This summer, we took the Arc Sport on the road, bringing it to some of our favorite lakes, as well as a few new ones. Along the way, we made new friends, caught up with old ones, and may have met a ghost or two.
Over the course of the Electric Summer Tour, our team made 35 stops and completed 735 demos. Beyond that, our boats traveled 13,937 miles on the road across 32 states and one Canadian province, plus another 9,787 miles on the water.
But those numbers only tell one part of the story. It was the moments in between that made the tour so…well…electric.
Making waves and memories
Every stop brought a different version of life on the water. Glassy mornings, busy docks, local characters, and plenty of opportunities for our team to experience electric boating in totally new ways.
Early in the tour, Arc ambassador Austin Keen joined Arc’s Jeff McKee on Lake Oconee for a day on the water. When one family arrived for their Arc Sport demo, there was an added surprise: Austin was waiting to join them on the docks.
The tour also brought plenty of firsts for our team. For Delivery Operations Advisor Kristen Szost and Product Advisor Tyler Anderson, it was their first summer on the road with Arc.
Kristen grew up on the water in the Midwest, where a love of boating and watersports eventually led her to everything from wakesurfing to surfing Lake Michigan. Tyler is a California kid who grew up around watersports and spent years working at marinas and HOAs around Lake Tahoe. This summer gave both of them a chance to experience new lakes, communities, and corners of the country from the water.
And occasionally, the best discoveries happened on the way there.
In Madison, Wisconsin, Kristen and Tyler repeatedly passed an old storefront called Rich’s Boardsports on the way to the launch ramp. Once they decided to stop in, they stumbled into a time capsule of ’80s and ’90s adventure gear like vintage skis, snowboards, boating apparel, and memorabilia, all of which was collected by Rich himself, a 72-year-old retiree who used to be a top boat dealer in the U.S.
It was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. Rich is an absolute legend and let me buy a vintage water ski hat from him. Now he just fixes up boats for fun and leaves his shop open for the few people who appreciate his collection. - Kristen
Getting the local treatment
Some stops came with a little local knowledge and hospitality you wouldn’t find in a guidebook.
At Lake Winnipesaukee, Tyler and the crew found themselves having dinner at the Back Bay Boat House with the town clerk, a retired sheriff, and two local boat mechanics.
“They were incredibly welcoming and made us feel like we’d already become part of the community,” says Tyler.
New York’s Canandaigua Lake offered a different kind of welcome. Tyler, along with Arc crew members Matteo Sloane and Ben Block, stayed at a farmhouse in rural Victor, where their hosts graciously asked them “whether we had seen or heard any ghosts.”
“They told us we’d be fine,” says Tyler with a smile. “As long as we didn’t disturb the land…or the dolls inside the house.”
Was the house actually haunted? “I definitely heard strange noises after Matteo and Ben left,” adds Tyler. “Haunted or not, that tour stop was an adventure I won’t forget anytime soon.”
More than just demos
Not every stop was about test drives and wakesurfing. Throughout the tour, the Arc Sport showed up in a few unexpected ways around some of summer’s biggest events.
At Lake Tahoe, the team turned the Arc Sport into a floating tee box during the American Century Championship. The Arc 19th Hole gave boaters a chance to take a swing at a floating green just beyond Edgewood’s iconic 17th hole, with every ace triggering a $1,000 donation to the Tahoe Fund.
On some of the summer’s busiest boating weekends, including Memorial Day and the Fourth of July, the Arc Sport became the Arc Outpost: a floating place to pull up, cool off, and spend some time with the Arc team.
“People would stop for sunscreen or a slushie, then another boat would pull up and suddenly everyone had been hanging out for an hour,” says Nicole Granados, Arc’s Senior Brand Manager. “It felt like the lake’s unofficial meeting point for the weekend.”
And during Seafair in Seattle, we teamed up with Salt & Straw to hand out free ice cream from the Arc Sport. More than 300 scoops made their way from boat to boat over two days, quickly turning the ice cream boat into a popular stop on the water.
“There was a moment when I looked around and saw boats waiting in every direction,” Nicole remembers. “It was a little chaotic, a lot of fun, and exactly what summer in Seattle should feel like.”
What people noticed
For many guests, some of the most memorable parts of the Arc Sport were things they hadn’t expected to notice.
In Miami, one gentleman called out something remarkably simple about his demo experience: everyone could still talk.
“Being able to have a conversation when you’re going close to full speed is huge,” he said after his demo. “We got up to around 20 mph and I could totally hear everyone.”
In Virginia, another guest went into his demo assuming his wife wouldn’t be interested in buying a boat. The conversation afterward went a little differently.
“I thought my wife was never going to go for this,” he told us. “She’s brought it up four times since our demo, asking, ‘Do you really want one?’”
Beyond the ride
By the final stop, the Arc Sport had spent the summer on various lakes across the country, giving people a chance to experience it in the places they actually boat.
Now, the team is moving into what comes next. Kristen is focused on getting completed boats into customers’ hands, while Tyler and Ben are still out on the water every week, taking people out in the Arc Sport. You might catch Tyler or Ben on your next demo, or see them out on the water in your area.
And that’s where the summer leaves us: more Arc Sports heading to customers, more demos happening in the places we now call home, and a growing list of places we still want to get to.
The official tour log
735 demos completed
35 tour stops
13,937 miles traveled (nearly five trips across the U.S.)
9,787 on-water miles between our boats
32 states and 1 Canadian province traveled
300 scoops of ice cream served
The tour is over. The Arc experience isn’t.
Arc Sport demos are still available in Austin, Miami, Seattle, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Book a demo and get out on the water.
