22 July 202612:12518 views on YouTubeWatch on YouTube
Riding alone is easy to get used to. You know your lake, you know your launch, and joining a group of strangers on the water sounds like more hassle than it is worth. This episode is what happens when that habit finally breaks: a Glide Water Sports meetup on Square Lake in Minnesota, with one Lift rider surrounded by Fliteboards and a lot of people who turned out to be very good company.
Showing up as the only Lift rider
The setup for the day is a 4’8″ LiftX running the 160 Camber Pro front wing with a 36 Glide rear, on the Lift5 Pro mast rather than a folding one, on the reasoning that a folding mast solves an ocean problem and this is a lake. The battery choice was made for carrying rather than range, which is the sort of trade you make when you know you will be stopping to talk more than you will be flying. That combination is a carving rig, and it stands out immediately in a group where most people are still on the wings their boards shipped with.
Who actually turns up to an eFoil meetup
The riders at this one are worth describing, because they are not who most people picture. A good share of them are in their sixties and seventies and riding hard, on first boards and beginner wings, having an obviously excellent time. The interesting conversation on the water is about wing upgrades: riders who have the skill to move on from the high lift, high drag wing that came with the board, and who mostly just need someone to tell them they are ready. Watching a group float in a circle and swap notes between runs is a fair picture of what these events are for.
Square Lake and the smallest pontoon boat on it
Square Lake sits a short drive from the Twin Cities and is unusually clear for Minnesota, deep enough and clean enough that scuba divers train in it, with a sandy beach, a fishing pier and a public launch. Clear water and a public ramp cut both ways: great visibility, but also boat traffic, weeds and people, which is the honest complaint made about it here. The other memorable encounter is with an extremely small pontoon boat, which turns into a friendly chat, a pitch about how quiet and easy eFoiling is, and a hand off to the Glide Water Sports crew for a first lesson.
Why the group ride is worth the drive
The argument the episode ends on is simple enough. eFoils make no wake and no noise, so a dozen of them on one lake bothers nobody, including each other. That removes the usual reason to space yourself out from other water users and leaves you with the part that is actually rare: people who are into the same specific, slightly absurd thing you are into, in one place, willing to talk gear all afternoon. If there is a meetup near you and you have been quietly skipping them, this is a reasonable case for going to the next one.
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