AXIS and Foildrive Collaboration products
Foildrive have been almost the sole successful foil assist product in the market up until recently - and we're still yet to see the Duotone system and other alternatives actually arrive in good numbers in customers hands worldwide to make enough of a comparison between the two. While they take their time to prove themselves, existing foil brands have been bending over backwards to produce cross compatible products with the Australian brand to strengthen their offerings to you - the customers.
Adrian from AXIS saw the popularity coming a mile off and wanted to be able to incorporate some of their own products with Foildrive quite early on - producing the first integrated aluminium masts with the Foildrive team as well as the first dedicated Foildrive board (which looks suspiciously like an awesome midlength nowadays!) . Hood Rivers AWSI show in 2024 saw Adrians first iteration of the beautiful carbon integrated masts - while far from being completed at that point, this was by far one of the stand out products of the show that year.
FINALLY we see the completed carbon integrated masts hitting the UK market slowly at the beginning of 2026 and despite some delays, we also hear the Pocket Trench board won't be far behind! Production is slow at the moment due to the huge demand for these products worldwide - but they're coming in dribs and drabs. If you're interested in getting hold of one, you'll need to put your name on one quickly - we've not managed to hold stock yet!
Check out the blog post we've written on Optimising your Foildrive Setup and the products that let you do so, for some more 'in-depth' details.
Do I need them?!
Most definitely not - Thats the long and short of it. However, theres some definite advantages to adding these two items to your setup and if you're in a position to do so - you'll benefit.
Very quickly we saw Foildrivers adding an extra mast setup to their quiver, to simply remove the faff of having to remove the unit from their existing mast each time to allow them to go use their normal foil setup for other disciplines. Having a dedicated setup simply made more sense - especially while aluminium parts were relatively cheap.
The carbon offering is a higher price point - but if you're adding another mast anyway, maybe its worthwhile hitting two birds with one stone and going carbon for even more benefit. The integrated motor reduces drag massively when dipping the pod in the water and allows you to keep up to speed on a wave. Both High Modulus and Ultra High Mod offerings of the carbon integrated mast have the same shape as the UHM standard mast with its thin chord and dog leg shape - increasing speed and glide in overall riding.
The board changes the overall feel of riding a heavier system. The Foildrive add's weight - theres no denying it. Incorporating a trench board lowers the centre of gravity and keeps everything closer underfoot - giving you more response over the foil and a nicer feeling. This is arguably the main draw of a trench board - the other gain of reduced drag is also a great improvement over a regular board.
The Pocket Trench from AXIS takes things a step further from regular trench boards, and was the reason it stood out above the crowd at the 2025 AWSI industry event. A pocket covering the foildrive unit while in use will further reduce drag of the battery system. Even if this is only a minor amount in the grand scheme of things, its still an impressive gain. The track system was its main draw though. Changing batteries takes some time - not long, but long enough for some users to start grumbling. Foildrive introduced split bolts to help and some board brands have introduced wider trenches, but Adrian has an innovative system to help removing and replacing the unit in its pocket very quickly.
Check out the video below for a visual explanation of the Pocket Trench at around 4:35