Are We About To See Someone Hit Three Rails On One Wave?

With its third edition swiftly approaching, it’s clear that the Swatch Nines surf has found its niche. 

Year 1 turned Waco into something resembling a surf carnival. We saw the best boardslides ever done in a sport where boardsliding isn’t really a thing, a superwoman from Tya Zebrowski, and many other delights and absurdities. 

Year 2 rolled back into Waco with the same meticulously absurd approach, this time with a crane to hover various objects for surfers, skaters, and BMXers to play with above the pool. Noah Beschen took rail surfing to the next level, then Hughie Vaughan shut it down. 

This year’s event will go down from October 8 – 10 back in Waco. We don’t know exactly what we’ll see, and that’s the point. However, we do have intel on what to expect. 

First up, the crane will be back with some new toys. At some point, it’ll be used to explore a ‘Pool as a Studio’ concept and will dangle oversized flowers and a massive mirror above the waves while flares and the like go off. This was the brainchild of Coco Ho and Zoe McDougal during Swatch’s annual creative workshop. “My favorite part is when you come up with a simple concept, and everyone adds to it,” said Coco of her experience there.

Another new one? A drop-in rail from the side of the pool, which came from the fascinating brain of Coco’s brother. The idea will be to grind down it, then continue to ride on a wave. This proves to be a theme. This year, the surfers are keen to try rail lines. It should be quite entertaining to watch them attempt to figure it out, unless you’ve spent decades glassing and/or sanding surfboards. 

We’re going to have our biggest skate park yet, and we’ve expanded the invitee list on both the skate and surf side,” says the event’s founder, Nico Zacek, who presents with the energy of someone who jumps out of bed at 4 AM to write an idea down in the Notes app. “Usually, we introduce three or four new things each year. But since we’re doing it Waco again, we still have everything from previous editions on-site, in case anyone feels like trying those again. When we get everything in place, we think it’ll be possible for people to hit three rails on one wave and hopefully do some turns in between.”

That would certainly be a first.

But if that ain’t your thing, like every other year, there’ll simply be a lot of time dedicated to straight-up air sections. All up, the event carves out 40 hours of pool time for 35 surfers. On top of all the new concepts, the Swatch Nines also makes a point of allowing surfers to just surf — providing space for a Hughie-esque moment from last year. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Stab Magazine (@stab)

All up, here’s who’s coming on the surf side: Zoe McDougall, Coco Ho, Milla Coco Brown, Skai Suitt, Laura Enever, Macy-Jane Callaghan, Zoee Bradshaw, Isla Hardy, Eden Edwards, Juliette Lacome, Honolua Blomfield, Mason Ho, Balaram Stack, Eithan Osborne, Noah Beschen, Matt Meola, Jacob Szekely ‘Zeke’, Blair Conklin, Chippa Wilson, Dylan Graves, Hughie Vaughan, Cam Richards (who is injured, but coming to watch), Mikey Wright, Parker Coffin, Leon Glatzer, Lucas Fink, Lucas ‘Chumbo’ Chianca, Zacky Taylor, Micky Clarke, Shane Boreland, Makana Franzmann, Arthur Vilar + Bruno.

So, how are you gonna see what goes down? Of course, we’ll be there, punting the best stuff on our channels. The Couch Surfing show will be streaming the event live on October 8 and 9. Saturday is the surf event’s first public day. If you’re around, roll into Waco to have some fun. And, as always, a full event recap vid will surface on your feed early next week.