Motorized Surfboards Are Great If You Have More Money Than Time

It’s April in Miami, and I’m flying through the air above Biscayne Bay on an electric hydrofoil surfboard, the same yacht club toy Mark Zuckerberg was seen riding last summer. As I accelerate toward the horizon, I almost forget what it means to live in a world with gravity. Five seconds later I’m tumbling headfirst in the bay, inhaling a nose full of salt water.

Since the pandemic began, motorized surfboards have emerged from relative obscurity to take beaches by storm, part of the boom in outdoorsy, socially distanced fun. Now they can be found almost anywhere water and wealth coexist.