Surfing as we know it is transforming. In the next decade, public wave pools are likely to be more abundant, teams will have competed for their countries on the Olympic stage in both Tokyo and Paris, and that doesn’t even begin to examine how board design and wetsuit technology might evolve.
How the Olympics and wave pool tech might soon intersect continues to be hotly debated. Last we spoke to ISA President Fernando Aguerre, who’s been instrumental in surfing’s Olympic push, he was emphatic that surfing’s debut would occur in the ocean. Namely, he said, the International Olympic Committee expressed concerns about dependence on a technology that in their opinion has yet to be proven viable for a large-scale event – the success of Red Bull Unleashed at Surf Snowdonia notwithstanding. Beyond Tokyo, it remains to be seen if Olympic surfing will ultimately take place in a wave pool.
But another consideration is that existing wave pool tech may soon become the gold standard for Olympic surfing training centers – if countries want to ante up the cash, that is.
Imagine a future where a grom shows promise at his local, and quickly gets snatched up to train daily and to be homeschooled when not training at an official facility. It happens in other Olympic sports and in other countries (see also: China’s sports-centered boarding schools). So why not surf? Is it only a matter of time?
