16 October 202314:071,223 views on YouTubeWatch on YouTube
A mast that seems to vanish is a good trick, and this episode gives the method away rather than protecting it. There are two versions of the effect, one worth copying and one that should never be repeated, and the difference between them ended with an hour and a half of picking plastic out of a lake.
The version that works: mirrored chrome vinyl
The effect people ask about comes from wrapping the mast in mirrored chrome vinyl. That is the whole secret. It is 3M material, it goes on by following the instructions on the roll, and the job takes about half an hour. Materials can run as little as twenty dollars. At some angles the reflection reads as an invisible mast, and at every other angle it simply looks striking. There is a side benefit worth noting: a wrapped mast is a protected mast, and at speed even small scratches on a mast affect how it performs.
The version to avoid, and the mess it made
The stronger light warping look in the footage came from something else: four layers of one way window film applied over the top. That film is built for glass, not for water, and it did not survive contact with a moving board. On the first ride it started shredding into ribbons the moment the board got going, and clearing them out of the lake by kayak took an hour and a half. It pollutes, it will not stay on, and it is not worth it. The blunt instruction here is not to try it.
Some of the illusion is the camera, not the mast
An honest caveat comes with the reveal. A good part of what looks so strange on screen is a digital camera failing to make sense of what it is pointed at, in this case an Insta360. In person the wrapped mast looks like a blurred chrome column that occasionally does something odd, not like the time delayed warp the footage shows. If you want a genuinely invisible mast, the reliable route is post production, and the point is made that erasing it with AI tools is now fast and easy on a modern machine. It works better when the mast is chrome wrapped, because the effect has reflective information to work with.
Why the wrap came off, and what else vinyl is good for
The wrap eventually got removed for a performance reason. Down a race course at high speed, the small amount of extra thickness on the mast was enough to feel, and to cause falls on a course that almost never produced them. At ordinary cruising speeds the view here is that you would never notice it. The broader case made for vinyl is more practical than decorative: wrap the board to protect it from dock scratches, peel and replace it each season, choose a bright colour so boats can see you and your board in the water, and add markings so riders and boards can be told apart in race footage instead of everyone describing the guy on the white board.
Chapters
- 00:20 Chrome Vinyl Application
- 00:30 The Light Warp Plastic over Chrome Vinyl
- 01:09 Reflective Mast Effect
- 01:20 Light Warp Mast Effect
- 01:32 Why don't do the Light Warp Mast Effect
- 03:44 Invisible mast video effect
- 05:30 Wrapping the board in vinyl to protect it
- 06:16 Change the color of your eFoil board to any color you wish
- 08:22 A cool, simple, easy, and affordable effect
- 11:24 Removing the chrome vinyl wrap
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