The Megalodon at Lightning in a Bottle

Now that Lightning in a Bottle (LIB) 2017 has come to an end, there’s one thing that is certain – the ISLE Megalodon inflatable paddle board is the ultimate music festival toy. Our friend Bobby from San Diego experienced this first-hand when him and his tribe of pals decided to bring the Megalodon along for the ride to LIB (and it was EPIC!).

About Lightning in a Bottle

LIB is California’s premiere campout music and arts festival that takes place every Memorial Day weekend at Lake San Antonio in Bradley, CA. Hosted by the Do Lab and welcoming over 25,000 attendees, LIB is world-renowned for its innovation in festival culture - blending music, art, wellness and sustainability in perfect harmony. Unfortunately, since LIB’s conception, Lake San Antonio has been a dry dusty lake bed due to the California drought. However, because of the heavy rains this year, LIB attendees were blessed to have a beautiful blue lake over half full at their doorstep! This was the perfect amount of water for us to be able to chill in all day (every day) without negatively affecting any of the stage set-ups. The best part? Finally, after years of dreaming about how amazing it would be, we were now able to bust out the Megalodon and throw a lake-rager to the likes of which would make King Neptune proud.

Key music festival essentials

As told by Bobby Our adventure kicked off on Wednesday night at 10pm as we packed the last few pieces of equipment into my Jeep. It was a tight fit, but we managed to squeeze everything (equipment listed below) into the car including both the massive Megalodon and an ISLE Explorer inflatable paddle board. Despite the Megalodons giant size, it becomes shockingly small and transportable when deflated. It seriously blows people’s minds when they see something so large become so small in a matter of second – just make sure you don’t forget your pump and paddles!

Tips for planning

There is so much to do at LIB that it can be almost overwhelming! I recommend creating a bucket list of “Must-Do” activities to ensure you don’t forget about anything. Seeing awesome music is obviously one of the main reasons people attend LIB, but it’s the little weird things that you discover as you walk around that will make you fall in the love with this festival forever. However, before you set off on your adventures it is essential that you prepare for both the scorching heat during the day and the biting cold throughout the night. This year temperatures ranged from a low of 46 to a high of 91 degrees Fahrenheit. This rapid 45-degree swing can easily catch you off guard and be a major buzzkill.

Raging on the Megalodon paddle board

Before embarking on our maiden LIB voyage we quickly inflated the Megalodon using an electric pump. You can inflate the Megalodon with hand pumps, but this would’ve taken twice as long. Fully inflated, the Megalodon is an enormous 15 feet long, but it’s still so light that we only needed two people to carry it to the water. This was very important since everyone else either had their hands full with beverages or more floaties! Paddles in hand, it was time to embark to the lake! It’s impossible to describe just how much fun we had with the Megalodon. At one point, we must have had at least 12 people dancing on it at once! Having paddles was also a huge bonus since we could cruise around the lake and meet new people (and pirate their vessels!)  We also found it very important to have a few short lengths of rope to tie our group’s other inflatables together into a massive party chain, ensuring that nobody drifted away from the mothership. Other than partying on the Megalodon, one of the best parts about having it with us was that it stood out like a giant beacon in the water among the hundreds of inflatable swans and unicorns. I quickly realized how helpful this was after making my first beverage run back to camp and getting completely lost on my return. After five embarrassing minutes spent walking along the shore looking for my crew, I turned a corner and instantly saw the Megalodon cruising down a little inlet. Anxiety forgotten, I flagged down my ship and cracked a cold one as I waited for my ride to arrive.