We’re not there with wave pool yet, says the West Oz native. Photo: ISA
It turns out I’m not alone in thinking Olympic surfing shouldn’t take place in wave pools. In a recent op-ed, I disagreed with two world champions, Gabriel Medina and Filipe Toledo. They both clamored for an Olympic wave pool following the 2024 Olympics in Tahiti. Many on the internet were quite correctly asking who the hell I thought I was disagreeing with such distinguished surfers. But thankfully, Jack Robinson has rushed to my aid.
Robinson was quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald with a scathing review of wave pools, saying pools “are not great to watch,” “boring” and “repetitive,” and that they completely remove the skill of understanding the ocean from competition.
Here’s the full quote:
“Personally, if an [Olympic] host country has waves, then use them. America has waves in Hawaii and California. Some people might prefer a wave pool because it suits their surfing but to me, working out the ocean is a big part of competitive surfing. It’s such a skill and you take that away in a wave pool.”
“And from a spectator point of view, personally I don’t think wave pools are great to watch. Maybe one day they will be. But right now, I think it’s very repetitive to watch. Mostly the waves can only handle so much size and if a wave’s quite long it gets boring, it’s the same maneuvers and moves over and over again. I’m not writing off wave pools, I think one day they’ll have their place. But right now, for the Olympics, I don’t think so.”
Robinson was one of the surfers most affected by the unpredictable nature of the ocean at the Olympics. In the men’s final he was left stranded for the better part of the heat waiting for a good wave to get back in the running for gold. But the wave never came. So Robinson coming out against the wave pool idea is a strong counterpunch to the media push by Medina and Toledo.
Robinson and I align on another key point I got into during my opinion piece. It’s not that wave pools will never be the answer. With the pool technology that exists right now and the runway of Los Angeles in 2028 and Brisbane in 2032, there isn’t a need to drydock the Olympic surfing event on land. One day pool technology will get to that point. Or maybe in 2036 the Olympics will be held in a landlocked country. But coming off the back of the excitement and success of Teahupo’o, now’s not the time to switch up the winning formula of ocean surfing. Robinson endorses this logic.
