Wavegarden go national - video

Stu Nettle picture
Stu Nettle (stunet)
Swellnet Dispatch

From this point on, every piece of news about Kelly's hot tub, Wavegarden, or Webber Wave Pools has an ulterior motive. Nothing is neutral, everything is heavy with propaganda as each player bids to get over the top of the others. And the medium for all this nasty propagands is us. The media!

So let's get manipulated, eh?

This time 'round it's the national ISA surf squads in their matching tracksuits copping an obligation free invite to the Wavegarden test centre in San Sebastian.

Doesn't it look inviting...?

Comments

mattlock's picture
mattlock's picture
mattlock Thursday, 14 Sep 2017 at 9:50am

Underwelming

savanova's picture
savanova's picture
savanova Thursday, 14 Sep 2017 at 10:15am

Man size wave in a man size pool could make a man size of a difference.

Bungan33's picture
Bungan33's picture
Bungan33 Thursday, 14 Sep 2017 at 10:35am

To be a surf coach you must have surfed all your life. You must KNOW surfing. Do they actually believe what they were saying? That smacked of paid endorsements to me. Do they actually believe practicing on a one drop, one move, quickly fading chest high wave will drive some incredible performance improvement? mmmmmm....bit suss to me....

indo-dreaming's picture
indo-dreaming's picture
indo-dreaming Thursday, 14 Sep 2017 at 10:55am

Kelly is way out in front, his wave is ten times better and his videos are presented really good.

Webber wave pools, hasn't even got out of the blocks yet so hard to judge.

Wavegarden wins in quantity of waves, but the actually waves are not something you would actually pay money to surf and their videos and presentation are crap.

Blowin's picture
Blowin's picture
Blowin Thursday, 14 Sep 2017 at 11:00am

The best thing that's ever happened to surfing....ever !

The ability to artificially inseminate the surf consumer base ....oops , I meant the surf culture into China under the banner of furthering the Olympic spirit with its unquestionable purity and integrity.

It's just so exciting.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to potentially share line ups with billions of new surfers IOC !

Special shout out to PT for his efforts at the coalface . Cheers mate !!

velocityjohnno's picture
velocityjohnno's picture
velocityjohnno Friday, 15 Sep 2017 at 10:15pm

Yep this is going to open the floodgates. Know any oddball spots, lesser spots, or areas no one bothers with locally? Those are going to be sanity preservers in the future. Or just less crowded.

Interestingly this snow season saw this phenomenon first hand - the global slush of money chasing cool things to do... things are definitely changing... wishing you all luck to make a shedload of coin, as that's the only way you will get to enjoy what you take for granted now.

AndyM's picture
AndyM's picture
AndyM Thursday, 14 Sep 2017 at 11:33am

And despite this, all the dummies are so keen to see it happen, just for a few seconds of self-gratification in a pool.

Retarded.

browngold09's picture
browngold09's picture
browngold09 Thursday, 14 Sep 2017 at 11:56am

Kind of like the surfing equivalent of a treadmill for running. Makes sense for training, but not competition.

Unless they're planning to start running Olympic sailing in an undercover swimming pool with giant fans, Olympic rowing on rowing machines, or track running on treadmills, I'm not sure why they're considering wavepool surfing for the Olympics, or any competition in wave pools for that matter.

Halibut's picture
Halibut's picture
Halibut Thursday, 14 Sep 2017 at 12:04pm

What does this have to do with surfing?

AndyM's picture
AndyM's picture
AndyM Thursday, 14 Sep 2017 at 12:14pm

What do wave pools have to do with surfing?

Potentially a lot.

noshow's picture
noshow's picture
noshow Thursday, 14 Sep 2017 at 1:53pm

Cant really see that wave turning China into a world surfing superpower unless the WSL is planning on shifting all of its comps to kiddies corner next year

blindboy's picture
blindboy's picture
blindboy Thursday, 14 Sep 2017 at 4:11pm

Yeh I know, it's nostalgia or whatever, but one of the most powerful attractions to surfing fir my generation was that it was unregulated. There were no coaches and virtually no administrators, shit there weren't even any "legends". It was whatever we wanted to make of it. If you look at the characters it generated they were of a different ilk. It took initiative and imagination as well as surfing ability to make a career. Now it takes discipline, conformity and the willingness to ride the same wave over and over again. I think we should at all times discriminate between surfing and the new, different sport of "pool surfing". So good luck to all those who want to ride the pools, but it was not what I signed up to or will ever have any interest in. The mantra of the pros in the 70s was that they wanted surfing to be just like tennis and golf, when most of us had been attracted to it because it was nothing like tennis or golf. This time around they have gone one better and have made it just like gymnastics, only less spectacular.

freerider.'s picture
freerider.'s picture
freerider. Friday, 15 Sep 2017 at 4:26pm

Well said blind boy, I don't think a wave tank will ever be able to replace the real thing and the 'freedom' you feel in the ocean all the other Good Vibes that go along with it.

Rabbits68's picture
Rabbits68's picture
Rabbits68 Friday, 15 Sep 2017 at 6:21pm

BB, I can't quite work out whether your a fan of competition surfing or not? On one hand you mention the initiative & imagination of your generation who made a career out of surfing (competition surfing I assume) but on the other hand you seem to be against conformity & discipline of the current pro surfing scene. If your trying to defend the purity of surfing in regard to were its heading (wavepools etc), up until the advent of wavepools, nothing could be more against the purity of surfing (call it free surfing or soul surfing or whatever you like) than competition surfing, back in the day or currently. Competition surfing is all about conformity, specific times, days , rules, locations etc etc (sure it might of been all a bit looser back in the day, but still required a degree of conformity).

In regard to the wavepool scenario re pro surfing, you paint the impression the tour will become 100% wavepool comps. I seriously doubt it. If the WSL can't attract decent viewer numbers to all-time Chopes or Pipe or Cloudbreak then the assumed predictability of wavepool comps will die a pretty quick death, regardless of the convienance, unless they are profitable ofcourse , then anythings is on the cards I suppose.

pigdog's picture
pigdog's picture
pigdog Thursday, 14 Sep 2017 at 4:23pm

so this is the type of wavegarden wave pool we are getting in melbourne STU N...correct?
and when is the completion date?

stunet's picture
stunet's picture
stunet Thursday, 14 Sep 2017 at 4:24pm

Yep.

A long time from now.

inzider's picture
inzider's picture
inzider Thursday, 14 Sep 2017 at 6:54pm

its like a really lame skatepark that cost millions and only scooter kids want to ride it.

Legrope's picture
Legrope's picture
Legrope Thursday, 14 Sep 2017 at 7:17pm

Good training for trestles? Except for the tube section. Not required.

Horas's picture
Horas's picture
Horas Thursday, 14 Sep 2017 at 7:36pm

Well said Blindboy.

crg's picture
crg's picture
crg Thursday, 14 Sep 2017 at 8:25pm

Everyone in steamers except the English boys in boardies!

frog's picture
frog's picture
frog Friday, 15 Sep 2017 at 8:12pm

It seriously needs another 15 metres with size closer to the takeoff height. Waves that fade so fast not so good for the less nimble. I would just be settling into the wave and it would be all over. Not a massive change but it needs scaling up a bit.

blindboy's picture
blindboy's picture
blindboy Friday, 15 Sep 2017 at 8:25pm

I have yet to see a wave pool that was suited to any but the most agile surfers, which is pretty weird if you look at the average age in the water these days. It is not only the taper in the wave but as it breaks there is only ever a relatively short section of steep face.

lukas's picture
lukas's picture
lukas Monday, 18 Sep 2017 at 6:14pm

oh my god..... close your eyes. it's beyond your glasses & capability ....

aaronwithadoublea's picture
aaronwithadoublea's picture
aaronwithadoublea Friday, 15 Sep 2017 at 9:58pm

No team OZ...wtf. ahh must be surfing real waves back home.

aaronwithadoublea's picture
aaronwithadoublea's picture
aaronwithadoublea Friday, 15 Sep 2017 at 9:58pm

No team OZ...wtf. ahh must be surfing real waves back home.

indo-dreaming's picture
indo-dreaming's picture
indo-dreaming Monday, 18 Sep 2017 at 5:46pm
lukas's picture
lukas's picture
lukas Monday, 18 Sep 2017 at 6:07pm

lets make wave pools, either side of a busy train track.....

udo's picture
udo's picture
udo Monday, 18 Sep 2017 at 5:50pm

Sure is .

Craig's picture
Craig's picture
Craig Monday, 18 Sep 2017 at 6:00pm

Looks that fun!!

indo-dreaming's picture
indo-dreaming's picture
indo-dreaming Monday, 18 Sep 2017 at 6:21pm

Looks weird from that angle.

Wave looks super fun, but it does look like its right next to a train track from that angle.

Coaster's picture
Coaster's picture
Coaster Monday, 18 Sep 2017 at 8:53pm

It's always been close to the fence. The other videos were intentionally angled to keep as much of the infrastructure out of the picture as possible. Greg's pool will be similar: a barrier on one side and a footpath on the other, which is what you should expect on a theme park ride. And a barking attendant yelling at the guys who wipes out to hurry up and move to the side instead of lolling around in the water and pulling faces while their mates carry on from the footpath, accidentally banging their boards against the other saps waiting in the queue. Great fun.

indo-dreaming's picture
indo-dreaming's picture
indo-dreaming Monday, 18 Sep 2017 at 8:59pm

Ok, the footage looks like it was from this http://beachgrit.com/2017/09/live-wsl-mini-comp-at-surf-ranch/

indo-dreaming's picture
indo-dreaming's picture
indo-dreaming Monday, 18 Sep 2017 at 9:04pm