EW Blog
Texas Foiling
Bret, Wilson, and William, enjoying a day in the Houston ship channel
Texas Foiling
As a kid, I loved to wakeboard, so when wakesurfing came around, I didn’t care for it much. I love the feeling of going fast over the surface of the water, cutting into the wake, and launching myself into the air. The novelty of learning wakesurfing was fun, but I didn’t like the comparatively small amount of airtime you get on a wakesurf board.
I distinctly remember conversations with my friends about “what watersport will come next?” Even though the AirChair had been around for decades, foiling felt like it came out of left field.
I think around summer 2018 the “Foil God” came onto the scene on Lake Austin. My friends and I had no clue what the name of the Foil God was, but we could spot him from a mile down the river by the way he rode. The Foil God would do huge, sweeping turns behind the boat with so much speed and style. He would cut away from the wake, pump through flat water for what looked like forever, and pump back to the wake, only to perform another beautiful turn. Sometimes the Foil God’s boat would drive by, and we’d look around wondering where the Foil God was, and see him riding a roller 200 yards behind his boat.
For two summers we oodled as the Foil God danced all over Lake Austin. He was playing chess and we were playing checkers.
At the beginning of COVID, one of my neighbors, Quincy, got a Lift foil setup. One day I went down to his house, grabbed the gear, and hit the water. I set up a 75 ft long wakeboard rope, and my goal was to ride the first roller. I got bucked off the foil my first couple attempts, but within a few minutes, I was cruising in flat water while holding onto the rope. I slowly creeped towards the energy of the roller until the foil was right in the middle of the power. As soon as I felt the wave push me and experienced the glide of the foil, I was hooked.
COVID was the perfect time to learn because everything was shut down except for the lake. I started foiling every day, and it was not long before I was pumping, turning, and loving every second of foiling.
I started crossing paths with the Foil God, and Ryan and I became friends.
As the foil designs have evolved since 2020, foiling keeps getting more and more fun. Foils are now stiffer, more efficient in the water, and come in a wider range of options depending on the conditions and the type of riding you want to do.
Over the years, I’ve gotten into all the different disciplines of foiling – wing foiling, prone foiling, tow foiling, tanker foiling, and recently SUP foiling. It has opened up doors to have fun in all of the conditions that the Texas coast has to offer.
It turns out that Texas is a great place to live if you like to foil. The mushy waves along the Texas coast are typically not great for surfing, but they are perfect for riding on the foil. A subset of the Lake Austin foilers have also gotten into riding at the coast, and some of the most fun weekends of the year are spent in Port Aransas with the Austin foil crew.
Learning to foil on Lake Austin and the Texas coast has taken me to some places I would have never imagined going. I’ve foiled in Nicaragua, Indonesia, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Spain, and Portugal. Funnily enough, I still feel like the Texas coast stacks up well with some of my best days of foiling anywhere I’ve been.
Teaching all of my friends and a handful of Executive Watersports clients to foil has been a great pleasure. Some people that have learned alongside me now share the same passion for foiling that I do, and I want to keep sharing the stoke with all of Lake Austin.
Nowadays I wonder, “What will come next?” It’s hard to imagine a watersport more fun than foiling.
Mentawai & Hinako Islands
My girlfriend, Eloise and I cooked up an epic surf trip in our heads for almost a full year before we had the chance to go to Indonesia. We considered Nicaragua, Australia, and Morocco, but decided on Indonesia because of its tropical climate and interesting culture. We had to push our trip back twice before our schedules permitted a long trip, so it felt like a dream come true when we finally got there.
We flew into Bali to brush up on our surfing skills and acclimate to Indonesia while still having access to the comforts of the western world. We had a nice time there and got in a couple of awesome tow foiling sessions at Uluwatu. The only hiccup occurred when I came down with a case of strep throat and the doctor at the clinic told me I might have Dengue fever. For several hours, I thought our Indonesian adventure was toast.
It takes another two days from the time you leave Bali to your arrival in the Mentawai Islands. I had pretty much recovered from my case of strep throat by that point and soaked in the sunshine on the three hour ferry ride from mainland Sumatra.
The Mentawais are what a postcard of a tropical vacation should look like.
The water is gin clear with beautiful, undamaged coral reefs. White sand beaches. Palm trees. Coconuts. And to top it all off, uncrowded waves.
We stayed at Kandui Resort, which is located on a small island that you can circumnavigate on foot within a couple hours. The interior of the island consists of mangroves, with a round band of white sand beach around the exterior. The guests stay in small wood cabins called Umas , and they take you surfing nonstop.
There were great spots for both Eloise and I to surf at Kandui. We got plenty of waves, and enjoyed getting to know the other guests from around the world staying with us. I felt my surfing start to improve at Kandui, and Eloise found her stride as well.
My favorite part about Kandui was the last night of our stay, when the Sikherei came to do a traditional ceremony for us western folk. The Sikherei are native tribesman from the biggest island in the Mentawais, Siberut. Up until thirty years ago, they lived undisturbed in the jungle. At the ceremony, they heated their snakeskin drums over a fire and did some traditional dances. We joined in for the last dance, and then sat on the floor as they fed us live worms from the hardwood trees on their island. These worms were no nightcrawlers. These things were meaty, about the same dimensions of your thumb. They have black heads and yellow bodies. I ate two. Eloise ate zero.
A year ago, I learned about some small islands off the coast of North Sumatra called the Hinako. I didn’t know anything about them other than these islands have good waves and are off the beaten path, the perfect ingredients for a surf spot. Eloise and I decided to check it out.
It took two days to get from the Mentawais to the Hinakos, but when we got there, we were warmly greeted by Steve and Alana, the owners of Puri Asu Surf Resort. We were the only guests so we got to know them quite well. After our stay at Puri Asu, they felt like a crazy aunt and uncle or something along those lines.
Compared to the Mentawais, Asu is in deeper water, and more exposed to wind and swell. The surf around Asu is heavy, and the elements feel more powerful.
Eloise got some good waves during our first three days surfing a wave called Bawa, which Steve proclaimed to be the #1 swell magnet in all of Indonesia. On the rare occasion when the waves go flat in Indo, there is always something to surf at Bawa.
Asu has no power during daylight hours, so it became easy to have slow paced days. We swam around the reefs, read our books, and went on walks.
Steve took us fishing one morning about 20 miles offshore. We caught some mahi, skipjack tuna, and Eloise hauled in a yellowfin. Sashimi for dinner.
The seasons in Indonesia began to change. We had a couple days of howling wind and driving rain, which Steve refers to as “surf jail.” After the storm, the wind blew gently from the south and a swell pushed in, perfect for the wave called “Asu” at the tip of the island.
Asu is a nice left that ran for a good 200-300 meters while we were there. Due to an earthquake in 2004, the island rose 8 feet in the span of 20 minutes, bringing the coral reef and lava rock out of the water all around the island. The wave broke about 40 yards off the exposed lava rock, so you had to be careful to avoid getting stuck on the inside.
Asu has 50 local inhabitants, and due to it being the very end of the Indo surf season, there weren’t any people in the lineup while I surfed there. Eloise and Steve surfed with me some, but other than that I had it all to myself. A surfers dream.
I got my first barrel at Asu, and broke my first surfboard there. Asu made me feel like a real surfer.
Some days I surfed for so long that I could barely keep paddling, so Steve would give me a ride back to the top of the point in his dinghy.
Between the Mentawai and Hinako Islands, Eloise and I had a great opportunity to disconnect from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. It’s a hard transition to make at first, but all of the sudden the days start flying by. It’s nice to experience the relatively simple life that most people in coastal Indonesia live.
One day, Steve, Eloise, and I were riding on the fishing boat about a mile from the nearest island when we passed a small, wooden dugout canoe. The canoe had no motor, a tiny bit of shade, and the person in the canoe was handlining for fish. I remarked how it seems nice to live on a small island, catch your own fish, and live simply.
Steve adamantly replied, “I guarantee you that person would much prefer sitting on their laptop in an internet cafe doing remote work than floating offshore and hand lining Wahoo for 8 hours at a time!”
For a second I thought Steve was being sarcastic, and then he added, “Daydreaming about living a simple life is something that people with a simple life do not have the luxury to do.”
Steve’s comment resonated with me, and I think he is right. Although we have to pay taxes and our lives can get completely overwhelming at times, we are very fortunate to live where we do. Despite some of my urges to live out the rest of my life a surf bum in Indonesia, I’m back home, planning out our next season on Lake Austin.
chronicles of the juicy buddha
At Executive Watersports, we have an old pontoon boat affectionately referred to as the “Juicy Buddha.” She sits 27 feet on the waterline, and is outfitted for the sole purpose of serving as our mothership during Wake Camp.
After we pick up the campers on our ski boats from Walsh Landing and Ski Shores, we motor up the lake just north of Emma Long park, where one of our staff members has the Juicy Buddha (JB for short) prepared for a day of fun. She is anchored off the bow about 30 yards from shore, and the stern is tied off to a tree on shore. This ensures she is always pointing into the middle of the lake, regardless of wind direction. The JB has a lily pad tied off to one side, a water cooler, and a JBL partyrocker.
In the bow, the JB has a wakeboard and waterski rack capable of holding about 12 wakeboards and a couple pairs of waterskis. On the starboard side, she is fitted with aluminum bleacher seating. At the stern, there’s an “L” shaped bench, and two openings in the railing for jumping in the water and climbing back on board. The JB has a 115 hp outboard Mercury engine that frequently stalls. The JB has six aluminum poles, mounted equidistant from one another and secured to the railing to ensure they stay pointed straight up. Strung across the poles is a mesh tarp that keeps us protected from the sun. We also outfitted a backpack rack for campers to hang up their belongings. The JB is pretty bare bones, and over the course of the last several summers, she has been a continuous work in progress. (There are some good upgrades coming to the JB in 2025)
Some might consider the Juicy Buddha a sight for sore eyes, but these people have probably never experienced a fun day on the Buddha.
The JB is one of the defining factors that make Executive Watersports such a special place. It is the central hangout spot for the instructors and campers. We swim in the water, catch turtles, play music, eat lunch, and enjoy the lake all day from this boat. When it’s time for a camper to wakeboard or ski, we put on our water sports equipment at the bow of the JB, and slide through the gap in the railing into the lake, where a ski boat is waiting for us. The boat driver throws us the ski ropes, and we’re off.
The story of how we were so fortunate to take possession of the Juicy Buddha is worth noting.
The previous owner of Executive Watersports, Chad Eppes, built a Lake Austin dynasty centered around his pontoon boat. It was a 34 foot long double decker pontoon that was only ever referred to as the “pontoon.” When I took over as owner of Executive Watersports, I could not afford to buy Chad’s pontoon, but my parents were gracious enough to let me run the camp off the dock at our house on Pearce Road.
That first summer, we had two ski boats, and about 8-10 campers each week. It was pretty manageable, and we ran camp out of my parents front yard. The campers would get in the water from the end of the dock, and we spent the rest of our time in the grass. Without getting too much into the details, one of our nextdoor neighbors started taking a disliking towards the camp. We talked through the issues with the neighbor, and stayed on great terms with him during the offseason.
The next summer comes around, and we start running camp off the end of the dock again. The nextdoor neighbor in question now holds a strong disliking towards the camp, and threatens to sue me and my parents. At this point, I’m in a pickle. We already had families signed up for the next several weeks, and the prospect of shutting down for the summer because of a grumpy neighbor was out of the question. I did not want to run camp off of the small ski boats, because the central location aspect of Executive Watersports is what makes it so special.
At this point, my mom connects me with a friend of hers named Deborah Green, who was the owner of the Juicy Buddha. Deborah had purchased the JB on Ebay a handful of years prior, and had used it a handful of times since. It was grimy but showed lots of promise. Although it didn’t get much use, Deborah loved her JB and fortunately liked the idea of Lake Austin’s youth getting to use the boat.
I spent a weekend powerwashing the JB, scrubbing the dirt and mildew off the seats with magic erasers and simple green, and got a couple of 8×10 sports tents at Academy. I secured the sports tents by zip tying the legs to the railing. Just like that, Executive Watersports had a new home base on the water.
We are forever indebted to Deborah for allowing us to use the JB that summer. There are not many people in this world who are willing to hand over their boat to a teenager that they don’t know very well. We also have Deborah to thank for naming our humble pontoon the Juicy Buddha.
After one or two summers, we purchased the JB from Deborah. The trailer had been stolen and the title lost, but I eventually took care of those issues and got the JB moved to my parents driveway for the offseason. The JB still lives on a trailer during the offseason, and during the summer months we have a spot in the water where we keep it.
As Executive Watersports has grown, we have slowly modified the Juicy Buddha to better suit our needs. We ripped out the bulky pontoon upholstery and replaced it with bleacher seating to open up more space and provide seating for more campers. The plastic cabinet and sink were removed for the same purpose. The carpet used to grow mildew and smell bad because it was perpetually wet, so we ripped it out and replaced it with SeaDek.
As for the board rack, bleacher seating, and canopy shade, we have Brian at Eastside Fabricators to thank for that.
The Juicy Buddha, like many things in life, is a constant work in progress. It is nothing special, but it does its job just fine. It floats, its registration is up to date, and it’s not too expensive to insure. The thought of ditching the Juicy Buddha for a brand new, state of the art SolidCraft pontoon has crossed my mind many times, but something keeps me tethered to the Buddha. It is too unique to say goodbye to. There is only one Juicy Buddha on Lake Austin, and it is ours.