Foil Life Travel Show #3 - Colombia Efoil Retreats in Cartagena, Colombia

Luc Moore (00:05.681) Alright let's check upload, you guys are doing good. Alright when we're ready there'll be no, we'll try to avoid touching stuff as much as we can. Luc Moore (00:24.745) think we're looking good. All right, fellas, hey, it's nice to see you. Gaetan (00:30.931) Hello. Good morning. Justin Chait (00:31.277) Good to see you. Good to see you again. Luc Moore (00:33.372) How are you guys? How are you guys? Justin Chait (00:40.237) Doing good, doing good. It's cold morning here in South Florida. Gaetan (00:45.201) And here we have a storm, not usual in Colombia. Luc Moore (00:49.683) So both interesting weather patterns and I'm in 30 plus degrees, which I'm not used to. So everybody is in different spots this morning. Justin Chait (00:57.688) Yeah, Like, zero degrees, negative one degrees here in South Florida. Which is crazy. Europe and Canada. Gaetan (01:07.752) and red flag and red flag in Colombia not not usual Luc Moore (01:10.822) Yeah. Well, we're going to talk about e-foiling today. So I think that's going to cheer us all up and also introduce your school, which from the videos that you've sent over, the location looks absolutely gorgeous. So maybe before we get too far into what you guys are offering, it'd be cool to learn a little bit more about how this school got started. Gaetan (01:28.469) we get too far into what you guys are offering, it'd be cool to learn a little bit more about how this all comes together. Yeah, sure. So we launched like exactly two years ago, the first of February 2024. By the way, like Justin, like taught us how to e-foil in this moment. It was like, like, Luc Moore (01:53.0) No way. Gaetan (01:54.087) our instructor, our first flite board instructor when I launched. And I had this crazy idea to launch a flite school in Colombia, Cartagena, right? And I'm passionate about water sports and kiting, kite foiling, but what like my first experience with e-foil. but I wanted to do this passion and doing it a business. So we did the first brick and mortar site in the Iceland of Baru. It's very close to Kaltarena, it's like a peninsula and it's paradise spot. The water is flat, it's protected by a bay, you know? So you have like kilometer of mangrove open to the ocean. So you can have 35 knots and huge waves like right now, like a storm. you can still do EFO, right? So we did the first site, a second one, and now we are operating inside three resorts in the same peninsula. That's why we start like two years ago exactly. Luc Moore (03:00.826) no way. How does that feel Justin to be able to teach the next generation of eFoilers? Justin Chait (03:06.768) That's pretty cool. Two of the students actually won their divisions in Dubai, so it's kind of like an incubator for e-foiling. know, people come in and whether they're intermediate to advanced riders, what I like to do is break them down to the basics and re-teach them the fundamentals of e-foiling, body position, techniques, and by the time that they leave, they're totally different e-foilers. They're riding safer. They're wing breaching. Gaetan (03:10.357) won their division to Dubai. it's kind of like an incubator for e-coiling. People come in and whether they're intermediate to advanced riders, what I like to do is break them down to the basics and re-teach them the fundamentals of e-coiling, body position, techniques. By the time that they leave, they're totally different e-coils. They're riding safer, wing breaching, they just have this different sense of control of board. It's really cool to see it all happen within five days. Justin Chait (03:37.109) They just have this different sense of control of the board and it's really cool to see it all happen within five days. Luc Moore (03:44.753) Where get time that you take your first lessons with Justin? Gaetan (03:49.302) It was in Miami, right? Like we did the first lesson like it was in Miami during, no in Fort Lauderdale, And we did it during FIBS, the boat tour. And after we came back and we did again with him and the flite team in Miami in Coral's Bay, Coral's Gables. Justin Chait (04:11.232) and call gables yet Luc Moore (04:13.905) So after doing that, you liked e-foiling so much that you thought you would turn it into a business. Gaetan (04:19.794) Well, I had the idea like six months before. Luc Moore (04:23.131) Yeah. Gaetan (04:23.22) I did a nifol lesson with my father. It was a gift from my part for Father's Day in France, South of France, because you can hear I'm from South of France. And I did love it. My father did windsurf before and in 15 minutes he was flying. So said, this is totally accessible and we can make anyone Luc Moore (04:35.441) Yep. Justin Chait (04:37.264) yeah. Gaetan (04:52.402) Now anyone can fly. like what's said, flyball, right? So I tried it with my father and he was flying, he falling in 15 minutes. So I said, let's do a business and let's try it in Colombia because we have this huge season, right? Like we almost never closed, like it's the first time we closed the Eiffel school because of the weather. But like we have quite the same condition, same weather, temperature. Luc Moore (04:58.992) Yeah. Gaetan (05:25.96) the water and flat waters. This is a great competitive advantage I think to do E-Fall worldwide. Luc Moore (05:34.503) Can we talk a little bit about your, cause you said you had multiple locations, right? So is it the same thing running at all the locations? they kind of people can access based on conditions or is it just based on where they'd like to go? Gaetan (05:39.125) It's more depending on the resort and the area you are like in Cartagena you have the Cartagena downtown so the whole city is like a small Havana Beautiful it's it's gorgeous and the nice area beaches and waters are like one hour from this part Luc Moore (06:08.218) Hmm. Gaetan (06:08.622) one hour ride by car or by boat and they are in a peninsula named Baru. Baru is an island connected by a bridge and this peninsula is like full of nice resort, luxury, villa, know all the boats and yachts are going there. Luc Moore (06:15.846) okay. Gaetan (06:28.308) you can dive, have everything there, it's the nicest part of the coast and so we have the location brick and mortar inside three different resorts. So depending where you are you can go to different resorts right so we are a team of eight people and we operate these three base different base so each one is like four from it's 30 minutes at least between each Luc Moore (06:41.103) alright. Gaetan (06:58.204) school, right? So we operate a different area from each base. Luc Moore (07:04.442) And there three different fully functioning schools with their own equipment, rentals, sales, instructors, all running under your umbrella. Gaetan (07:09.765) Correct. Correct. So we have like an office, charger, batteries, flite boards, a boat for rescue and we have a way of teaching that the coach, the instructor, is doing it from the boat. So we can have bigger lesson and for safety reason too. So we can... protect the e4 from other boats, other jetski and make video and giving tips from the boat. Luc Moore (07:45.305) What are those hotels called? Cause I know I have the Aura Hotel Boutique, but are there, what are the two other ones called? Gaetan (07:54.696) The biggest location, the most important for us, it's where we do the E4 retreat and it's out of the boutique because it's the best location ever because your rooms are literally at 10 meters from the water and you can keep your E4 at 2 meters from the water in the kiosk we have. So you go out of the water, you charge your battery and go back, you go, you grab a beer. The location is really, really nice. Luc Moore (08:09.533) wow. Gaetan (08:25.039) and there is plenty of space to do it for you. After we have the Sofitel Baru, it's a huge resort, to about 200 rooms, but the space is like closer, there is more corals and it can be more choppy. And after we have Hotel Las Islas, it's like more also luxurious style resort. It's very nice too, but like out of... Hotel is the best one, like in terms of space to eFog. Justin Chait (08:55.028) just to give you kind of an idea of how it works. You wake up in the morning, you go get fresh Colombian coffee, some fruits, breakfast. By the time you're done, you walk down, your board is literally ready to go on the beach, charge controller, charge battery. One of the employees picks your board up, puts it in the water for you, so you just walk in, go ride. As soon as you're done, you just come in before you even hit the beach. There's an instructor or employee there that grab your board for you, don't even have to lift it over your shoulder, put your board down on a nice padded surface, takes the battery out, charges it, rinses your board, makes sure your battery is charged, and then you go grab a mango juice or whatever you want and walk away, go get a massage, hang out in the pool. The level of service is just all time. Especially Gaetan (09:50.157) And that's just one lesson. That's not even talking about the retreat that you guys have also. Luc Moore (09:50.283) And that's just for lessons. That's not even talking about the retreat that you guys have also. Gaetan (09:55.495) For both, it's quite the same for both, but like the retreat, the retreat is during six days the whole day Luc Moore (09:57.037) both. Wow. Justin Chait (10:03.762) Yeah. Luc Moore (10:04.099) Yeah, makes sense. Okay, so lessons now, what kind of people are you coaching? Beginners all the way to, I think we had mentioned another conversation, Justin, and same with Gaetan that you guys had some people who had won, competed, done super, super well. So people are coming there to obviously accelerate their skills, but also brand new too, Justin Chait (10:25.426) Yeah, so we've actually had two riders when they're divisions in Dubai. So the first year was Artis and he came down knowing that I was training there and what we do with this retreat is we actually set up like a mini course. And so at the beginning, it doesn't matter what your skill level is, you just run the course, we'll put down a time. And so by the end of the retreat, we'll set the course and you run the course and see what your time, and you can see a dramatic improvement. Luc Moore (10:29.955) I'm sick. Justin Chait (10:53.415) And then throughout the retreat, we can leave the course up pretty much every day, and you can just train and do it over and over. So our customer who really wanted to do this Dubai trip, ended up just coming just to really practice on his technique, his racing, goes to Dubai, ends up winning his division. And one of our first customers just won his division this year. And it just goes to show the improvement that you get from these retreats. Luc Moore (11:18.445) How sick. Justin Chait (11:23.712) because I'm there pretty much every day with you answering questions, explaining things in the water with the student, know, demonstrating, really fine-tuning their technique and everything, giving them drills to work on to help them level up. Luc Moore (11:38.069) mm-hmm that's Gaetan (11:40.15) We have two kind of retreats. We have a beginner one, like for totally beginners, so people that they have ride like once or it's for the first time, we had people coming to the retreat. was like literally the first time. And at the third day of the Eiffel retreats, are going in open sea and they cross 10, 15 kilometers sea. We have like two rescue boats, one boat in the front, one boat in the back. but they are going up to the nice land and they have lunch in the island and they have to come back. And this is the third day of the retreat usually we do it this way, but we have two to three rides in open sea and they are beginners. So this is how the beginners count. We do like three a year and we do the advanced and pro. So this is like more for people who already are doing E-fold and this is where like Luc Moore (12:09.103) wow, okay. Gaetan (12:35.379) the level is like next level because Justin is with them in the water all time. We shoot on video with the drone. So we do the shooting on video and the day after, like in the morning, just after the breakfast, we do video analysis of all the video of the day before. Luc Moore (12:45.569) Mm-hmm. Gaetan (12:56.423) and all the technique, the position, everything, and we go into the water and we practice. And so we will do like open ocean, riding behind the boat, we will put like this set of buoys and we will practice lap time. And we're to take the time, your lap time, the first day, the second day, the third day, and we can see the improvement. And also the fact to do it like four hours because people are doing they are burning like four to five battery per day. So they are doing four to five hours of e4 per day. So it's like a leg burner, but it's challenged yourself because you have like eight people with you training like crazy and going back and going back. So you are like pushing yourself, your limits and your progress. Luc Moore (13:30.536) big amount. Yeah. Justin Chait (13:31.353) you Justin Chait (13:46.693) If you think of like any other type of retreat, like a kite retreat or any other type of board sport, you don't really put that much time on the board. You you do like you kite, you do like a 30 minute session, come in, have some beers, go out for maybe another 30 minute session. And then, you know, you're pretty much spent. wait an hour, you go back out. But the e-foiling, these, these guys are out all day long, literally running, you know, hour and a half, two hours on a battery. Luc Moore (13:57.1) Yeah. Gaetan (14:05.077) Yeah, you're pretty much spent, wait an hour, you go back out. But the E-Foil, these guys are out all day long, literally running. Justin Chait (14:15.888) coming in, you're grabbing a refreshment and going right back out. It's a lot of riding. Luc Moore (14:24.807) And they don't get overly fatigued or is it just e-fueling itself makes it possible? Gaetan (14:30.633) I would say that the technique that I teach these guys is a way to eliminate the strain on your legs. It's putting more control and the throttle. So you get a lot more range at it. You get a lot more, what's the word I'm looking for? You can just ride on. It's not like kiting where you're... Justin Chait (14:30.663) I would say that the technique that I teach these guys is a way to eliminate the strain on your legs. It's putting more of control on your throttle. So you get a lot more range. I mean, you get a lot more... what's the word I'm looking for. You could just ride longer. It's not like kiting where if you're kiting for an hour straight your abs are hurting, your neck is tired, your hands hurt. With e-foiling it's pretty relaxed. But it allows them to really put time on the water and the conditions that are at the Aurora Hotel, mean it's flat for miles. And you have this giant bay with mangroves you can go behind. If there's a bit of boat traffic we can always go behind certain mangroves and just get glass conditions. You don't have to worry about sandbars, don't have to worry about any kind of reef. It's just like the perfect place to e-foil. Luc Moore (15:27.637) Gaitan, do you have imagery of that that we can throw up? Gaetan (15:30.093) Yeah, sure again show my screen Luc Moore (15:32.556) while Justin sells that spot, cause that's how it does sound. And what's the water temperature like and air temperature like? Justin Chait (15:33.648) Thank Justin Chait (15:40.303) board shorts. Yeah, yeah. Gaetan (15:40.501) So it's less than ball short. The water is like 30 degrees Celsius water and outside it's 35, like it's really warm. Luc Moore (15:50.774) Whoa. Gaetan (15:57.463) So just to explain here, you see... So this is Cartagena, right? It's a huge city. Luc Moore (16:06.412) So for those on audio only, we're just showing so you can pop over to YouTube and check this part out. Gaetan (16:13.846) So Cartagena is like one of the biggest cities of Colombia. We know the reputation of Colombia, but Colombia like changed a lot, know guys? I'm here like since 11 years, so I know it. And also like Cartagena is like millions and millions of tourists every year. Like it's the most visited city in the country. And so this is the peninsula of Baru and this is the spot. So we stay here usually in this area. Luc Moore (16:26.934) Hmm. Gaetan (16:43.614) and we have kilometers of bay, mangrove here and if you go out it's open ocean, right? And when we do the long ride we go from this point and go up to Corona Island here or Islas del Rosario, Rosario Island it's like crystal clear water corals everywhere and you ride up to there Luc Moore (16:48.595) wow. Yeah. Gaetan (17:09.554) and you have a delicious lunch in the beach, know, grab a cocktail and you come back. That makes it very different and very like a crazy experience to do in E-Foil And regarding the picture here, can see like Justin is in the mangrove here, like riding the wave of the boat. But this is the scenario you have. Like you see like... Luc Moore (17:34.954) Wow, okay, that's beautiful. Gaetan (17:37.384) You have like a grab of e-faller here and you can... It's like the same everywhere, know, flat, mangrove in the back, just small bolts. Justin Chait (17:51.908) Shit. Luc Moore (18:00.429) yeah, that's butter, butter flat. Gaetan (18:01.527) Yeah, it's and here like for me it's wavy. Like yeah, sometimes it's really, really glassy and usually we start, we can do efoil, like efoil at the sunrise. So we did session with a few of the participants at 6 a.m. and we do efoil until the sunset. So the sunset it's at 6.30 usually. So this is the spot. Luc Moore (18:06.816) Yeah. Luc Moore (18:34.656) So for this, this is an E-Foil, it's a six day immersive experience. Gaetan (18:35.36) This is equal to 16. Luc Moore (18:41.546) guys are using so your equipment provider is flite board correct? Gaetan (18:45.568) Correct, so we represent Flightboard in Colombia. We are a distributor for the brand and we are a flite school. Justin Chait (18:55.395) Now we've had guys with other brands come out and enjoy. Gaetan (19:02.07) Yeah, yeah. We can rent the board. We have people coming with their own board and they have a lift, for instance, and they came with their lift board. Also, we have people, they have lift at home and they came and they rent a flite board in the package. So we can do like, know, beginner package, package with the board, without the board, as you cannot transport your battery. usually like advanced and providers are traveling with their own boards, their own equipment, but we are like providing battery and charger so you can come with your own setup and when you are training it's important to have your own board, right? Your own setup, the wings, the shins, everything. But like if you are like beginner we will put you a board from off-lead or you can run from us if you are advanced. Luc Moore (19:31.519) True, yeah. Gaetan (20:00.533) There are few people coming from New York or Europe that don't want to bring all their stuff and they run from us. Luc Moore (20:08.799) Yeah, I guess depends on how much, how many plain headaches or whatever you wanna have. Okay, so you guys are offering both. Okay. Gaetan (20:15.624) Exactly. Justin Chait (20:16.835) What's really unique is we have 10 people show up roughly and everyone has different setups, everyone's on different boards, but by the end of the trip, everyone, we're trading wings, testing different shims, and by the end of the trip, I would say 80 % if not more are either upgrading wings or upgrading boards, they're going from a pro board down to a four foot board. Luc Moore (20:33.041) Hmm Justin Chait (20:46.381) Just the progression alone, mean, people are upgrading and they're improving their skills by improving their gear. then they come back to the next retreat and they're on a totally different setup. then by then we have new products out and they're trying that gear. So I said it earlier, but it's kind of like an incubator of progression. You're progressing, your gear gets better, you get to try different gear, you get to see what other people are doing, and it's really cool to see that. And then also you're seeing people Luc Moore (21:06.504) Yeah, yeah. Justin Chait (21:16.3) you know, either a little bit above your skill level or a little bit below and you get to, you know, interact with them and their learning experience and, you know, when we do these video analysis, it's almost like a, it's like a friendly roast, you know, we're putting everybody up on the big screen and we're allowing the students themselves to kind of critique each other. And so when you're learning in that style, you're able to see, Luc Moore (21:31.837) Yeah. Gaetan (21:34.198) students themselves. Justin Chait (21:42.951) what mistakes you're making and you're able to coach others because you can see the mistakes they're making. it's really cool how we run it and the progression that comes out of it. Luc Moore (21:55.247) I did, we did our first wingfoil camp with Charles Dasher in May last year in Bonaire and he did one day of video analysis and I thought, it's going to be super complicated. We're not going to be able to like pinpoint mistakes. And then you're watching it and I'm like, Whoa, you're like, you were really heavy on the back foot there. And you felt it's like it actually makes such a massive difference. And it was my first time actually seeing it. So now I can understand how much feedback you can give. Gaetan (21:58.967) Yeah. did one day a video analysis and it was complicated. It was first time actually seeing it. So now I can understand how much feedback you can give to people and how quickly they'll progress based Justin Chait (21:59.927) Yeah. Justin Chait (22:14.854) yeah. Luc Moore (22:22.119) to people and how quickly they'll progress based on that feedback. So it's pretty cool to see. Justin Chait (22:26.322) And when the student becomes the teacher, now the students are, yeah, look, you can see it there, like yeah, you didn't turn your head there. I think it helps the learning process. Gaetan (22:27.09) Yeah. Luc Moore (22:37.511) big time. What is it that people need to bring if they're doing other lessons or if they're coming for one of the retreats? Do you guys offer, I guess, no wetsuits, right? Gaetan (22:47.676) No, it's not necessary. It's too warm. Now like sun cream, like good sun cream. Sun protector is super important. are at the level of Ecuador. So you can like the sun is burning. So you need good like rash guard. We give like a rash guard from Columbia E-foil and from Flightboard. A good hat and... Luc Moore (22:54.941) Okay. Luc Moore (23:12.124) Nice. Gaetan (23:15.286) sunglasses. This is the most important thing you need because it's a trip with all included and we manage everything for you. So you don't have to bother to book a taxi or like we make it simple for you. You land in Colombia and we are in charge of everything from the airport pick up until the last day. So just bring like energy, you know? Luc Moore (23:44.379) Yeah Justin Chait (23:45.281) Gaten has you, Gaten has everyone's back. If you want a helicopter, Gaten will get you a helicopter. If you don't want to ride it, yeah. Luc Moore (23:51.75) sick. like you can help with excursions and stuff afterwards. If I want to stay an extra three days, you know the area well enough and how to keep me out of trouble kind of thing. Gaetan (23:57.429) Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Usually most of the people, it's their first time in Colombia and it's a long travel from Europe or from the US. They say, we're going to stay like two days before, two days after. So we book them like the other resort inside the hometown. We book them like the city guide for having a city tour. We help in everything to make it like super smooth. Luc Moore (24:05.894) Yeah. Gaetan (24:27.542) And also during the retreat, we just don't do only E-Folk. We include like dive, so we do scuba diving. Like we go to like different islands to have the lunch. We have dinner in a super... luxury restaurant in the trees. There is like, what's the name of the thing to see the stars? There is a telescope, sir. There is super nice telescope. And the last day, we are staying all in a family style organization in a huge house. It's a colonial house, like 10 bedrooms, you know. Justin Chait (24:56.17) The telescope, yeah, like a high, super nice telescope. Luc Moore (24:58.116) really? shit. Gaetan (25:17.142) and we have a closing dinner and we go to party. It's like the way we close the week and we are in the old town of Cap Tarrena many, many times. it ended in the swimming pool until the sunrise at 6 a.m. in the morning. But the way we finish is like a group of friends and we can see like we have many people coming back from the retreat. Like most of the participants are coming back. And they keep doing eFold together. For instance, like next week, Justin is going for three other people from the retreat and they are going to do eFold together. And we have people they still meet together to do eFold. So you also find a bunch of friendly folders to share your passion. Luc Moore (26:11.93) So overall, flat water, warm water, safe place to stay, family friendly as well. Can I bring like wife and kids and all that? And maybe it's the wife that ends up or your partner that ends up doing the course if you're into something else, like all that's possible. Yeah, there you go. Gaetan (26:21.418) Yeah. Justin Chait (26:27.136) It has happened. have one client who the... I don't know their relationship type, but I will say that the female of the couple was the e-foiler and the husband wasn't really into it. He's more of like a hunter, like doesn't really e-foil, not the water sports guy. And he's done, they've done every retreat, like every single one. Gaetan (26:27.828) Yeah. Luc Moore (26:44.867) cool. Luc Moore (26:49.093) Fair. Yeah. Justin Chait (26:58.659) And on the first retreat, he was very hesitant, but we put him on the scooter. He was flying on the scooter. By the next retreat, we had him on the big 100 liter flite board. Just starting to get that. By the third retreat, the female of the relation, she upgrades to the pro board. Now he is on the 100 liter back at home. Luc Moore (27:04.047) Yeah. Justin Chait (27:23.752) And now they're coming back on the retreat again. Now they're both riding. They're both doing the long distance rides together. So it's really cool to see the progression. And then we had another couple where the guy, you know, he's on his board. He has now upgraded to the 4-4, but his girlfriend now is e-foiling and she was definitely afraid of it. The whole beginning of the retreat, she was like, I don't know, I don't know. But we took her out there. She's flying like she's been doing it for years. Full control of the throttle, everything. Luc Moore (27:24.377) Nice. Luc Moore (27:29.157) That was sick. Nice. Luc Moore (27:43.097) Hmm Justin Chait (27:53.407) And so you just see, like you see, you know, these partners come and they're just, you know, very hesitant. They're just there to kind of enjoy the vacation, but by the end they're ripping and going on sunset rides and then they come back the following year or the following retreat. And now they have a board of their own and it's really cool. It's kind of, it's, yeah, it's kind of, what's the word I'm looking for? Not addictive, but it's, Luc Moore (28:11.279) How sick. Nice. Justin Chait (28:22.035) contagious. You see other people having fun on their e-foils and you go there not to e-foil, but you end up e-foiling anyways. Luc Moore (28:23.866) Mm. Luc Moore (28:30.712) Yeah, well, it makes sense. Go ahead, guitar. Gaetan (28:30.868) Yeah, and it's also one of the best places to do it. It's super easy, friendly, like warm water, weather, like you have a team rescue boat, everything. So it cannot make it to learn to eFall. It's the best place to learn to eFall. So if you want your partner to learn to eFall and you don't know how to do it, because you have the swimming pool and the spa, So they can enjoy having one hour of e-foil and they can come back, lay in the bed, go to the beach or to the swimming pool, having great land, great cocktails. So it's still vacation, you know? Luc Moore (29:16.43) Yeah, how, what kind of age brackets are you looking at? How young can kids start, for example, and what's the oldest participant you've seen? Justin Chait (29:16.892) And it. Gaetan (29:25.11) So the youngest was like I think about 20 and the oldest was 69. 69 but 69 in a ultra with great skills. Luc Moore (29:36.025) All right, there you go. Justin Chait (29:42.367) Is that JC? Yeah, so JC, he's an older gentleman shredding, wing breeching. I just got to visit him in Miami and to continue some lessons with him. But the guy is 69 years old and he's throwing wing breech turns that are like, I don't know, 10 meters long around a corner and he's throwing wing breeches. And he has only been e-foiling for maybe less than a year. Luc Moore (29:59.085) Whoa. Luc Moore (30:09.923) Wow, okay. Justin Chait (30:10.524) I don't know, Gaten, you know him longer than I do, but... Gaetan (30:13.334) I would say one year and a half, not a lot, but it got addicted and is really good. like we had another guy of 67, Robin, did great too. And they were like crossing the ocean in a full trail too, know, like full speed with huge wave because it was a storm. Not a lot of storm in Catarina, but we had the storm this day and we crossed until the Iceland and it was like... Justin Chait (30:36.57) Yeah. Luc Moore (30:37.793) Yeah. Gaetan (30:43.762) It was really fun, know, like he loved it. It was like challenging himself and he loved it. so it shows that it's for everyone, you know, from 20 to 69, we did it and we all share together. So there is like, we end up like as friends, you know. Justin Chait (31:05.135) It's nice because it's not just beginner conditions. When we do our crossings, you could be riding in flat conditions out into the ocean or into the sea, and then all of sudden you get a two to three foot swell and it's like doing a downwinder on an efoil. people are starting to, now we have to really focus on the technique and I'm going back and forth saying, all right, remember the technique, get your chest up and your knees slowed down, giving pointers as we're riding an open ocean. Luc Moore (31:22.153) Yeah. Justin Chait (31:33.777) to help them make it through. Some people fall, but we work on getting back up. By the time we make it to the island that we're going, everyone's stoked that they made it. They can't believe they've done it. It was a challenge. just everyone comes together at the end, like, I can't believe I just did that. And challenging yourself in those types of conditions, regardless if you had a hard time or not, once you complete it, there's the satisfaction of, I finally did it. Gaetan (32:00.183) think it's a satisfaction that I finally did it without spending any time in an open ocean. Luc Moore (32:02.936) for sure. Yeah. Justin Chait (32:03.358) In any type of open ocean foiling, I'm sure for downwinders, the struggle is real when you learn to downwind. But doing it on an e-foil, it's got its own challenges. it's really cool to see everyone just stoked out of their mind. You get to Corona Island, which is the Corona, like the Corona beer. They have their little island with monkeys and parrots and coolers full of Corona beers. Gaetan (32:10.388) struggles, but doing it on equal and scattered zone temperatures. it's really cool to see everyone just go down the path. They get to Corona Island. Justin Chait (32:31.869) It's a really cool place to end up and it's beautiful scene. Then you have the Rosario Islands, which you're literally riding through these small villages and there's children on the side cheering for you and crystal clear waters. We'll stop there and food comes out, fresh fish, all types of food. It's unreal. It's a really cool experience. Luc Moore (32:43.033) I don't know why. Luc Moore (32:53.172) all within the safety of having safety boats with you. And if you lose your board, because you're not tied to them, the boat will just come and swoop and pick it up and bring it back to you. Yeah, two, okay. Gaetan (32:53.896) Yeah. Justin Chait (33:02.841) Two boats, yeah. So there's a chase boat in the back just in case. Then we have the main boat which has a drone pilot on it, camera crew. And then me, I'm just going back and forth. If I see someone struggling, I'm going to go right next to them and just say, your technique, get your chest up, bend your knees, slow it down a little bit. If I see them working too hard, and so I'm over there coaching the whole way. If you fall down, I'm right there next to you to help you. Luc Moore (33:29.656) Hmm. Justin Chait (33:32.496) know, just something so subtle as the direction of restarting. Like if you're restarting into the waves, you're going to have a hard time. If you're restarting with the waves, you're going to have a hard time. You know, just telling them, go parallel to the swell gives them that little bit of flat water that they can get up and restart. So just every bit of the way, you know, we're supporting them. Luc Moore (33:54.454) awesome. Parallel to the swell. like in the same, so if the swell is rolling forward, you're saying, you're going the same direction. So you'd be pitching down it. Gaetan (33:57.441) So like, the same, so if the swells are rolling forward, you're saying, you're going the same direction, so you can catch it down it. Yeah, a little different than like down with boiling. If you're down with boiling, you want to paddle. Justin Chait (34:03.376) Little different than like downwind foiling. Like if you're downwind foiling you want to paddle with the swell because you want to get that drop. But as soon as you pop up you actually don't want to continue straight. You want to go down the swell. Kind of with it. With the e-foil you have the motor pushing you, not really the wave. So if you go straight down the swell what tends to happen is you kind of outrun the wave and your foil breaches in front of the swell and you end up going down. If you're going into the wave you know Luc Moore (34:29.9) Yeah. Justin Chait (34:31.088) You have the swell coming over the nose of your board which can disconnect your controller because that's where it senses the, that's where the Bluetooth is. So I teach guys to, you know, just tell them, go more to your left and go parallel with the swells so you can ride in the troughs and get that flat water. And it gets them up on the foil and they can turn back into the wave and just give it them pointers. It really makes a difference. Luc Moore (34:43.787) Mmm. Luc Moore (34:48.38) cool. Luc Moore (34:54.827) Yeah, from all your, from your years of experience, what's the best way to contact you guys? What's your website and all that stuff? Gaetan (34:58.198) What's the best way to contact you guys? So it's easy, it's colombiaefoil.com and you have like a part it's E-foil retreat. You have email or WhatsApp, you can contact us in Instagram too. It's colombiaefoil. And yeah, I will directly reply to you and give you a code, according to the date. Like in March, we are already almost full. In May, we still have like three or four spots. And after like, we have plenty of date. We have like six days for the moment. I'm gonna just share it again, just to be. Luc Moore (35:45.238) And for people looking to do a bit of digging, you guys are on TripAdvisor, right? Gaetan (35:49.397) Yeah, we are in TripAdvisor and Google Review. We have a hundred of reviews, five stars, all of them. it's perfect. Yeah. So the, yeah, sorry. Justin Chait (35:59.694) And I was going say, Gaten, how many people are returning customers compared to just new customers on each retreat? Gaetan (36:09.756) about 50%. Justin Chait (36:11.355) Yeah, so just. Luc Moore (36:12.05) okay. So they're having a good time enough to come back to justify the cost, justify the everything. Gaetan (36:17.47) Yeah. Justin Chait (36:17.615) We've had customers do back-to-back retreats just for the training that they're getting, the experience. And another thing, the sunsets are insane. Gaetan (36:27.474) And know, value for money. Yeah, value for money in Colombia, in Cartagena, you have great, thing. We negotiated a great package, know, so we value for money. It's crazy what we include. And it's difficult to translate this how much you get in this retreat, you know. Luc Moore (36:30.602) Yeah, I imagine. Luc Moore (36:35.906) yeah? Hmm. Justin Chait (36:50.939) And we haven't even touched on the food. The food is phenomenal. get fresh fish. mean, you can eat octopus and all the fruits and yeah, it's unreal. Luc Moore (36:52.192) So... Yeah... How is the food there? Gaetan (36:54.112) Good. Gaetan (37:06.954) What was the name of the fish last time you got... Justin Chait (37:09.727) yeah, so in Florida there's a fish called snook that's highly illegal to harvest and it's really good eating here. It's like the state fish. And then down in Columbia, apparently snook is like a regular fish, but it's a really good eating fish. we'll do a ride out to the, you can see on the screen there's a big pool. So that's one of the locations that we'll ride to and we'll hang out in the pool, but they'll bring out fresh. Gaetan (37:16.616) It's everywhere. Justin Chait (37:37.38) caught snook, know, the whole fish. Yeah, it's a really good eating fish that they have an abundance of. Where here in Florida, you could go to jail if you were to harvest one. Luc Moore (37:42.533) wow. Gaetan (37:47.834) Yeah. So the safety aspect of all the movies we've seen 15 years ago, it's come a long way. Like, Saint Isla Ventana, Baja, Mexico, it's incredibly safe and nothing really to worry about. Luc Moore (37:49.834) Yeah, yeah. So the safety aspect of things compared to all the movies we've seen 15 years ago, it's come a long way then. Like same thing as La Ventana and Baja, Mexico, like it's incredibly safe and nothing really to worry about. Gaetan (38:04.244) Yeah, nothing like Cartagena is really safe. It's where all the tourists are going. Most of the tourism is from the US and Cartagena is really, really like developed around tourism, you know, like it's a super and we are in the best part of the country. The nicest part where all the best resort and the five star resort. And so and we manage everything. So all the transport, the transfer, everything we manage it. Luc Moore (38:34.463) Awesome guys. Well hey, thanks for coming on and introducing all this. And this is the year that I E-foil, so yeah. Justin Chait (38:41.69) Let's go. Luc Moore (38:44.629) heat against somebody you know I gotta give a little Corey Justin somebody you guys are going down exactly nice guys well hey I hope you enjoy what time is it where you guys are at it's 4 or 5 p.m. here in Africa Gaetan (38:44.807) See you You are welcome to the column there whenever you want like Justin Chait (38:50.618) haha Gaetan (38:59.446) Is it where you guys are at? It's 9 AM. Justin Chait (39:05.417) It's 9 a.m. here. You're in Africa. thought you were in, for some reason, thought you were in Canada. Luc Moore (39:09.973) No, yeah, not yet. I'm in CAT times on Botswana. Yeah, I saw baboons this week for the first time in my life. That was quite interesting. You got to make sure that they don't think your food. But apart from that, it's been good. All right, guys, we're going to catch up with you soon. It's nice to see you both. Gaetan (39:11.232) That's it. That's it. Justin Chait (39:13.657) There, that's one. Justin Chait (39:18.201) Cool. Justin Chait (39:28.825) Yep, as well. See ya. Gaetan (39:29.431) Thanks, Lugz. Bye, Justine. Luc Moore (39:31.221) You're welcome. Bye guys. Bye everybody.