The Dynafoil Watercraft Website

Memories

Home
What's New
Forum
History
Specifications
Patent Documents
Parts & Service Manual
Hull ID Numbers
Memories
Dynafoil Owners
Photo Gallery
Movie Gallery
My 1977 Dynafoil
Technical Advice
Parts Sources
Related Links
Contact Me

These are the stories of former and current Dynafoil owners!  If you have a story to share, please email it to me, and include photos if you can.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Greetings,
On a whim I did a google search for Dynafoil and was excited to find your website!  Not only was I an original owner of an early 340 and 440 Dynafoil that I towed around on a twin trailer, I was married to I believe the original company secretary, Heidi Jones.  Mike Reuse gave me personal flying instruction as I was learning to fly.  Also, Jerry English took numerous pictures of me doing 360 degree starts, flying, jumping, doing 90 degree wheelies, etc. in the ocean near his home in Ventura.  In fact, if he still has them it would be great to see them on your site.  I divorced Heidi in 1979 and remarried, and one of my life's biggest regrets was selling my Dynafoils in 1981 when the babies started coming and money was needed for expenses.  I think often about my many times flying along at Dana Point, Ventura, Lake Mead, Lake Powell and others, running circles around the old stand up Jet Skis!  Please contact me at your earliest convenience.  I would love to meet sometime and see your Dynafoil."
 
Sincerely,
Ron Jones
Brea, CA

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"This adventure happened in the Winter. I was living in Sanger [California] at the time, not far from Fresno [California]. I knew I'd be selling the boat soon because I had been unemployed for awhile and my savings needed to be replenished. Much like the situation I'm in now. lol But thats another story entirely. lol

I had decided to take the Dynafoil out for what I had expected and would be the last time. On the way to the lake, I stopped for gas and put a few gallons a plastic gerry jug that I stashed under the seat.  I was pulling the trailer with a little Toyota and the safest place for the bright red container was in the boat, even if I had room in the car for it.  The lake was up in the Sierras and this having been over 20 yrs ago, I don't remember which lake it was. I do remember that I pretty much had the lake to myself. It was during the week and there wasn't anyone around.  An important part of this story is the matter of what else I did on the way to the lake. I smoked a joint.

When I arrived at the lake, I put on my Spring suit, booties and gloves and launched the Dynafoil. It wasn't long before the car was parked and I'd pushed away from the dock. The motor started right up and it sounded great. I can still remember looking up at the nearest mountain peak and thinking to myself of how beautiful it looked as the first snow began falling on it. I'd been zipping around on the glass smooth lake surface for awhile before the motor started slowing down regardless of how much I opened the throttle. I'd had problems on previous outings with one of the water hoses coming off and felt it best to kill the engine and check under the hood. At that point I was a considerable distance from the dock and after shutting down there absolute silence out there. The 1st thing that caught my attention was the warmth I could feel on my legs from the heat radiating from under the seat. That made me think that my initial theory regarding the water hos coming undone was probably correct and the engine overheating was responsible for the warmth I was feeling.

I stood up and swung one leg over the seat so I could remove the seat and look into the engine compartment.  When I lifted the seat up I was greeted with a bunch of smoke which was steam that had filled the entire hull. That didn't concern or confound me nearly as much as the hissing noise I heard. As the smoke cleared my mouth dropped open and my pulse increased tremendously at what I saw. I had forgotten to take the gerry jug out of the engine compartment and the heat had caused it to swell up like a balloon! It was the jug that was hissing. Talk about losing a good high. Damn, did I ever straighten up in a hurry! I considered my options, jump over and swim for shore or hope it wouldn't blow up as I lifted the jug ever so gingerly out of the boat and place it in the water. There weren't any other boats in sight so I thought I chose to take the jug out. I consider myself extremely lucky that I was able to get the jug out of the boat and into the water without any additional excitement. While the jug bobbed around like a bouy, I reconnected the water hose and waited for the jug to return to its normal size and shape. When it did, I restarted the motor, idled over to the jug, grabbed it and held it over the side as I slowly made my way back to the dock.

That was my last certainly most memorable experience involving the Dynafoil. I sold it shortly there after and have regretted parting with it ever since.

Have a happy and healthy new year."

A meeting with "The Man."
Click for a larger view!
Even back in the day the Dynafoil's attracted attention!

The classic Dynafoil shot
Click for a larger view!
A rare shot of twin 440's at a lake in southern California!

Al Hayes

Rogersville, TN

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"One of the companies that I worked for in 1974-1975 was Recreational Vehicles and Supplies. We were located directly accross from the Van Nuys Air Port on Roscoe Boulivard in the San Fernando Valley.
     We were one of the first dealers for Dynafoil. We sold Max and Attex six wheel drive all terrain amphibious vehicles, three wheeled Dune cycles of which all used the Kohler twin and single cylinder two stroke engines thus making it a lot easier to stock belts plugs rebuild kits etc., We were also an Avon inflatable  boat boat dealer. Not to mention the service department for the two and four cycle engines. Please keep in mind I was 19 years old and really enjoyed my job!
     I loved working the Sports Arena in Long Beach during the Annual Sportsmans Show of which we had the 8mm "high tech." video units playing the Dynafoil demo on a loop as well as the six wheelers and Dunecycles on Display. Man did we get a lot of lookers on the Dynafoil. I would take customers to Castaic Resevoir north of L.A. and one session of how to "spin or spiral" up on the foils and wahlah you had a completed sale! However the unit with single trailer was quite a bit over $2000.00 so it was a little bit too pricey. I moved back East and the rest was history. I do regret to this day not buying a Dynafoil but again too young etc., never enough money.
     I sold 3 units before leaving in 1975. Two (red) orange and one yellow. The orange pair were to be shipped to a rather large ranch in Wyoming, along with two three wheeled dunecycles that I sold to Burt Sugarman, he was a great customer of mine. At that time  he was married to Carol, I think last name, Wayne was her stage name she was the beautiful and sexy big boobed dumb blonde on laugh in, no not Goldy lol. He was a television producer in L.A. one of his shows was Midnight Special, that was on every weekend. He owned 9000 Sunset Boulivard and I personally delivered the units to his basement garage. He had two floors underground where he stored his Rolls Royce collection Man those were the days. I had several celebrities as customers. Sorry to ramble but a 19 year old poor "kid " from Florida I was awe struck to say the least at first.
     The third was to a young man that developed what we know today as the repeater (tower) for what was then mobile phones his technology is what helped launch the tower to tower wireless system of telephone comunications...kind of a typical Geek, that as the Dynafoil, who was also ahead of his time!
 
Well its been fun hope I haven't bored you too much. Good luck with the enthusiasm with the Dynafoil web site!"
 
Don Williams,
Evansville, Indiana
 
______________________________________________________________