Are These 3 New Chlorine Waves The Best Yet?

In July 2021, PerfectSwell’s surf pool in Makinohara flicked the switches on.

Using American Wave Machines’ Perfect Swell tech (the same we first saw in Waco, Texas), engineers are able to modify every aspect of the wave and its sequencing, leading to a theoretically infinite number of wave types.

During the Japan pool’s opening, John Florence, Evan Geiselman, Shun Murakami, Reo Inaba, and Masatoshi Ohno got first dibs. Evan Geiselman sums up the three new incredible wave types, which he helped develop, below. 

Wave 1 – The Drainer

“You can literally park it standing up and get barreled the entire wave. You can come out of the first section and set up the second section, or you can armbar it the entire wave. All you have to do is set your line and you’re going to make the wave 9 times out of 10. It’s incredible, it’s not like you’re in this tight little barrel, you’re in a legit barrel that you can weave through from start to finish. 10-seconds.”

Wave 2 – The Wedge Pop

“The wedge pop only takes up ⅓ of the pool. The best way to sum it up is as a game-changing air section. It’s a one pump, throw yourself, body, board as high as you can, and try to do the biggest air of your life. This section will take aerial surfing to the next level. When you hit it right you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, that was the best air of my life.’ You can go so high. Some of the bails were super uncomfortable. I would’ve been 8-feet in the air and getting reps doing that means going to the ocean airs feel kinda small now.” 

Wave 3 – The Highball

“In my mind, The Highball is the best wave ever made in a pool. You have such a big bowl on the first section that you can lay into with a wrap, blowtail, two jams, etc, and then you go over this little hump and it’s one or two pumps and another massive air section. You can go super high and do any air in the book. That first section is so bowly and fun, it has so much push, and then to go and have an air section at the end like that is every progressive surfers’ dream. It’s the ultimate performance wave in a pool that you can have.” 

Which one are you asking for?