Italo Ferreira likes Lemoore, but thinks it needs an end section. Photo: Aaron Hughes//World Surf League
Trestles and Huntington Beach are the final venues in the running to host surfing at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, but Italo Ferreira is still lobbying to throw a wave pool into the mix.
Riding high off his pool victory at the inaugural Surf Abu Dhabi Pro, Ferreira told the Brazilian news site UOL that the 2028 Games should be held in a pool “without a doubt.”
“We shouldn’t rule out a wave pool in the Olympics,” said Ferreira. “It would be cool because I will have already prepared a lot.”
“In the pool you can see the athletes’ weaknesses,” he added. “You end up seeing their flaws. One guy is good at this, another guy is good at that. It’s much easier to compare (the surfers). You can count on your fingers the guys who really can perform going both directions.”
Ferreira noted that there is one ingredient missing from the perfect Olympic pool: a more exciting finish.
“Just add an air section at the end, then it would be complete,” he said, referring to the fact that the end of the Kelly Slater technology pools (used in Abu Dhabi) peters out into the channel after the final barrel section.
It’s no surprise that Italo is a wave pool proponent; he looked unstoppable in Abu Dhabi. Out of his 20 waves, he notched eight in the excellent range en route to his victory over Rio Waida.
The ISA says its Olympic venue announcement will happen in the first quarter of 2025, aka any day now. They say the pool is not an option, but if Italo keeps up the pressure, who knows?
