Blair Conklin skims into the unknown at Allwaves’ new pool in Belgium. Photo: Blair Conklin // YouTube
Belgium has a brand new experimental wave pool. The facility is manufactured by AllWaves, a relative newcomer in the field, whose unique hook is their emphasis on safety. Thanks to skimboarder Blair Conklin, we now have a glimpse of the facility in action.
“AllWaves is a start-up company in wave-pool technology, dedicated to creating the safest wave pools with a natural look and feel,” announced the company in a press release earlier this month. “(Our) proprietary pillow technology mimics the movement of ocean waves and can be adjusted to create waves for surfers of every ability.”
That “pillow technology” is a durable underwater fabric that hydraulics move up and down on the floor of the pool in order to produce waves. AllWaves describes it as “a soft structure without grids, nets, ropes, or other components – the membrane can be best compared to a bouncy castle but filled with water.” The design is quite the opposite of the more traditional concrete-lined basins of most currently active wave pools.
At the top of his latest video, Blair Conklin seemed determined to test those safety claims out the hard way. “The goal, at the end of the day, is to at least have a couple run-ins [with the pool wall],” said Blair to camera. The stop at AllWaves is part of Blair’s recent European tour, which started with a canal-skimming session with fellow skimboard influencer Adrien Raza. With that, they fired up the pool and gleefully sprinted into some rolling, waist-high sets.
So, what was the verdict?
“Pretty cool for an experimental wave pool. This is the test pool – new technology. Everything is new to the wave pool world,” said Conklin afterwards. “It’s probably the most efficient way to generate waves in the wave pool world, right now.”
