Pittwater Life February 2018 Issue

Surfing Life
Surfing Life
Surfing Kelly Slater’s
robo-churn Wave Pool
Most of you have seen some video footage... but what’s it really like?
with Nick Carroll
Ever since the Kelly Slater
steel mesh fence, held up by a
Wave Company did its big
series of metal posts, 100 in all,
reveal two years ago, every
each around four metres from
surfer I know has been quietly
wigging out. They’re wigging
because of what the KSWC
revealed: to wit, what appeared
to be a seriously excellent, and
for sure completely artificial,
wave. Breaking in a pool. For a
long way.
Since then, the KSWC and its
owners, the World Surf League,
have been releasing a slim yet
steady diet of carefully curated
video clips showcasing their
invention. Each clip – slow-motioned,
angled just right, and
starring Kelly or one of his pro
tour compadres – makes it look
better and better.
Yet at the same time, they
have kept the doors to this facility
BREAKING NEWS: Not quite the backdrop we’re used to seeing from the beach.
the next. Everything is grey,
precise and industrial; it looks
for all the world like a high-tech
watery prison.
I was completely fascinated.
Never had I thought that anyone
would expend this kind of time,
money, and human ingenuity
on making a wave! Especially
when there’s so many of them
out there in the ocean already.
Around a dozen of us had
been invited for the day, mostly
other surf journalists. We were
organised into groups of four
at a time. I was in the second
group, which drove me a little
bit mad, but at least it gave me
a chance to watch.
Here’s another thing you
closed to any independent
It truly is the last place you’d rim, running all the way around
can’t tell from the PR – the wave
observer. The secrecy around expect to be surfing. And the the pool’s perimeter – maybe destroys the Pool. Like, blows
the Pool has been obsessive. truth is, what you do in the Pool 700 metres end to end, and it to bits. As it breaks, the wave
Access has been limited to is not surfing, it’s something 150 metres wide. On the inner sets all the three or four Olympic
pools’ worth of water in
invited guests and potential else again.
rim, the wall falls away on its
investors. As a result, the WSL When you arrive at the facility open side to a broad trough wild motion. It washes over an
Surf Ranch, as it’s officially gates for your session, they maybe two and a half metres elevated area of plastic-coated
known, has become the most swing smoothly open to reveal deep, which runs most of the concrete known as “the beach”
exclusive surf spot in the world. a small carpark and a neatly way down that side before and surges through several
Kelly’s been compared to Willy kept building. Inside the building
circling around at both ends channels into the deep trough
Wonka in some circles, and
invites to his Chocolate Factory
are sought far and wide.
Well, thanks to a series of
odd events, late last year I got
the Golden Ticket, as it were.
Come visit the Ranch for a day!
No expectations! See what you
think!
Thus, in early November I
found myself roaring up the
I-5 freeway out of Los Angeles,
on possibly the single weirdest
and least expected surf trip of
my life.
The WSL Surf Ranch is
set behind an immaculately
maintained wooden wall, at
a property just off Jackson
Road in Lemoore, California.
Lemoore is a central valley farm
town of around 25,000 people.
The town grows cotton and
struggles with its water supply.
you’ll find a spacious chang-
ing room complete with filled
board racks, wetsuits, leashes,
towels, wax, everything you
might want to use during a surf.
Everything feels organised,
low-key, stylish. A door opens
from that room into a hang-out
area, then into another room
dedicated to the Pool’s design,
with bathymetry charts and
illustrations of imaginary Pools
of the future.
Well you would see all that
if you weren’t me, because I
ignored all that stuff and ran
straight to the low-slung wall
beyond, and gazed out over
Kelly’s modern miracle.
Immediately I realised how
much of it has been hidden in
the videos. The KSWC Pool is
contained by a concrete wall,
maybe a metre high on its outer
and joining up with the body of
the Pool.
Half way down this side of
the Pool is a large control tower
set-up. From here they run the
Pool, watching an array of sensors,
picking up any issues with
the machinery or with waterflow,
and eventually, pushing
the button to make it work.
On the other side of the Pool
is the thing that does the work:
basically a heavy blade or foil,
half-submerged and around
12 metres long, and mounted
train-like on a monorail track
running the length of the Pool.
When dragged along the track,
this foil forms an exaggerated
version of a ship’s prow-wake,
in effect pulling the wave from
one end of the Pool to the other.
The machinery is separated
from the body of the Pool by a
along the outer rim. Water flies
everywhere. Small quantities
are blown clean out of the Pool
and on to the paths surrounding
it. The reverberations go
on for a long time, surging up
and down the Pool, and take
ages to truly settle; even after
five minutes, the typical period
between waves, the surge is still
present.
Not only does this effect tend
to ever so slightly vary the wave
over time, it’s also a revelation.
If a single wave can do that in
the Pool, how much energy is
being distributed through an
everyday surfing lineup?
Slightly freaking out with
excitement, I grabbed my board
and waded out to the takeoff
point. There was no need to
paddle, at least not any further
than Metal Pole number 31,
44 FEBRUARY 2018
The Local Voice Since 1991