Two days ago was the first Founder's Cup where world top surfers gathered at Kelly Slater's wave pool to compete in teams. This event changes a lot of things for surfing and I will try to enumerate them in this article.
Location, location, location
Contrary to surf spots, wave pools can exist anywhere in the world as long as there's enough land to build them. This allow people living far from the coast to experience the joy or surfing without traveling to the nearest coast.
Training
With a cadence of several waves and sometimes tens per minute, wave pools are the perfect tool for surf training. Waves at allow surfers to repeat a maneuver at will like one would in judo or tennis.
Creativity
Wave pools allow surfers to try new maneuvers, a behavior we don't see much in surfing, compared to skateboarding, because in nature waves are scarce and valuable.
Health
Some surf spots are polluted due to sewage and near human activities. This invisible pollution affects directly surfers' health. Wave pools allow people to practice their favorite sport in clean water.
Sharks
Some surf spots became unsurfable due to the presence of sharks in the water. Wave pools allow local surfers to ride safely.
Crowd
Tired of the crowd? Tens of waves per minute increase the potential number of waves available per surfer, compared to a natural surf spot where there's a lof of competition to access waves, especially in summer.
Time
24/7 and 365 days a year! Finally you can surf at nightfall after a long day of work.
Services
A wave pool is very long, which means there's space along it to offer services around surfing: bars, restaurants, surf shops, showers...
Innovation
Wanna try a new surfboard design? Shape it, get in the water, test it and get feedback in minutes.
The peak
In a wave pool no need to fight whiter water and ten duck dives to get to the peak. Just leave the water and walk back to the peak. Easy.
There's probably a lof of things that wave pools change for surfing and we've only scratched the surface of it. For your information, the next contest in a wave pool with world top surfers will happen Sep 06 -09 in Lemoore, California. Meanwhile I wish you a lot of good waves.
See you in the water!