Three Days In Texas With 40-Ish Surfers And A Pool Resembling An Obstacle Course
Watch: The 2026 Swatch Nines surf recap edit.
The top of Waco Surf’s wave machine wall is approximately 3.5 meters (11.5 feet) above the still waterline.
A group of surfers has congregated on top of it, hovering around a box rail that slopes downward at about 45 degrees. The machine kicks on. Waves appear. The surfers start cavemanning onto the rail, trying to land on a wave and continue down the line.
After thirty minutes, and well over a hundred attempts, nobody has succeeded. Whether or not it’s possible starts to feel like a legitimate question.
The Nines — now backed by Swatch — is an 18-year-old idea that’s taken on many forms. It started in the snow, took a natural step into mountain biking, then leapt into surfing in 2024. Over the years, the organizers have spent tens of millions of dollars building courses, obstacles, and environments for riders (for lack of a better word) to enjoy. They have never paid a dollar in prize money.
“Our concept has always been to put all the money into the setup, experience, and media team rather than try to bait people with prize money,” says founder Nico Zacek. “We want the event to feel as pressure-free as possible. If they’re enjoying themselves, naturally, good things will happen.”
Most of the time, Nico reckons, even the most bizarre ideas end up working out. This is no coincidence. Each year, they host a creative workshop to plan the next event. They don’t tell the surfers what they’re going to do. The surfers tell them.
Suddenly, back in Waco, Matt Meola lands the first one. The floodgates don’t quite open, but a handful more surfers figure it out — Zeke and Mason even start reverting out of it.
Maybe wave pool boardslides don’t speak to what you love about surfing, and that’s OK. But there’s no denying that the energy at the Swatch Nines is rare in our little surf world. There’s a collective sense of surfers feeding off each other, and being genuinely excited when somebody else does something well. It’s refreshing, really.
Rails aside, this event also sent about a thousand air sections for the surfers to divvy up. The results? Noah Beschen stuck a frontside big spin, Milla Coco Brown went home with a bit ol’ full-ro, and Hughie Vaughan and Mikey Wright stuck two memorable airs about two minutes apart.
More highlights? Skai Suitt doing a proper boardslide. And seeing some of the skaters — namely Curren Caples, Alex Midler, and Heimana Reynolds — get as much surf time as they can, and surf better than they should be able to. Unsurprisingly, Shane Borland was voted the MVP of the event.
Finally, there were some cinematic sessions with flower arches and a large mirror dangling from the sky. It wasn’t the craziest thing to watch poolside, but they staff an overly qualified media team who will nail it every time, regardless of what it is.
Watch the full recap video here.
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