{"id":728001,"date":"2026-06-10T19:09:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T19:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/728001\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T19:09:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T19:09:10","slug":"marc-willers-wants-to-turn-biking-into-a-watersport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/728001\/","title":{"rendered":"Marc Willers wants to turn biking into a watersport"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most people look at waves and see waves. Marc Willers sees jumps.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would look at mountain ranges and I\u2019d see jumps. I\u2019d look at waves and I\u2019d see jumps,\u201d says the former two-time Olympic BMX racer.<\/p>\n

For those of us that are obsessed with bicycles, we get it. That obsession led him to build SUBI, a hydrofoil bike that rides above the water on a foil. And it works. When on flatwater it looks exhausting, but it works. Willers recently launched a Kickstarter<\/a> campaign to bring SUBI into production after years of building prototypes in his workshop in Knoxville. The project has nearly reached its funding goal.<\/p>\n

From BMX tracks to boat wakes<\/p>\n

Willers grew up racing BMX and eventually represented New Zealand at two Olympic Games. The final(ish) rendition of SUBI didn\u2019t happen instantly. His first attempt was about a decade ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made my first one, I think it was 2016-ish. I put a bike on a surfboard,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t work. The breakthrough came when he saw the exploding popularity if foilboarding.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw hydrofoiling pop up and then that just got my mind spinning on how I could make that work under a bike.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since then, Willers has been steadily refining the concept. He\u2019s now on his fourth frame design and roughly his fifth rudder system.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Not your average water bike<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve seen water bikes before, you know SUBI is something different. Traditional water bikes are generally built for cruising around lakes at a brutally slow and awkward pace. Willers wanted something that behaved more like a BMX bike.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny water bike on the market does little more than float,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s basically a stationary bike on water.\u201d<\/p>\n

SUBI uses a hydrofoil mounted beneath the rider. As speed increases, the foil lifts the bike above the water\u2019s surface. Riders steer using handlebars connected to a rudder system mounted at the front. He can start off a dock, ride behind a jetski or wakeboard boat. You can ride it on a wave or pump it on flatwater.<\/p>\n

He hasn\u2019t landed the backflip yet. But he\u2019s close.<\/p>\n

Like riding a pump track on water<\/p>\n

One of the biggest challenges with hydrofoiling is the learning curve. Anyone who has tried a foil board knows the first few sessions involve more swimming than riding. Willers believes handlebars help shorten that learning process. Compared to traditional foiling, he says SUBI feels more intuitive.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce you\u2019ve got that first 10 to 15 seconds on water and it starts processing in your brain,\u201d he explains, \u201cyou just imagine the pump track is in front of you and you\u2019re making your own jumps as you go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then comes the comparison that every mountain biker will immediately understand.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce it clicks, this is just riding a pump track on the water.\u201d<\/p>\n

But why?<\/p>\n

The obvious question is why. And here\u2019s the answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is as freeing as you could imagine,\u201d he explains. \u201cThere\u2019s no impact. No vibration. There\u2019s nothing. I compare it to the moment you leave the ground on a bike and do a jump. The moment you\u2019re in the air, that\u2019s what riding the bike feels like. You\u2019re permanently in midair and never coming down from the jumps. And you can just just carve around and back and forth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sounds seriously fun.<\/p>\n

A new category?<\/p>\n

Willers doesn\u2019t believe everyone is going to sell their mountain bike and buy a hydrofoil bike. He sees SUBI carving its own niche. He imagines them strapped to wake boats, sitting at cottages and showing up at resorts looking for the next interesting thing to rent.<\/p>\n

The Kickstarter campaign describes SUBI as a new category of riding entirely. Maybe that\u2019s ambitious. Maybe it isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

So when does the electric version come out?<\/p>\n

\u201cLong term, I think there\u2019s room for it,\u201d he says. \u201cBut you\u2019re also looking at least double the price and weight. So keeping it as pure and raw as possible has been the goal so far.\u201d<\/p>\n

If this is the N+1 you\u2019ve been looking for, support Willer\u2019s Kickstarter<\/a> and get your SUBI as early as fall 2026.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Most people look at waves and see waves. Marc Willers sees jumps. \u201cI would look at mountain ranges…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":728002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,43062,85],"class_list":["post-728001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-mtb-features","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=728001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/728002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}