Most surfers have a pre-session routine. Mine usually consists of caffeine and blasting my pre-surf playlist in the car, which is filled with punk rock that gets you amped regardless of conditions.

For this particular session my routine remained the same. However, instead of rolling five minutes down the hill to the beach, I was driving an hour inland through rush hour traffic to the Olympic Park in western Sydney. A strange juxtaposition for any surfer.

Tracks, along with a host of other industry representatives, were lucky enough to be invited by Urbnsurf for a test morning at the new Sydney pool, which opens to the public next week.

While many in attendance had ridden the Urbnsurf pool in Melbourne, this was my first experience of surfing a mechanical wave and I had no clue what to expect. As with visiting any new location, it came with a degree of curiosity; “What will the pool look like?”, “Will it have enough power?” and “What board do I ride?”

Coupled with that curiosity was a whole lot of froth, which was not dampened by the rush hour traffic.  I was excited to try what, to me, has always seemed like a novelty concept.

Upon arrival, the facility is a reminder of what surfing has become; an elite level sport that has been thrust into the mainstream and is no longer a taboo counter culture movement. I quickly drew comparisons with other sports and the types of facilities that professionals have access to in order to work on their game.

The on-site technology, the changing rooms, the café and surf shop were all really impressive and sleekly designed. In the same breath, the pool gave off a wet ‘n’ wild, waterpark for surfer’s vibe and you instantly knew this was somewhere you could come for a day of fun.

We were given two hours in the pool – an hour each on the Advanced Turns setting and Barrels, with a choice of going right or left at any time we like.

As we were suiting up they started the machine and just like that a regular pool became a field of dreams. As the glassy, candy-blue barrels rolled through a roar went up from the onlookers. Meanwhile, the swell reports suggested most of Sydney’s beaches were onshore and crumbly. Despite being miles away from the ocean and surrounded by buildings, the stoke remained the same and if anything, it was only heightened given the fact this was a unique experience.

Having previously been warned about the lack of power in wave pools, I was pleasantly surprised by the punch in the sections on the advanced turns setting, which were still really hittable. It doesn’t fully replicate the push back the ocean gives so it’s important to surf as tight in the pocket as possible, if you venture too far out to the shoulder it becomes easier to bog down.

I found myself a little flustered at first, almost over excited by the whole ordeal, paddling back out as fast as I could to get the next wave that was being pumped out along the wall. As fortune had it the majority of media attendees were goofy footers, leaving a handful of us to gorge on the rights, striving to catch two waves in a set. However, I quickly found out that you cannot maintain such a pace as you will tire yourself out before you get half way through your session.

Even with a stacked booking, you’re going to get bundles of opportunities to ride waves during the hour. Take your time and use it as an opportunity to practice a certain turn or move. Each wave in a particular setting is almost identical; you know what section is coming so it’s the perfect canvas to work on technique. Those who had surfed the Melbourne pool were making comparisons and suggested that the first section on the Sydney pool is steeper and a little more critical. This allows you to square up on your first turn, which is generally considered the basis for good surfing.

After an hour of advanced turns, we all came in and grabbed a helmet and headed back out for the barrel setting.

The takeoff on the ‘barrel’ setting is slightly softer than the ‘advanced turns’ option. You can either get a quick turn in, which puts you in the spot to start stalling for the tube, or sit deep, set your line and wait for the world to suddenly get very round. Given the way the water sucks up in the pool, it’s important to angle your board slightly towards the “beach” to keep momentum as you thread through the tube. The lower you get, the deeper you can ride as the barrel tends to baseball bat and get wider through the middle. If you elect to wear a helmet ( we had to on a trial day), be mindful that it’s sitting a couple of inches higher than your head and it’s easy to get it caught in the folding lip if you don’t stay low enough.

The ultimate goal in surfing is to get barrelled. To be able to get that vision over and over again for an hour was the epitome of fun. Everyone was frothing at the challenge of trying to park themselves as deep as possible in these small mechanical tubes.

After two hours of non-stop surfing and paddling, everyone was pretty cooked. It was like the equivalent of a 3-to-4 hour session in the sea. We were lucky enough to be treated to a huge feed at the on-site restaurant, which was the perfect setting for trading stories about the waves we’d ridden and the ones we’d blown. The pool completely eliminates the element of hassling associated with a regular session so the shared stoke levels were at an all-time high.

The experience was an exciting novelty and while the buzz replicated the feelings you get surfing in the ocean, the approach to riding waves in the pool is unique – kind of like deciphering the nuances of a new reef break. Even after two hours, I felt like I needed a few more waves to adjust to the settings of the pool.

A massive thanks to Urbnsurf for the opportunity, we will be back!