Watch: Kelly Slater’s Wavepool Now Spits

About a week ago, Kelly Slater released his first footage from the 2018 wavepool season, and boy did it suck. The wave, which you’ll remember as recently as last November was the pinnacle of perfection, underwent four months of cosmetic surgery and now appeared fat and crumbly, to the point that no real maneuvers nor tube rides could be performed.

I was quick to criticize this wave, but made a point of mentioning how its lack of quality could be related to the onshore wind and a lowered setting on the pool (which Kelly later verified in our DMs). Still, the true (new) shape of the wave remained a mystery. 

Would there be a massive air section, or perhaps even three-wave sets — as rumored during Stab’s visit to the facility? It was impossible to tell!

Then Kelly invited a few cross-sport legends to the pool — football’s Drew Brees and golf’s Adam Scott + Rafael Cabrera-Bello — but their mediocre surfing and overly-spliced clips left me equally confused.

In fact, the wave they surfed looked similar, nay, identical to what we experienced last November, so it was hard to tell what the pool’s engineers had actually been working so hard to achieve between the months of December and March. 

Finally today, thanks to a recently published clip of Griffin Colapinto, we know exactly what they were up to:

It spits!

Did you see, near the latter portion of the first barrel, when the wave eked out a tiny breath of air and water? Four months of hard work and dedication from the world’s second-greatest minds (the best go to NASA; second best, wavepools), including the draining, de-flooring, and re-cementing of the pool, resulted in this marvel of human engineering. 

The spit is, of course, the epitome of surfing stoke and so this improvement makes all the sense in the world. Why create a massive air section or three-wave sets when you can inorganically manufacture the greatest half-second experience in the world?

This was well worth the wait. Right?

In all seriousness, after seeing a complete wave ridden by Griffin Colapinto, I’m finding it difficult to explain what exactly changed between last November and now. The wave still has a few turn sections out the back, followed by a barrel, followed by a few turn sections, followed by a barrel.

There’s no air section, there’s certainly no multi-wave sets, so what exactly were they doing the last four months?

On the bright side, the Founder’s Cup is happening very soon and we’re happy to deliver any further findings from the wavepool’s (second) inaugural event. 

See you at the Tachi!