We made it!!! Final episode of Season 1 of the WeAreFoiling Podcast and I couldn't be more stoked to have Nick Leason of Lift Foils close out this year. Efoil pioneer, surf foil madman, crazy creative engineer and the dude who enabled some of the biggest wave riders on the planet with slick, dynamic foils for every boardsports discipline. Nick is straight up a rock star in the boardsports space, starting Lift in 2010 and becoming the leading Efoil manufacturer in the word and developing hydrofoils for kitefoiling, surf foiling and now all the disciplines of downwind voyaging, pump foiling and beyond.

He's a quiet guy and has arranged his life in Pureto Rico around developing and producing just the right sensation under a rider's feet for wave riding on hydrofoils. What a vibe: lunch brake tow-in sessions using an Efoil to whip in a buddy followed by some gentle tuning of a foil by hand under a palm tree. Rinse and repeat! Nick has taken all the risk in new foiling watersports and he has reeped some of the rewards, too.

It hasn't been all easy ocean gliding. Nick has had a target on his back as he went from one of two or three foil manuacturers in the world to one of 40. As the OG in the space, he's had to dodge criticism and avoid chasing trends he didn't start, keeping Lift on the leading but stable edge  of sport and manufacturing progression.

Nick gives us the origin story of Lift which parallels the development of foiling in watersports since the early 2000s and also his personal path with all it's challenges of self doubt, grit and finally a few epiphanies!

Since we spoke, Lift released the Florence Collection of foils, the first ever partnership in foiling with a celebrity, current and three-time World Surf League Champion John John Florence! Who else but Nick Leason and Lift could score such a coup for marketing while also connecting the massive world of professional surfing with foiling along with John's brother Nathan, a crazy popular surfing YouTuber.

We close out Season 1 after covering some major topics and events on the show including the America's Cup, world foiling records, milestones in transportation and jamming with the sickest riders and minds in watersports and more.

Nick is an elusive fella and we were sooooo stoked to get time with him just like all our amazing guests for Season 1 of the WeAreFoiling Podcast. Thank you so much for supporting our new dive into the podcasting universe. In Season 2, we will jam with a whole new group of killer foiling peeps from the worlds of sport, industry, design and sustainability.

For now, I know you'll love all the pathways and even rabbit holes I go down with Nick in this episode. Let's go!

With the America's Cup at full tilt, the AC75s are humming around at 40+ knots with hidden athletes pedaling, steering, turning knobs and pressing buttons to fly these rad beasts around the course.

There is NO flight, NO racing, without the hyper quick hydraulics that move hydrofoil flaps and arms, travelers and sail sheets. These minute, split-second adjustments made with the press of a button by sailors pass through a web of software and computers that link human thought to action. That space in between is called MECHATRONICS!

In our most techy episode yet we meet the brains behind these Cup systems that allow the scorching racing we have been seeing in Barcelona. Helena Scutt, an Olympian, mechatronics expert for New York Yacht Club American Magic and a member of its Puig Women's America's Cup Team, tells us about how technology makes flying an AC75 possible. 

Ben Biddick, lead hydraulics engineer at Harken, gives us the nuts and bolts of the business end of foiling: controlling flight at pace both with sails and hydrofoils.

As guests for the first ever "All American" episode of WerAreFoiling, they share their unusual career patheways to becoming the geeks who make flight possible in the America's Cup, showing us "how it works."

Helena and Ben give us the deep dive into the entire Cup boat system. From the finger that pushes a button, sending commands and requesting algorithmic answers, to filtering the data from hundreds of sensors all the way through to the fast moving sail and foil controls keeping the AC75's ripping along through almost any sea state and manoeuver.

They are fun, young and blazing new career pathways in the marine industry. I know you're going to love this tech and our conversation. Let's go!

We couldn't be more stoked to have Cash Berzola on WeAreFoiling!! He was 17 when we recorded this and he had just destroyed Instagram with his ridiculous showing at the GWA (Global Wingsports Association) Cabo Verde Wave event last spring. His lip grinds were like skateboard 1/2 pipe stuff and he even ditched the wing and got barrelled! He only got a 2 out of 10 for that one but was second in the event and crashed onto the foiling scene conquering Maui's monster wave JAWS on foil and just showing the world the sick lifestyle of the most progressivce foiler on the planet right now.

We cover a ton of ground in this episode from pushing GWA judges to interpret completely new tricks, to his hopes for new equipment to shape a fun, surfy future for foiling. Of course he gives us the blow-by-blow of his biggest and most viewed moments of 2024 and it was super special to here how, in one of the most influential corners of foiling, the trendsetters are thinking about sport and lifestyle.

Professional boardsports foiling is only about 3-4 years old and the average age of competitors is moving rapidly down towards the minimum of 14, so Cash, one of Armstrong Foils most visible athletes, is the voice of this genertation. Always laughing and down to earth (when he's not dropping in on bombs with a tiny foil and body armor), you're gonna love this radical rider!

Episode three and we are connecting foiling to the great big world of transportation! Torbjorn Tornqvist is a sailor, he just happens to be head of one of the largest energy conglomerates on the planet.

We discuss his passion for the sport that lead to two incredible America's Cup campaigns with Artemis Racing and how he took the bold desicion to keep his design, engineering and science team together and create Artemis Technologies. He asked the question, "Where can we go with everything we've learned making Cup boas fly?" His answer? Let's take the efficiencies foiling offers and try for net zero ferries!

With orders now for ferries around Europe, Artemis Technologies has been trying to make a real impact on reducing fossil fuel consumption, pretty ironic coming from a guy who oversees some incredibly large oil holdings!

Torbjorn shares his philosophy on meaningful change, the areas where foiling intersects industries, how computer simulation can get us to efficient transportation solutions sooner and what he loves about sport and work. We find out what makes this crazy busy dude tick! I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did!

In chapter one of the foiling pioneers history, Olivia Piana of Brittany, France is right there with legendary watermen Dave Kalama and Laid Hamilton. A three-time SUP world champion and Wingfoiling race world champion, iQ Olympic Windsurf foiling, Olivia has broken new ground in the mind-bending new endurance discipline of downwind foiling and in 2023 set the benchmark record for the longest downwind foil run ever at an exhausting 287.4 km in 14 hours and 36 minutes along the rugged west coast of Portugal, her adopted country.

Dodging orcas and left alone miles out to sea, Olivia documented her record run in the soon-to-be-released film, "Chasing Horizons." She fell in love with the people of a coast that is covered in vast stretches by flowing beach grasses, jagged cliffs and endless ocean swell that collides relentlessly against its shore. Her film is an attempt to help bring atttention to efforts aiming to prtotect this environmentally sensitive shoreline from over development.

In this episode, we get into the mind of this endurance athlete as she describes overcoming anxieties on her way to completing her record-setting run, the future of downwind foiling all over the planet (she's a SUP Foiling world champion winning her class in the Molokai to Oahu channel crossing), the possibilites of electric, foil-assisted flying with FoilDrive and navigating her evolving life as a pioneer in oean watersports.

Olivia's smile and dreams are infectious and her stories and the deep feelings she expresses for her sport and life give rich insight into living a purposeful, driven life on the sea. We're soooo stoked to have you listen to her story!

Season 1, Episode 1 of the WeAreFoiling Podcast!! We were super patient and it took a few months but we sat down with Emirates Team New Zealand CEO Grant Dalton to break down the evolution of foiling in Pro Sailing from the "big bang" of the 2013 America's Cup all the way through hydrogen fuel cell powerboats, the applicatiion of foiling in decarbonization efforts and the first ever proper physics model foiling online gaming platform.

We couldn't think of a person more central to the growth of windsports and professional foiling than Grant. He's been at the center of it all, shaping and challenging the future of sailing's most influential show, the America's Cup. And through his last two Cup wins, he has decided to make some positive change in the world outside of sailing, too.

This is a wide-ranging interview where we get a little techy on Cup boat designs and foiling boats for public transportation. We hit on the women's and youth America's Cup introduced by Team New Zealand, and we even talk about life after the Cup, his philosophy on leadership, and what he's gotten right in his life and what he wants to change post-Cup.

Grant is controversial, wicked smart, and likely the most determined Cup character the sport has ever seen. I hope you enjoy our converstaion and his perspective on sport, technology and life.

WeAreFoiling Youtube Channel

Host Chris Museler reviews the Season 1 guest list with Foiling Week/Foiling.org founder Luca Rizzotti!