Remember Rick Kane? He’s the guy in that movie North Shore that wins a contest in a wave pool somewhere in Arizona and uses the money to take a dream surf trip to Hawaii.
The movie was kinda cheesy but perfectly captured the vibe of wave pools back in the day. Indeed, in the 70s and into the 80s and even the early 90s there were many wave pools build around the world (although according to some online sources the first prototypes were built in US as early as the 1940s); obviously not with surfing in mind, but rather to entertain landlocked masses with an authentic “beach experience” and dribbly “waves”.
Anyway, as the pools got better and marketers started to er, ride the surfing wave, numerous contests were held at wave pools in Canada, the US, Europe and Japan (as well as even Shareworld in Joburg, boet). But seeing as the technology was pretty poor and the waves weren’t much better than the worst conditions in many coast-based contests (and arguably most QS events still, but I digress), the surfers were quickly over it and as the novelty faded, most of these pools were demolished.
Inevitably the Japanese had to perfect the technology though and in 1992 they opened the Ocean Dome wave pool in Miyazaki, purpose built for surfing, for a measly 2 billion US dollars (famously, within spitting distance of the actual sea).
Mid-level Aussie pro Matthew Pitts actually bailed the tour and made a career of doing demos here and numerous contests were held at the venue, most surfers deeming the wave “not bad for a wave pool, not bad at all” (I’m paraphrasing here, of course). Eventually though, the huge cost of running the place forced its closure.
Check out Julian Wilson and buddies surfing some decent tubes and bustin’ a couple of airs here just before it shut its doors early last year:
The massive expense of wave pools hasn’t stopped people from trying to build them, usually as drawcards as a part of a hotel complex or wider fun park type of scene. One such pool that has garnered a lot attention through visits from top pros is the Surf Park at the Sunway Lagoon in Malaysia.
Check out Josh Kerr and Ry Craike etc hucking some big strapped in airs, their amplitude assisted by the use of a jetski. Some might say this would be tantamount to cheating but I reckon the crowd would have been pretty disappointed if they’d tried to do the same without the tow ats:
Check out Taj and co at the same location, also using skis to boost and carve (I think this was in Fair Bits):
Of course closer to home we have the wave pool at the Lost City. There have also been a few contests here over the years and Zag themselves have done a couple of photo trips, most recently a mission akin to the Kerr/Craike show in Malaysia where apart from paddling in, jetskis were used to boost some local pro surfers during Vodacom’s Spring Break and wow all the Jaapies and Poppies frolicking in the “shorebreak”.
On of these surfers was none other than former CT’er and current QS campaigner Royden Bryson, who I spoke to on the phone just before he was about to get on a plane for a contest in the Canaries. “The one big difference between surfing a wave pool and in the ocean is that you know when the wave is coming,” said Roy, “and obviously every single wave is the same so it’s pretty predictable.”
Whilst he also told me the whole experience of surfing the Sun City wave pool is a bit weird, thanks to the chlorine water and altitude, and he way prefers surfing in the ocean, but thanks to the regularity of each wave it was fun to be able try turns and boosts until he had them down pat. “It’s more suited for airs,” added Bryson. “You could race, race and then punt and if you had all day to do practice it could probably be beneficial for surfing in the ocean.”
Naturally, as mentioned, the high cost of operating these wave pools, especially when it comes to creating rideable surfing waves, is preventative and usually even when there are pros about demos are restricted to short periods. Mostly surfing is not actually allowed on these fun park waves either and you will just find kids on bodyboards screwing around on pus-like whitewater at best.
I scoured the ‘net for some footage of people surfing in the Sun City wavepool and this short clip is all I could find. The footage is not great but you can see how the wave breaks, I think it is actually Royden himself:
And so the story goes on and on. Ja bru, despite many failed attempts (remember all the hype about the Ron Jon wave pool in Florida a while back, which of course came to nought?) that STILL hasn’t stopped people with more money than sense trying to build surf-specific wave pools.
One of the latest such pool is in the ‘Slam Park’ in Tenerife on the Canary Islands. Check out this footage of some Euro groms surfing it, even though they are spindly kids it looks kinda fun and it’s probably some of the best wave pool surfing you’ll find on the ‘net (in fact, thinking about it, wave pools are probably more suited to lightees than heavy grown men anyway!):
I told Royden about it and he said he and although the comp is on Lanzarote he said he Greg Ewing might go check it out afterwards if the real waves are shit and they have time. He’s a light-footed little bloke so I’m sure he’ll rip the crap out of it if they manage to get there. They should probably try though, as the Canaries seems an odd place for such a costly project and it might soon go the way of most of the other surfing-specific pools like it: i.e nowhere.
Indeed, like all hardcore surfers I have my doubts whether there will ever be a real Rick Kane, at least in our lifetimes. Unlike the first two parts of this surfing substitute series, river bores and standing river waves, which are natural and have their own followings and seem to be catching on as permanent subcultures in the surfing matrix, wave pools might never quite entrench themselves as a bona fide alternative.
Flowriders nothwithstanding (but that’s not really surfing, is it?), it seems that’s not going to stop some people obsessing about them though and crackpot inventors and moneymen with lofty business plans will keep trying until they get it right (which would change our sport forever for sure) or the world ends, which at this stage seems more likely.
Check two such wacky clips I found (and be sure to read the comments under them for a laugh), but until then, see you down at the beach my bru:
