OLD DOGS LEARN NEW TRICKS
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A GROUP OF HARDCORE WATER-SKIERS DECIDES TO TRY OUT A WAKE FOIL.
There is an old phrase that says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. While that may be true for the vast majority of man’s best friends, it doesn’t always apply well to towed watersports enthusiasts—and it definitely doesn’t apply to a group of old-dog waterskiers in Orlando, Florida, informally known as the Lake Ivanhoe Water Ski Club.
Ranging in age from 45 to 70, the crew consists of around 10 regular members who gather every Saturday morning on the iconic lake in downtown Orlando to take laps through the slalom course. They live for glassy water and putting up big walls of spray, but that doesn’t mean they’re stuck in their ways. Far from it, in fact. Most of the members own boats and have spent years getting towed on all sorts of apparatus—from skis to discs, surfboards to inflatable tubes, and much more. When the opportunity to learn to ride the hottest new thing in watersports— the wake foil—came about, several of them jumped at the chance. Full disclosure, one of those members is my father, Mike Cortese.
While riding a foil behind a boat isn’t new—the Air Chair made its debut in 1990— it never caught on like other activities. But when Slingshot introduced the Wakefoiler at Surf Expo in 2016, it ushered in a new way of riding on the water that was much more approachable to all types of boaters and watersports participants. You might think that a group of older, die-hard water-skiers would scoff at the idea of slowing down to ride a foil board, but a wake foil is a great alternative for skiers because it doesn’t require boats with big wakes like a wakeboard or wakesurf board does. All that’s needed to get started is something that can pull the rider at about 10 mph, so everything from a PWC to a pontoon boat can suffice. For water-skiers, the wake foil offers something fun to do when they’re done skiing, or an alternative should the water be too rough to ski in the slalom course. Foils aren’t affected by choppy water, so they can be ridden in all conditions.
With an invitation from Slingshot and team rider Louis Floyd—an incredible talent on a wake foil—five members of the Lake Ivanhoe Water Ski Club met up at Cortese’s house to try to learn something new—what has been dubbed “the magic carpet ride of watersports.” Along with Cortese were Mike Chadwick (owner of the Ski World shop on Lake Ivanhoe), Tom Lodge, Gary Markman and Jeff Weibel. None of them had ever properly ridden a foil before, and only Chadwick had ever tried it. Chadwick says, “It didn’t go well at all.” Of course, getting up on a small slalom ski is much different than a large board with a mast and foil attached to the bottom. This proved the biggest challenge for all of the skiers, but Floyd was game to help out however needed, so for each rider he got in the water to help keep the board in
position as the boat started pulling them out of the water.
“The hardest part was getting up on it,” Markman says. “I’d suggest using the optional foot straps to anybody doing it for the first time. But once I got going, it was a blast. It’s one of those really fun, noncompetitive things you can do with your friends out on the boat. Low chance of injury, big chance of fun, and tons of laughs.”
Much like you would on a wakesurf board, the key to getting up on a foil board is to put your feet in place on the board and have the captain put the boat in gear (with almost zero throttle). This pushes the board against the rider’s feet, and once that pressure builds, the driver can slowly accelerate, allowing the rider to stand up on the board. Where foil boards truly differ from any other towed watersport—and what
makes them really unique and fun—is the hovering action. Put weight on your back foot a bit, and the foil will engage, causing the board to rise out of the water and hover; put your weight forward, and the foil dives while the board returns to the surface.
This weight-ratio differential causes many newcomers to repeatedly porpoise while learning to ride as they try to figure out the right balance. The Lake Ivanhoe skiers were no different, but this just provided everybody in the boat with more laughs at the expense of whichever old dog was trying the new trick. “If you want guaranteed laughs, get a wake foil and make everybody in the boat try it. Trust me, the entertainment factor is high,” Markman says.
Again, with some tips from Floyd, several of the skiers were able to ride a ways. Chadwick, the most accomplished waterman of the crew, picked it up the easiest, thanks in large part to his experience on surfboards. At the end of the afternoon, each skier having tried the foil at least once, their reactions were all the same: They wanted to do it more.
“The feeling is unlike anything else. I can see why some people say it’s like snowboarding in powder,” says Weibel, who managed to ride the foil for several minutes at a time. “It’s a floating feeling that just feels really cool. Once I got the hang of it, I just wanted to keep going.”
That sentiment rang true throughout the group, whether they were able to ride long distances or barely at all. They all wanted to do it again.
“I was surprised at how difficult it was for me. I might have provided the group with the funniest crashes, but I really want to do it more,” Cortese says.
If you’re a skier, or a boater with a penchant for trying new things, give the wake foil a try this summer. Chances are you’ll struggle at first, much like you did when you first learned to ski, wakeboard or anything else. But you’ll get hooked, and you’ll want to do it more—and so will everybody else on your boat.
“We had a blast trying it—it was fun for the whole group. And we definitely had our fair share of laughs,” Cortese adds with a chuckle. “Ultimately, I’d love to buy one just to try it more and let others try it. It’s low impact, which is great when you’re an old dog, and easy to do with any boat. Until then, Floyd has an open invitation to come back out with us any time.”
The setup the crew learned to ride on was the Slingshot Hover Glide Wake V3 package. The board is EVA-wrapped, which makes it soft but still grippy for your feet. An included foot strap can be added to assist with deepwater starts.
THE SETUP INCLUDES:
WF-2 Foil Board, Hover Glide FWake Complete Foil, 61 cm mast, Gamma 68 cm front wing, 42 cm rear stabilizer wing, front half-strap, foil travel case and neoprene wing covers. $1,831; slingshotsports.com
“It’s a floating feeling that just feels really cool. Once I got the hang of it, I just wanted to keep going.”