Photo: Max Holloway // YouTube
He’s best known for his exploits inside the octagon, but Max Holloway has a deep relationship with surfing. The former UFC featherweight champion was born in Honolulu and raised in Waiʻanae, which automatically brings with it a certain familiarity with surf culture. To add to that, he’s married to pro surfer Alessa Quizon. The man himself is no slouch on a board, either.
Which means that he was uniquely equipped to take on Shizunami Surf Stadium, during a recent jaunt to Japan. The Tokyo-based facility houses a a PerfectSwell-designed wave pool and first opened in 2021, providing a training venue for the belated 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Since then, the pool has become a fixture of the local surf scene, due to its ability to fire off endlessly repeatable barrels and air sections.
In between sampling matcha in Osaka (where Holloway says he someday hopes to retire to) and roasting his brother-in-law John Quizon, Holloway put Shizunami through its paces. One imagines it was a welcome change of pace from getting punched in the face for money.
