Kelly Slater’s Shock Wave

February 15, 2019 2:16 AM

[New Yorker]The best surfer in history made a machine that creates perfect conditions on demand. Will his invention democratize surfing or despoil it? Surfing on Kelly Slater’s machine-made wave [Video] Previously.
posted by ellieBOA (22 comments total)

That was a fascinating read, even for someone who knows almost nothing about surfing.

It did seem incongruous though to talk about Kelly Slater's environmentalism and sustainable clothing while addressing the huge cost of installing and operating this pool only in reference to the cost to the wallet for potential customers.
posted by AnhydrousLove at 2:53 AM on February 15, 2019 [3 favorites]

Oh wow! I knew about the wave machine but had no idea Adam Fincham was the guy responsible for leading the design and engineering. He and I used to hang out all the time in grad school at USC. Really cool to see him connected with this!
posted by darkstar at 3:08 AM on February 15, 2019 [8 favorites]

Jeezus, that was 27 years ago...
posted by darkstar at 3:11 AM on February 15, 2019 [4 favorites]

I thought this article was fascinating, and then I got to this part:

Had it been like sex with a blow-up doll? Like a debauch in a brothel?

and I thought, are you fucking kidding me? This is your analogy for surfing a machine-made wave?
posted by medusa at 5:59 AM on February 15, 2019 [7 favorites]

Many sports - most? all? - deal with a bit of naval-gazing over technological advances and whether an attempt to strip things down to their basics or essence lose something of the context or heart and soul of the sport. Moneyball kind of analytics in data-rich sports, power meters in cycling, and doubtless more - but I think this is a particularly good illustration of it.
posted by entropone at 6:00 AM on February 15, 2019

Oh neat. I'm thinking of moving to Lemoore. Maybe I'll buff up on my surfer knowledge and look out for them having hipster fights around town.
posted by es_de_bah at 6:28 AM on February 15, 2019 [1 favorite]

the huge cost of installing and operating this pool

I guess this article doesn't get into it, but for what it's worth the wave pool started with existing "narrow lagoons that had been used for water skiing".
posted by exogenous at 6:49 AM on February 15, 2019 [1 favorite]

The Waco pool itself suddenly closed, however, at the end of September, after a New Jersey surfer who had recently been there was stricken with a fatal brain infection. Water samples taken by Texas authorities found evidence of the amoeba that causes the infection. The pool operators deny responsibility and say that they will reopen in the spring.

Where I surf in FL, there are the usual hazards - sharks, man-o-war, red tide, reef scrapes (which can become a nasty cellulitis with various Vibrio spp), drowning, various injuries from hitting the bottom unwisely, and, yes, the grumpy old locals - like me. But brain-eating amoebae, no thank you.

The wind and waves, solitude of being out in the immense ocean at sunrise, the tarpon or bluefish or pompano hitting on the baitfish just outside the reef, the pelicans effortlessly surfing the updrafts in front of the swell, the turtles popping their heads out for a quick look at you (checking for mate potentials?), and, yes, the grumpy old locals, my surfing buddies for the last 40+ years. All for a 30-60 second ride, maybe a brief cover-up, in small sub-optimal conditions. Yes, thank you God.
posted by sudogeek at 7:38 AM on February 15, 2019 [4 favorites]

Finnegan's Wave.
posted by Oyéah at 7:52 AM on February 15, 2019 [1 favorite]

It would be cool if commercial surf parks became accessible at the downhill skiing level of expense. While people do surf in BC the water is cold and you have to be near (in Canada terms) the ocean. But at $50K an hour to cover operating costs this specific tech doesn't seem like something that is going to impact the recreational surfer at all. The other options at a much lower price point are more interesting.

Paul Speaker, a former National Football League executive. Speaker, who does not surf, liked to point out that ninety-seven per cent of N.F.L. fans have never played football.

Waaa? Don't most male Americans play at least a little football in school? Heck even in nowhere Canada, where there is only one true sport, we played both tackle (men mostly) and touch (fully co-ed) football at least occasionally in the non-frozen months.
posted by Mitheral at 7:53 AM on February 15, 2019

Judging from the WCT contest that was conducted at Slater's wave pool the waves are far from perfect. In the wild barrels are unpredictable tests of skill and luck and so they've become one of the most sought after kinds of rides. The machine was still set up to produce waves with long barrel sections. Most people can't do airs and for most people barrels are pretty rare so a perfect wave for most people would have lots of easy barrel sections and not many ramps for airs. Professional surfers aren't most people so I found watching them in barrels at the wave pool boring.
posted by rdr at 8:07 AM on February 15, 2019

Hey, I work with these guys. They are lovely people. The social dynamics are super interesting and this article does a decent job of laying it all out.
posted by q*ben at 8:27 AM on February 15, 2019 [7 favorites]

My nephew is a semi-pro surfer, and his dad and all their neighbors are long-time surfers. I visited them in January and happened to read the New Yorker article lonked above on the plane, so I brought it up to them and asked what they thought about the project and the possibility of franchised wave pools all over inland America.

It was fascinating! These guys are pretty laconic but it was like I had flipped a switch! They had so much to say about it, from critiques of the specific Slater pool and wave forms to what appears to be general support for the idea of many pools and actual positive interest in the idea floated in the article as a possible driver of these theoretical many pools, more mediagenic access to surfing as a larger-scale sport. They talked about who they knew who had worked at what facility. They talked about how they were skeptical that even with many pools around the country the idea that access would be remotely affordable. None of them seemed really charged up about actually surfing one, though. They were curious to try it but very definitely dismissive at the same time specifically because the wavepool experience necessarily excludes the experience of, you know, being in the actual ocean, as touched on by sudogeek above. Listening to them go on and on about it was kind of amazing!
posted by mwhybark at 9:40 AM on February 15, 2019 [5 favorites]

Waaa? Don't most male Americans play at least a little football in school?

Unorganized games, sure. But not organized games with pads and helmets. Youth soccer is far more popular. And virtually all pads/helmets gameplay stops after high school.

Not to mention that the 50% of the population that is female very, very rarely plays at all.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 9:57 AM on February 15, 2019 [2 favorites]

Oh god the amount of handwringing and navel gazing in the surf world when Kelly's pool launched was out of control. And then, eventually... I think most people got over it. There will always be hardcore haters. But I feel like there's a general consensus that yes, given the chance, anyone in their right mind would try it (as long as it wasn't too expensive) but it's not the "future" of the sport. Describing Surf Ranch as a "little model of Disneyland" is perfect. I don't want to live at Disneyland; I'm ok spending a little money to visit there once with the kids. If Slater is still serious about charging tens of thousands of dollars then the Ranch is irrelevant to all but a tiny sliver of surfers.

The concern that a surfer with only wave pool experience could become world champion is ridiculous. People were making the exact same comments in the 80s when wave pools (with atrocious surf) first emerged. (They even made the worst/best surf movie about it: "Now, Rick, how does it feel to be the top surfer in the state of Arizona?.") It's like saying that someone who's good at that basketball arcade game is also good enough to win an NBA title.

Plus, the WSL event didn't do the Ranch any favors. Finnegan's description that "the pool made surfing feel tame, domesticated, almost like an indoor, fixed-program sport" was spot on. Lemoore is so perfect it's boring. At this point I'd rather watch clips of the Waco pool. At least there you get to see some decent airs.
posted by not_the_water at 10:30 AM on February 15, 2019

> It did seem incongruous though to talk about Kelly Slater's environmentalism and sustainable clothing while addressing the huge cost of installing and operating this pool only in reference to the cost to the wallet for potential customers.

There's also the carbon cost of flying around the world in pursuit of the perfect wave. Which I assume not many surfers do but the few who do, do quite a lot with coaches, videographers, family, friends and so on in tow.
posted by ardgedee at 10:30 AM on February 15, 2019 [2 favorites]

Where I surf in FL, there are the usual hazards... But brain-eating amoebae, no thank you.

Um... just don't use a neti pot without boiling your drinking water first, OK?
posted by Revvy at 12:50 PM on February 15, 2019

@Revvy: Naegleria and Acanthamoeba are fresh-water species. If you read the linked article, the cases were all in pools, streams, or rivers, not the ocean or saline estuaries.
posted by sudogeek at 1:01 PM on February 15, 2019

Where did I say otherwise?

That amoeba lives in water people drink and bathe in. Avoiding it by only surfing in the ocean should be the least of ways someone is worried about encountering it.
posted by Revvy at 1:14 PM on February 15, 2019

Except surfing kind of inevitably gets water in your head holes? Which bathing doesn’t so much.

I’ve only tried a few times, but I found the “what is a wave aspect” basically impossible. The balance sports I do involve much more static systems (ski conditions change much more slowly, and ice basically not at all), so I found that aspect really frustrating. I would try a beginner version of this pool though.

Except those few times ocean surfing, definitely the most decongested I’ve ever been afterwards— as Mr Nat just said, ocean waves are nature’s Neti pot. Not sure that is such a good idea with fresh water. Doesn’t it even kinda hurt in the nose?
posted by nat at 11:26 PM on February 15, 2019

Oh also as a physicist who has studied solitons in other contexts, it was cool to see them show up here. Especially because the first observed soliton was also a water wave (in 1834). Wikipedia link here.
posted by nat at 11:30 PM on February 15, 2019

nat: " Not sure that is such a good idea with fresh water."

Starting from scratch it's likely the pool would be salt water. There are many advantages in general to a salt water pool and the drawbacks are easily handled.
posted by Mitheral at 12:53 PM on February 16, 2019