Surfing
If wave pools are in fact “the future of surfing,” then it’s time to renew that passport.
Simulating our great sport of surfing has definitely come a long way since Rick Kane was featured in an Arizona wave pool (on a knee-high wave) in the movie North Shore. Orlando’s Typhoon Lagoon kick started the interest and furthermore legitimacy in creating waves in places far from shore. But the question remains: Could it ever really compare?
Of course, this question could raise a debate lasting for days. The purists versus the curious; the organic versus the synthetic. But when it comes down to it, no one’s actually trying to replace old King Neptune. Guys like Kelly Slater and Dane Reynolds could vouch for that. At its core, these wave pools are just meant for fun.
Because while each new year brings a little more inventive technology to the table on how to make these artificial waves a bit longer, more powerful and maaaaaaybe kinda-sorta tube, industrial turbines and generators just can’t match a typhoon generated storm pushing 20-second period swell across the Pacific Ocean.
But in the meantime, here are three wave pools doing a great job of piquing our interest.
1) Wadi Adventure Wave Pool . Located in Al Ain, way over in the United Arab Emirates, talk about an oasis in the desert. This chlorinated wave pool, just one part of a larger action sports complex, has rights, lefts, mini-barrels and something every other wave pool doesn’t — launchable sections.
Aerialists Dion Agius and Chippa Wilson have gone over to prove this point, landing covers on magazines, mid-flight in this “Electric Blue Heaven.” Sally Fitzgibbons has even gone over and tested the ramps herself, too.
2) Wave Garden . Deep in the Basque Country of Northern Spain, this concept is different than all its chlorinated cousins. Using fresh nearby river waters, two 220 meter long waves break simultaneously — a right and a left — opposite one another. The longest artificial wave of its kind, guys like Dane Reynolds, Gabriel Medina, Jeremy Flores and more have gone over and sampled its peeling waist-chest high walls. All of them with the same consensus: “That ride was a lot longer than I though it’d be.”
3) Sunway Lagoon. A short plane ride away from Bali, located in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, this traditional wave park has held contests over the last decade and basically upped the ante of its model Typhoon Lagoon. Over the years it’s hosted greats like Mick Fanning, Taj Burrow and Josh Kerr, who’ve all found a way to get print-worthy shots at the place in surf mags, and a way to boost off the waist-high sections. Definitely, a novelty worth checking out while renewing your visa, before heading back to Indo.
