Riders: Steeve Fleury, Rob von Roll Words: Steeve Fleury Photos: Marc Weiler Location: Oberrieden, Switzerland Date: Sunday June 30th, 2025
Indiana’s Ambassador Day at Lake Zurich isn’t just about showing up and riding – it’s about testing gear, making new friends, swapping ideas, and seeing how far everyone can push the envelope. And someone who knows how to do just that is Indiana team rider Steeve Fleury, who’s always ready to give the young guns a run for their money…
Between the glassy water, scattered boats, and a crew of riders from every level, the day quickly turns into more than a demo. It’s a chance to question your own riding, appreciate the new generation’s style, and remember why you started foiling in the first place.
“Get up! It’s morning, time to move!” That’s what my body says. My brain fires back: “Fuck!” I don’t know about you, but I hate going to bed and I hate getting up – must be some kind of syndrome, right? But this morning it’s for foiling, so I can live with it.
Today is Indiana’s Ambassador Day, and we’re at the brand’s headquarters on the shores of Lake Zurich. The plan: wake up, swim, set up some tables, have lunch, run a gear clinic, a technique clinic, ride, and share. From the meeting room, there’s a full view of the foiling playground – a small harbor, boats moored on buoys, a pontoon, and across the lake, maybe a kilometer or two away, the opposite shore. We head for the nearest pontoon.
Damn, it’s beautiful. This year, the kids are on another level – and the best thing is they’re riding smooth. That means everything for me. Now here I am, three times the age of these young live wires, standing on the dock like an idiot, knowing I’ve got to launch and ride. I’m not terrible – foil pretty much every day – but the doubt still creeps in. And maybe that’s a good sign. Keeps me honest. I’m a lake foiler. That means about 200 days of flat a year, and the rest anything from knee‑high bumps to head‑high rollers.
In the end, I get three sessions in – not my best, but solid endurance work. Plenty of rides, a few waves, and a long Chicama‑style boat tow with an even longer walk back. I’m lucky. I get to foil almost every day, and for me, every session beats a day in the office. Foiling makes me happy – that’s all that matters, along with friends, punk, weed, style, art, and peace. When I finally pack it in, I can drive home with foil on the brain and sleep easy.
💎 Premium Content Ahead! 💎 *You will receive our weekly Friday Pump newsletter, plus the latest features, gear tests and giveaway announcements. Watching these kids carve so cleanly between spots is moving. It takes me back to early skate and surf videos, where it was all about style, not tricks. Foiling feels like that right now – raw, evolving. I can see it heading the same way skateboarding did: ollies, wall rides, grinds. The foil has that potential to reinvent itself. And what an invention it is. Stick it under anything that floats and you give it magic powers. Think about snowboarding – halfpipes used to be hip‑high, now they’re eight meters. Who knows what the next generation of foilers will do? Wouldn’t surprise me if they started flying. Back to lake foiling – what’s amazing is being able to glide no matter the weather. Here, it’s paradise. The smallest ripple becomes a temporary feature in your playground. Grab a SUP, hunt down ferry wakes. If the wind kicks in, wing it and test new gear. If it’s flat, pump. If waves roll through, do a downwinder on a SUP and don’t even care how you’re getting back – the secret white‑crossed train on rails will drop you back at your start point. Foiling is life. Except when there are weeds. It’s humbling to ride lakes where people were sailing 2,500 years ago – long before Hawaii. History tells us some ideas, like canoes, were brilliant. Others – like property, showboating, localism, and war – not so much. Foiling on a lake is different. The water itself changes the ride. Saltwater feels heavier, stickier on my foil. In clear freshwater, it’s crisper – my foil accelerates but with less lift, so I usually go one size up here compared to the ocean. For this session, I was on a 3’9 Indiana LeDoigt with an Indiana Barracuda L 1050 front wing, XXS fuselage, Condor XS stab, and an Indiana 85 drive mast – a super‑efficient semi‑high aspect setup built for speed. If I need more lift, I swap to an Indiana Condor S front wing – perfect for micro downwinders and calm, easy starts. For SUP downwinders, I use the 7’4 Indiana LeDoigt, which is ideal for lake conditions. I also use it for winging, which means I can ride a small foil and a small sail in light winds – and beyond. Right, time to get back out there. A storm’s brewing, and the wind ahead of it is pushing up a perfect swell. I’m going to downwind it…
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