The Future
LAST ISSUE WE MADE THE STATEMENT THAT UNLESS SURFING COULD OFFER CONSISTENT WAVES ON TAP IT WOULD NEVER GROW TO BE A TRULY MARKETABLE SPORT IN TERMS OF GLOBAL TV AUDIENCES. THIS IS DUE TO THE FACT THAT SURF CANNOT BE COUNTED ON TO BE PRESENT COME KICK OFF
Well someone was listening and in a part of the world where money seems to be no object, a man made phenomena has been born at Wadi Adventure Park in the United Arab Emarites. While other waves pools have come and gone before either failing through lack of the quality ingredient, waves! And funds. This latest addition to the artificial man made surf realm built out in the sweltering desert of Dubai looks to have ticked all the boxes. Our Kiwi X-pat resident in the Middle-East Nathan ‘LD’ Banks was one of the first surfers to sample the design and he gives us rundown on a few things that as surfers we would be interested in.
WHAT WAS IT LIKE SURFING IN A CONCRETE POOL FOR THE FIRST TIME?
Surreal. If driving two hours into the middle of the desert isn’t enough of a trip-out, there’s this crazy backdrop surround of raw aggressive rock formation behind the pistons/chambers where the wave pumps out (it’s random at night with all the shadows about and changing light set up in the pool). And then there’s floating around in about 20 million gallons of water with the pistons firing off to release the water and generate the wave.... you’ve gotta take off hard up against the wall which gets interesting. First few times I sessioned the pool I’d be driving back into Dubai completely blown away by where I was and what had just gone down - in the Middle East surrounded by sand in the harshest climatic conditions and surfing a man made wave - who would’ve thought. The wave itself has surprising push for it’s size and definitely rippable. I wrote it off when I first heard about it - it had me eating my words pretty quick and throwing me a few nasal chlorine filled enemas for good measure.
IS IT SALT OR FRESH WATER, IF FRESH HOW IS THE BUOYANCY?
Fresh. I’ve been riding Primal Futurelites in the pool. The epoxy technology with the buoyancy and slingshot flex is ideal for the pool conditions.
HOW BIG WERE THE WAVES AND HOW BIG CAN THEY MAKE IT?
There’s six different size settings but you’re only really talking about settings two - five being used at the moment. Size setting four is about head high on the take off and seems to be the cleanest with the 90 sec down time between waves for the pool to settle. But it also depends on the wind and what wave you’ve got it set on - whether it’s on the closeout (left and right peeling for about 30 meters or so into a closeout), left hander or right hander (both about 60 maybe 70 meters long i reckon). On setting six it’s a couple of feet overhead but rarely used given the amount of water moving about and the time it takes to settle - there’s some fine tuning to do, as you can imaging dealing with new technology.
IS THE WAVE EASY TO RIDE? AND IS EVERY WAVE THE SAME?
It’s unusual at first and some find it hard to work out and a bit frustrating. Bit of each to their own I think. Through trial and error you definitely start to pick the lines and know where the power in the wave is. Sounds a bit wacked but conditions play a big part in the wave quality and variation. Basic parameters are constant but the two main factors that can affect the wave condition are the wind and the amount of water in the pool. You can choose whether you want rights or lefts or the closeout (or an A frame which is more popular with beginners) but for example, if the wind is blowing into the lefts it makes for an insane inside section to smack coming off the right hander. As I said, it’s definitely rippable, Dion Agius fully demonstrated that.... You can hire the pool out for yourself if you’re real keen and at 90 seconds a wave, if you’ve got oars like Owen Wright you can gun it back to the take off point with about 5 seconds to spare before the next piercing fire-up of the pistons and punch out 40 waves in an hour. Throw in 50 degree heat (although the pool is cooled its nothing below luke warm) and after a few hours your pretty much rinsed.
IF EVERY WAVE IS THE SAME, IS IT BORING?
Nah not boring at all. You can mix it up with size and wave type and with a couple of mates in the pool larking around it’s all time. I suppose like anything, you’ve just gotta keep getting creative in your head as to what you’re gonna throw down...