How Kelly’s Wave Works

You know how waves work, right? 

The process by which a wave is created and breaks is actually quite simple. Large areas of the ocean turn from blue to green to yellow to orange to red and even purple, and the energy created by spinning the color wheel produces a swell that expresses itself on your shoreline with the influence of factors such as bathymetry, wind, tide and the amount of stars your local forecasting agency decides to rate it.  

But, real talk — there are so many factors. Changes in atmospheric pressure create wind, the wind’s energy gets transferred to the water and all hell breaks loose from there. Shit gets complex and confusing. Probably easier to just simplify everything and handle it yourself, no? 

That was the sentiment of Kelly Slater and the team of world class scientists/nerds/mouth breathers who made this dream come to life/Lemoore. This video, created by our friends/the complete and utter strangers at

Science Magazine

breaks down just how they did it. You can read the full feature,