Novel event rides wave of intrigue

The World Surf League is about to hold its first officially sanctioned event on mechanical made waves in a big pool.

Steph Gilmore gets a good read on this barrel at Lemoore.

The World Surf League is about to hold its first officially sanctioned, professional level, ridgy-didge, top-tier, championship-worthy event at the Kelly Slater Surf Ranch in the California boondocks. There’s been test events, ­exhibition events, social events and private events in the big bathtub at Lemoore but this is the real deal — a legitimate contest that counts towards the world championships for men and women. It’s a fascinating and historic development for boardriding.

Waves will be supplied by the sort of mechanical device that ­George Orwell may have characterised in Nineteen Eighty-Four if he were more of a waxhead.

Mother Nature is replaced by a giant jumbotron. You cannot faithfully report what it’s like until you’ve caught the Slater-designed, man-made waves yourself, and we’ll get the chance next week, but for now the intrigue and anticipation is immense. No sunrises over a liquid horizon? No dolphins? No sets and lulls? No ocean? I’m yet to read a bad review about the wave, but the proof will be in the pudding. Flights are booked.

What a mystery it is. Perhaps the reports will resemble the following passage from Orwell. “Winston roused himself and sat up straighter,” he wrote. “He let out a belch. The gin was rising from his stomach. His eyes refocused on the page. He discovered that while he sat helplessly musing he had also been writing, as though by automatic action. And it was no longer the same cramped, awkward handwriting as before. His pen had slid voluptuously over the smooth paper, printing in large neat capitals — DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER. DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER. DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER. DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER.”

Or perhaps we’ll marvel at the technological advancements as a welcome complement to what surfing already has. The site at ­Lemoore is a 2000-feet (600m) long, 500ft (150m) wide man-made lake formerly used for water skiing. It cost $US30 million ($41.35m) to design, develop and build. It has right-handers and left-handers. High-performance sections. Barrels that Stephanie Gilmore, who leads the women’s world rankings, has previously ducked into like she’s curling up and preparing to read a good book. It’s a bit of a miracle. Waves on tap. Up With Big Brother, perhaps. The Surf Ranch Pro begins on Friday, about 240 kilometres from the California coast.

“The first time I came to this property, it was just dirt,” Slater says. “I saw how big it was and how overwhelming this project was. It was terrifying. I was a hundred per cent confident the wave would be good and that it would work as we designed it but it was my first time working on a project that was so big and so unknown.

“I wanted the wave to visually stand out from anything anyone had seen. I’ve foreseen doing an event here for a long time. Two nights before the first test event, I couldn’t sleep. I was excited and nervous. wondering how it was going to go. There weren’t any glitches. It works. I came away thinking it was the happiest I’ve ever seen every surfer at a whole event. there’s so much to debate about what it is and where it goes, but I’ll stand by that it’s just a supplement to what surfing already is. From here, I’m already about five versions ahead in my mind. It’s a freak of technology. I think it’s a big thing for surfing, if done the right way.”

Australia’s Bronte Macaulay has moved through to the ­quarter-finals at Spain’s Pantin Classic ­Galicia Pro 2018 in Valdovino.

Macaulay took the final win of the day, posting two solid scores, in a field where most struggled to find one, with a 12.73 and 7.5 on her best wave. The West Australian was cautious in choosing her waves in the two-metre high surf, but the full high-tide pulsed a number of fun lefts for her to display her forehand attack.

“There were definitely some good quality rides out there,” she said. “We have two major events left, here and in Australia, so it’s pretty ­crucial for me to get two good results.”

Fellow Aussie Ty Watson also posted back-to-back solid scores in the men’s league to win his round-four contest against Italian Leonardo Fioravanti.

Additional reporting: AAP