The inaugural event of the Wave Pool Surf Tour will run in Switzerland. Photo: Vicente Romero//Wavegarden AlaiaBay
Wave pools are popping up all over the place these days, and starting on August 1, the very first event of The Wave Pool Surf Tour gets underway. It’s the Alaïa Surf Challenge at Alaïa Bay, Switzerland.
For a while there, there was even a pool on the World Tour, but that was dropped after a few years and the World Surf League sold its stake in the Surf Ranch. Adding the Surf Ranch to its event schedule was a divisive decision for the WSL, but the Wave Pool Surf Tour was, as the name implies, created specifically for wave pool surfing.
“While surfers have been competing in wave pools for decades, wave pool surfing has changed dramatically in recent years,” a press release said. “New facilities continue to open across Europe, Asia, Australia, the Middle East, and the Americas, creating new surfing hubs and bringing the sport to places once considered far beyond surfing’s traditional reach. The Wave Pool Surf Tour has been created to connect those communities through competition.”
Much like its futuristic locales, the way the tour will run is a little different from a traditional surf event. Including both live events and online competition formats, it borrows from traditional surfing events and online ones like the Mavericks Big Wave Awards, where competitors submitted videos with their best waves.
“Built by a team drawn from both the surfing and wave pool industries, the tour reflects the changing face of surfing and the opportunities created by a rapidly expanding global network of wave pools,” the press release continued. “It offers surfers a new way to participate, compete and measure themselves against others while remaining connected to their local wave pool communities.”
The way it works it relatively simple. Competitors can pick from eight competition divisions with four special categories. Entry fees start at $30 USD. Then they surf the chosen wave pool venue, download the footage of their waves from the official video provider, and upload the two best. A panel of international judges will watch the footage and choose who gets through.
The season will consist of online submissions, which will then be judged until the Wave Pool World Finals, where the leading surfers will come together for an in-person live event to crown the champions.
Mark Fessler, the founder of the Wave Pool Surf Tour, is gambling on the booming popularity of pools, and he’s got high hopes for the future.
“We’ve watched wave pools grow from isolated projects into a global network of venues and surfers,” he said. “Today, world-class facilities are operating across multiple continents, with more opening every year. We believe the time is right for a competition format built specifically for wave-pool surfing and the people who are helping drive its growth.”
