Photo by Max Physick/World Surf League
This weekend’s Surf Abu Dhabi Pro will be the Championship Tour’s first wave pool event outside of Lemoore, California. Considering the WSL has been on a years-long mission to bring the sport to a larger global audience, this is clearly a big moment for the league.
Admittedly, wave pool events aren’t all that exciting for a lot of fans. But anybody who’s had a chance to ride a wave at the Surf Ranch can vouch there’s a lot of anxiety that comes with each wave there. That might not seem like a big deal when talking about the average Joe surfer but people might be surprised to learn that the same anxiety extends to the athletes.
Why is that?
I spent a day at the Surf Ranch Pro in 2021, roaming around the facility picking athletes’ brains about this. Filipe Toledo offered a response that was so simple that it should have been obvious all along: it’s the only place in the world where you know the very next wave coming to you is a perfect 10, so the pressure is on you. And that doesn’t happen in the ocean.
The entire CT roster will have had three days of practice at Surf Abu Dhabi before this year’s event, so they’ll all be plenty familiar with the new pool. It’s a fair bet that their nerves will still be through the roof, though.
Here’s a compilation of practice waves leading up to day one.
