Kelly Slater’s Wave Gets Torn Apart by Nat Young, Kanoa Igarashi and Carissa Moore!
The invitees discuss Kelly’s perfection and how it’d fare as a stop on tour.
When you woke up this morning did you expect to feel overcome by the sixth deadliest sin? We condone it, hopeful that it’ll spark your next strike mission… which won’t be to this spot, but somewhere is calling. Last week, Stab reported a few lucky invitees would be the first to take to Fresno’s most chattered about and only wave (other than Kelly, obviously). Over the weekend the prophesy came true.
The participants were told no cameras allowed. “I couldn’t take any photos,” Riss tells Stab, “I got one with Kelly by the wavepool but I was just stoked to be invited, I wasn’t about to ruin my chances on coming back. I figured I’d play by the rules.” However Kelly and the crew had bigger plans in mind. “At first they didn’t know how they were going to release everything,” Kanoa tells Stab. “Then they thought, screw it, why keep it secret? The session happened on Saturday, they whipped up a couple clips and threw it out there. I took a couple pictures for sure,” he admits.
And so, this morning the Instagram feed was blasted with clips of Nat Young, Kanoa Igarashi, Carissa Moore, Robert “Wingnut” Weaver and of course, Mr Slater himself having a proper go in Fresno. “That was the longest barrel of my life,” said Nat Young. The stoke is apparent, you can see it glimmer through Kanoa’s melting cheeks.
Kelly’s handed out golden tickets and as the surf world drools over the best man made wave to hit the inland, Mr Igarashi, Miss Moore and Sir Young are of the first to be seen slicing and knifing the wave everyone can’t stop talking about.
There’s more to come! “This is #TheBestToyInTheWorld. @stephaniegilmore and @josh_kerr84 are here with me today and a couple other friends might make an entrance. Just starting to post some edits and show you guys what we’ve got in store for everybody,” The King posted to his Insta. “Stay tuned for more in the coming days. Thanks to everyone on my team for even making this possible. And keep in mind…this is version 1.0. I can only imagine where we are going with future versions. #SurfRanch”
Now let’s examine what some of the world’s best can do with Kelly’s new tech and how they feel about the potential for Slater’s Wave to be a future stop on tour:
Carissa Moore:
“It was an honour to be a part of that,” Riss tells us. “It felt very special, there were such good vibes. I keep reliving the memories of those three days over and over again. It was pretty awesome. This is just the beginning, it’s a good starting point. It’s so close to a real wave, it barrels, there’s room for turns and then it barrels again. However, it’s a bit difficult for high performance surfing. The wave is fast and steep, if they tweak it, it will be perfect for airs and stuff.”
“It would be really cool for it to become a stop on tour. Like I said, it needs to be tweaked a little because right now you can sit in the barrel for 30 seconds,” she quips as she lets out the most heartwarming laugh. “Which isn’t a bad thing. But, for competition you need something that you can rip a bit more. They’re working towards that, I think it will add a lot of flavour and value to the tour.”
Kanoa Igarashi:
“Oh my god, it was next level,” Kanoa tells us. “Honestly the whole thing didn’t sink in until the next day. Guys were getting barreled, I was getting barreled and the waves were as perfect as they come. I was in disbelief the whole time. My childhood dreams of getting perfect waves was happening in front of me, in a wavepool nonetheless. It was crazy! I’m still tripping on it.”
“I think the possibility of running a stop on tour here is pretty high,” says the youngest CT competitor. “The wave quality is there, so I don’t see why not… But, you’d have to make the wave a little worse. Guys can’t just be getting barreled the whole time. What baffles me is this is the first edition. They next one they make will be even crazier, which is scary to think. They could make so many tweaks to it, make it bigger, the first section hollower and the next section more rippable. Right now it’s hollow the whole time, so when you go for a turn you kind of air drop. Once they fix that and make a more user friendly section it will be insane.”
Nat Young:
“It was insane,” Nat tells Stab. “When the first wave came through I was in disbelief watching it peel perfectly for however long it went. The wave’s a perfect barrel, so I just tried to get as barreled as possible.”
“I don’t know what their plans are,” he says in regards to Fresno becoming a stop on tour. “I think they’ll have something there in the future. The wave is contestable, it’s probably the most perfect wave I’ve surfed really. Depending on what they’re looking for they could change a few things. If they wanted to make it better for airs and turns, they’d have to slow it down. It breaks really fast, it’d be comparable to surfing Greenmount. It’s tricky, your average surfer would have trouble out there. It takes some getting used to.”
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