Photo: Red Bull
Chilean extreme sports athlete Sebastian Álvarez just performed the world’s first skydiving to surfing transition. The stunt was performed at the soon-to-open world’s largest wave pool, Surf Abu Dhabi.
Álvarez’s jump began in a Bell 212 helicopter hovering 12,000 feet above the ground. He performed the stunt with his feet strapped into a modified surfboard, which allowed him to open his chute and glide himself onto a 7.5-foot man-made wave at the Surf Abu Dhabi wave pool.
Photo: Red Bull
Surf Abu Dhabi is an artificial wave pool designed in collaboration with Kelly Slater and the team at Kelly Slater Wave Company. Located in Hudayriat Island, the massive facility measures 700 meters long and 150 meters wide, making it the world’s largest wave pool. Press releases from the facility claim it produces the world’s longest ride, largest barrel, and highest man-made wave. The site will host the third stop on the 2024 Longboard Tour, and has been added to the schedule for the 2025 Championship Tour. Surf Abu Dhabi is scheduled to open to the public in October of this year.
“It’s incredibly special to perform this project here in Abu Dhabi. I consider this technology, the wave, as one of the most amazing things that humans have created,” said Sebastian Álvarez in a press release. “Achieving this today, it means the world to me. It has felt like entering into the unknown, doing something that nobody has ever attempted to do before. It really is a dream come true.”
