It is constantly in the news, and social media is littered with more and more posts of proposed wave pools, advanced wave pool technology and in some cases, resistance to wave pool development. There is Urban Surf and The Kelly Slater Wave Co and Wavegarden , all providing bits and pieces of the puzzle.
Another piece of the puzzle that has not yet been revealed is to whether there will be a Wave Pool event on the Championship Tour. It does seem to be in the wings, and waiting for an official announcement.
There has been all sorts of talk about this possibility, maybe too much talk, but there is definitely room to explore. Maybe it’s not straight into a Championship Tour event, but an event of some sorts. Maybe they could follow some sort of theme from the world of cricket.
At first there was test match cricket. Test match cricket is the traditional version of the game, but it does tend to drag on, lasting days, and often ending in a draw. As the world started yearning for quicker fixes, and with fewer people around in this busy world to watch 5 days of men blocking balls all day, clever people invented One Day cricket, with only 50 overs per team. The same game rules, just a bit faster and more exciting. This was pushed even further, with the 20-Twenty cricket version; a lightning-fast and thrilling form of the game, wherein every single ball bowled becomes a crucial run-scoring opportunity. Spectators love it. It fits into a busy schedule, and kids can come along and enjoy the feisty vibe.
A wave pool event would be an ideal time to test something fresh for the sport of pro surfing. Something new to keep people interested. A full CT event in identical mechanical waves however, is not going to have the same pull as the enticing variables of a Restaurants or JBay lineup.
For a start, there should be no more non-elimination rounds. They would be ponderous to watch. It needs to be sudden death from the start.
There will need to be few surfers in such an event as well. Top 16 has a nice ring to it. Along this line of thinking, depending on the frequency of wave output, you could drop the heat time down to 20 minutes. If the machine could pump out a wave a minute, that’s 10 waves each, making it a perfect number, and meaning that an event could fit into one day, same as a Big Wave Tour event.
With the waves being identical, it might not be a bad idea to adopt a judging system similar to snowboarding, when you have Trick judges as well as Overall Impression (OI) judges. On the world snowboard tour website, it is described as such,
“Each Trick is judged by teams of two. Judges will concentrate their judging values on Amplitude, Difficulty and Execution.
Each OI judge focuses on the overall impact of the run over the entire course. Judges will concentrate their judging values on Variation, Style and Combinations. Total Trick + Total OI scores provide a Run score”
This system could easily be adopted for a Wave Pool event, and it could be an excellent opportunity to bring new judges to the event, just for something fresh. Imagine Tom Curren and Tom Carroll sitting as OI judges, or Christian Fletcher as Trick judge. Actually, that won’t work, maybe Kelly Slater himself as a trick judge would be a better option, with someone like Multiple World Air Show champion Kerrzy, when he decides to slow down.
There would need to be a limit on the number of tricks, so maybe it’s three tricks counting per wave, with a barrel counting as one trick. That would open it up to make sure that competitors don’t sit locked into a perfect tube for the entire ride, as is possible, but would need to use the hollow section and the lip to do big moves as well. Variety of moves should probably also be in the trick criteria.
So the concept is still a little rough, much like my weekend has been, but there are some options.
