foil Drive Board Construction

Our trench board Zapple isn’t just about performance—it’s built to endure the demands of Foil Drive use:

Carbon Construction: The board is fully wrapped in carbon fiber to provide maximum stiffness and durability.
Waterproof Core: Appletree’s signature waterproof core guarantees no water in the inside, even if the board gets damaged.
Vacuum Infusion Technology: To make sure the carbon fiber integrates seamlessly into the board’s recess.
Heat Resistance: The Zapple is airtight, making it resistant to heat and ideal for use in warm climates.

50k Closed Cell Foam

At the core of every board we make is a foam core of our very own 50K closed cell foam.

This foam is built exclusively for Appletree, and it is not used in any other board brand in the market.

Our 50K foam is closed cell, meaning that the foam will not take water in, and the board will not blow out when it gets hot.

This foam can withstand 50.000 kg per square meter, while staying very light, and most of all very flexible.

100% Carbon Fiber Construction

We produce all of our foil boards with 100% carbon fiber construction.

The advantages of carbon fiber in a foil board is that you get more stiffness and strength.

A stiff board will give you the best control and response from the foil.

Stiffness will also make your foil pumping much more effective.

With carbon fiber we are able to make the board extremely strong while at the same time really light .

The most stress part 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.

We’ve placed the boxes in a panel of ultra high density PET honeycomb.

We  sandwiched PET honeycomb itself 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.

We made the inserts in our foil range from blocks of high density material.

You are able to customize position wise.

We also fused these blocks to the core so they never pull out.

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.

You just have to make sure you use the foam strips provided with your Foil Drive kit 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!

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. (available soon!)

Why Advanced Riders Will Love the Zapple

For seasoned Foil Drive users, the Zapple offers a unique advantage: effortless control and precision turns.

One of the challenges with traditional setups is the tendency for the battery’s weight to throw off balance during tight maneuvers.

By relocating the weight closer to the rider’s feet, the Zapple minimizes this issue, allowing for sharper, more controlled turns with less effort.

Additionally, the reduced drag and improved efficiency mean longer sessions and better battery performance.

Whether you’re motoring out to faraway spots or carving hard turns on the foil, the Zapple’s design has you covered

At Appletree Surfboards, we’re always striving to push the limits of innovation and design.

The Zapple, a board designed specifically with and for Foil Drive enthusiasts.

After months of testing, refining, and collaborating directly with Foil Drive, we’ve created something truly extraordinary.