Viceroy Sugar Beach in St. Lucia was the first resort to offer the Schiller S1, a “part bicycle, part catamaran” with a lightweight, anodized aluminum bike frame that ensures riders can pedal easily and won’t fall off. The contraption is now available at 14 resorts worldwide and will expand to 21 this year.
Beachside resorts are embracing the new great watersport: waterbiking, Skift.com reported
St. Lucia’s Viceroy Sugar Beach resort offers the Schiller S1, a $4,500 contraption that’s part bicycle, part catamaran—with a promise that you can pedal it across any body of water. And if creator Judah Schiller has his way, it’ll soon be on the amenity list at every great resort, Skift.com reported.
“We’re at the start of new industry, category, and sport,” Schiller said. “In five years, I think there will be Schiller Bikes on every hotel beach around the world.”
During the safety briefing at Viceroy, there wasn’t even talk of what to do should you fall off, because you won’t. The anodized aluminum bike frame is svelte and lightweight, and one rotation of the pedals gives the propeller eight spins, so it takes very little physical effort, Skift.com reported.
Schiller invented the waterbike in 2014, but it’s still a novelty, Skift.com reported.
“As a spinner, cyclist, and water lover, learning about the Schiller Bike was one of those rare instances when you look at something and simply say ‘of course,’” says Bill Walshe, chief executive officer of Viceroy Hotel Group. Sugar Beach, which now has three S1s, was the first resort in the world to buy in. “I wasted no time e-mailing Judah to let him know how excited I was by his invention.”
Now other resorts are catching on to the nascent trend: Schiller counts such brands as Four Seasons, JW Marriott, and Aman among its hotel clients, placing bikes in fantasy destinations Bora Bora, Costa Rica, Bali, and Dubai. Three of earth’s four oceans are now bike-able. (And you can purchase one all for yourself, too, if you’re so inclined—the S1 sells online, alongside its hydrodynamically superior brother, the $6,000 S1-C.) It’s now at 14 resorts worldwide and will top 21 this year, Skift.com reported.
Outside the leisure market, a community is growing. Early adopters are creating and recording routes, charting territory through Austin’s Lady Bird Lake and around France’s Cap d’Ail and sharing it on social media, Skift.com reported.
“You get a few people riding together and eventually, someone’s going to start racing,” Schiller said. “You get athletes to race and you’ve got a sport.” To that point: Schiller is in the final stages of organizing a waterbike race with a “royal-backed foundation” in the south of France next summer, Skift.com reported.
The verdict is pending as to whether investors agree; Schiller is pursuing Series A capital this month with the aim to transform it from global beach resort fitness toy into a true industry, Skift.com reported.
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