Watch: Supernatural Surfing From Italo, Adriano, The Pupos, And Cruz Dinofa In A Pool Twice The Size Of Waco - Stab Mag
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Watch: Supernatural Surfing From Italo, Adriano, The Pupos, And Cruz Dinofa In A Pool Twice The Size Of Waco

Break your brain in 10 minutes or less at the new PerfectSwell® machine in Brazil.

cinema // Jan 10, 2023
Words by Holden Trnka
Reading Time: 3 minutes

Since September, we’ve been slow-fed bits and pieces of the newest PerfectSwell® pool in Sao Paulo, Brazil — yeah, the one with a double air section. But we’ve been waiting on a full clip.

Fortunately, we must wait no longer.

PerfectSwell® just sent us a full-fledged 10-minute montage, which features a Brazilian Storm battalion thoroughly enjoying their nation’s new pool — located at the newly developed Boa Vista Village. 

Italo Ferreira, Samuel Pupo, Miguel Pupo, Adriano De Souza — along with honorary Brazilian Storm members Rob Kelly, and Cruz Dinofa — hop, skip, and jump along what the elder Pupo called “the best wavepool in the world.”

At one point, someone asks Italo if he can do an alley-oop. He responds with an interplanetary oop-reverse one-two. Everyone is surfing well in clip, but Italo is literally on video-game mode as he button mashes his way to some of the most absurd combos and aerial variations we’ve seen in a wavepool.

“The performance wave and the double air section are the best I’ve surfed in a pool by far,” said Ferreira. Sorry Uncle Slatz!

Conveniently placed logo, eh?

Between World Champion approval and this treasure trove of footage, the caliber of this wavepool is pretty clear.

Miquel Lazaro has been the lead engineer of American Wave Machines (AWM) — the company that invented and develops PerfectSwell® technology — for roughly 9 years, and is understandably excited about the doors this achievement has opened for the wave-pool world.

“This pool is twice the size of Waco, which we thought was huge — but the clients always want something bigger than the last one, so we’re definitely gonna find out what the limit is eventually,” he says. “Since Japan, we’ve been really interested in exploring how to experience every surfing feeling in the book. Barrels, airs, and turns on the same wave, ideally. Our pools have so much variety now, that it just depends on what you want your day to look like.”

The easiest vision of Italo’s life.

As he possesses the ability to play god, I curiously asked Miquel what his ideal wave look like.

“One of my dream waves would be: takeoff, stall into the barrel, do one turn, then hit a small, realistic air section, make the air and then bottom turn last second under the lip into a crazy wedge barrel.”

Fair enough. Let’s hope he makes it happen.

One can’t help but wonder what the future holds for wavepool contests, especially air comps. While many have mused on the potential creation of “wavepool specialists” and usage of wavepools in the Olympics, it’s a slow-road until much of that is realized. This pool however, is the clearest step towards those possibilities that we’ve seen in a long time.

On this front, AWM’s Willy McFarland added, “Wavepools are beginning to closely mimic other sports, and more disciplines will open up within them, just like skateboarding or snowboarding. I think it’s creating more options for people — more surfing for everyone, basically.”

It’s also creating more clips of Italo being so distinctly Italo.

Very few 13-year-olds can hold their own amidst CT talent. Cruz Dinofa is one of them.

If the airs in the clip above feel too unapproachable for your taste and/or skill level, be sure to stick around for the tube clips at the end.

When can we, the laypeople, go surf it anyway?

If you happen to have purchased one of the apartments at Boa Vista Vilage, you’ll be butt-dragging through extendo-cones this month.

As for the rest of us peasants, we’ll need to wait until they finish building the hotel on the property. “When it rains in Brazil, it rains, and there’s been some weather delay,” Miquel told me. “The hotel is still being built, but once it’s done you’ll be able to stay there for access to the pool.”

We’ll keep you posted on that.

A rare Adriano De Souza sighting!

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