Olympic surfing team prepare for Tokyo at brand new Melbourne wave pool
Welcome inside the secret training session of Australian Olympic surfing team members Sally Fitzgibbons and Julian Wilson designed to simulate the likely conditions they'll face in Tokyo.
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Olympic gold medals aren't won on the sand.
They're won eight months before the 2020 Tokyo games – at Australia's first-ever world-class wave pool.
Welcome inside the secret training session of Australian Olympic surfing team members Sally Fitzgibbons and Julian Wilson.
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Urbnsurf in Melbourne is yet to open to the public, but Fitzgibbons and Wilson – along with comeback queen and two-time world champion Tyler Wright – were ushered inside to test the wavepool and simulate the likely conditions they'll face in Tokyo.
The $30 million facility, which is about the size of the SCG and took three years to build, can spit out 18 different waves at the push of a button.
And it's here, last Thursday, that as part of a Surfing Australia's High Performance Program Initiative for Team Australia, Fitzgibbons and Wilson went to work.
In Tokyo, surfing's Olympic debut will be held at the Tsurigasaki beach break in Chiba (about an hour from Tokyo) where the wave conditions are often small.
So instead of scoring points by riding double-storey waves and long-barrels, Team Australia believes gold medals will be going to those surfers who can deliver the greatest array of aerial skill and manoeuvres in the small conditions.
It's why Urbnsurf – just seven minutes from Tullamarine airport – will become a vital training base for Team Australia in the countdown to the games in July next year and a headstart on their rivals, according to Surfing Australia National High Performance director Kim Crane.
"From our perspective, wave pool technology is a game changer for the sport of surfing,'' Crane told The Daily Telegraph.
"We’re seeing many exciting developments across the world and as a result our National High Performance Program has to be able to respond and consider ways of using the options available.
"As a daily performance environment, Urban Surf being here in Australia is a thrilling option.
"For ‘Team Australia’ to get uplift from this facility in the short term, we’ll be looking for partners to work with to ensure we maximise the rapid performance impact it offers our athletes individual campaigns on the World Championship Tour, World Qualifying Series, Pro Junior Series, World Surfing Games and Olympic Games, all which are our benchmark competitions in a wide variety of international locations.''
Urbnsurf will open in January next year, with wave sizes appropriate for all levels.
Originally published as Olympic surfing team prepare for Tokyo at brand new Melbourne wave pool