The 1-Minute Challenge

In 2021, Wake Thief launched the 1-minute challenge, offering to send a free hat to anyone that could achieve this milestone. These hats have now become an icon that defines the culture of this sport — a symbol of passion and persistence.

Achieving 1 minute of flight is great cause for celebration. It means that you've gotten a handle on all the fundamentals — you can launch, generate propulsion, and for the most part steer the foil roughly where you want to go. It’s a hard-earned milestone — and the doorway to exploring your new superpower. For someone new to foiling, getting to this point takes between 300 and 3000 relentless, passion-fueled launches.

How to Get to 1 Minute

I wish there was something I could tell you to shortcut your progress, but fundamentally, this is about getting on the water as consistently as possible. The previous lessons have given you everything you need to do this — review them, and work on your sticking points.

If there was only one thing I could say, it would be to pump a lot harder and at a lot faster cadence than you think. This results in more speed, making balance easier and giving you a margin for error when you miss the timing on one or two pumps. All the beautiful videos you see of people pumping effortlessly are people that have absolutely mastered the timing and technique. In the next lesson you'll learn to slow down your cadence and relax, but at this point, you've gotta go hard!

When you achieve your 1 minute — Congratulations!!! You've joined an amazing community of people that have pushed through the 100s or 1000s of attempts to get here. Post your video and register for your hat on wakethief.com.

But don't stop here — you've unlocked a superpower, and in the next lessons we're going to go even further.