About 15 months ago, Kelly Slater, the greatest competitive surfer of all time, <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/sport/2023/11/08/kelly-slater-test-runs-surf-abu-dhabi-ahead-of-2024-opening/" target="_blank">came to Abu Dhabi</a> to try out the the longest, open-barrel, high-performance, human-made wave on the planet. He was joined by five incredible surfers: Gabriel Medina, Filipe Toledo, Stephanie Gilmore, Caroline Marks, and Ramzi Boukhiam, who all got to spend some time on <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/lifestyle/things-to-do/2024/08/12/surf-abu-dhabi-opening-date/" target="_blank">Hudayriyat Island</a>, where the world’s biggest wave pool had been built with the vision to put Abu Dhabi on the global surfing map. The footage that came out from Slater’s visit looked too good to be true. This wasn’t your average pool and the wave he and the rest of the crew surfed was no ordinary wave. The wave pool at <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/lifestyle/things-to-do/2024/09/16/surf-abu-dhabi-review-beginners/" target="_blank">Surf Abu Dhabi</a> covers an area of 75,000 square metres and is 3-metres deep. It is powered by Kelly Slater Wave Co technology, which produces what many of the world’s best surfers have described as “the perfect wave”. It is a saltwater pool with a basin that can accommodate up to 30 surfers and it pumps out different waves that can be suitable for all skill levels, from beginners to high-performance. With very limited natural surfable waves hitting the UAE coastline throughout the year, the surfing community in the country has been understandably small. Which begs the question: why was the wave pool at Surf Abu Dhabi constructed? When Modon, the developers behind the project, went forward with their plans for Surf Abu Dhabi, it was in the spirit of ‘build it and they will come’. And they indeed have come! This weekend, the World Surf League’s (WSL) Championship Tour (CT) will stage its first event in the Middle East, bringing to Abu Dhabi 54 of the best men and women surfers on the planet. The Surf Abu Dhabi Pro is the second stop on the CT’s 2025 calendar and is part of a multi-year deal the WSL has signed with Abu Dhabi. Toledo, a Brazilian two-time world champion, Marks, the reigning Olympic gold medallist and 2023 world champion, and Boukhiam, who is the first Moroccan and Arab surfer to qualify for the WSL’s CT are all back in town, but this time it’s for some serious competitive action, with valuable ranking points and prize money on the line. “This changes the way we see surfing,” Toledo told <i>The National</i> on the eve of the competition. “It changes our sport, coming to a place that we never thought we were going to be here, surfing a perfect wave in the middle of the desert, you know, it's pretty special. “I'm happy to be a part of all these changes. It's something that's going to stay in the history of surfing forever, so I'm really happy to be part of it.” When word got out about Abu Dhabi’s new wave pool and that it will be hosting a WSL CT stop, several pro surfers decided to come check it out for themselves a few months in advance. Kanoa Igarashi, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics silver medallist, paid a visit to the facility last October and finds the wave pool, with the Abu Dhabi skyline as its backdrop, a fascinating experience. “Just being near the city, being near one of the biggest hubs in the world, it has a special energy,” said the Japanese world No 8. “This is the future of surfing. This is the future of growing a sport.” Competitive surfing has historically been limited to specific locations, like Pipeline in Hawaii’s North Shore, or Bells Beach in Australia. The 2025 season kicked off at Pipe, where Tyler Wright and Barron Mamiya were crowned champions last week. The surfers then quickly hopped on planes for 24-hour flights to come help inaugurate the Surf Abu Dhabi Pro. “I think it's interesting coming from Hawaii, sort of the birthplace of global surfing and it's got so much history, to something on the other scale, which is a brand new market, we’ve never had a World Championship Tour event here. So it's really from one extreme to the other, but that's exciting,” said Andrew Stark, the WSL’s president of Asia-Pacific. “That's part of the evolution of the sport and the evolution of World Surf League, entering new markets, and really diversifying the regional locations of different events. There’s something about this place that is special, and we're very happy to be here.” Most of the surfers arrived several days ahead of the start of the competition to acclimatise to the time zone and get in some practice waves. There’s a lot they have to adjust to, well beyond jet-lag. Competing in a wave pool is quite different to what these surfers are used to. In the ocean, surfers are split across heats, where a competitor can catch as many waves as possible, typically within a 30-minute window. The elements, of course, play a huge part, and the surfers have to stay alert to spot their best opportunity to catch a wave, all while fighting their heat rivals for prime position. If they wipe out, they can just paddle back into position and catch another wave, provided there is still time in the heat. Their score at the end of the heat is made up of their two highest-scoring waves. A four-day competition is given a 10-day window to be completed, with action called off for the day if conditions are not suitable for surfing. In a wave pool, the elements are no longer a factor. Every surfer is given the exact same wave, which levels the playing field. The competition can be easily scheduled, since you don’t have to wait to check the forecast, and fans know in advance exactly when they’ll be able to catch their favourite surfer across the three-day event. Most of the surfers say the biggest challenge competing in the pool is the extra pressure they feel because they only get four waves – two rights and two lefts – in their heat. One mistake can prove very costly and the format is unforgiving. “Nothing really beats Mother Nature. But I do think it's amazing to have one, one or two wave pool events,” said Marks, who was runner-up the last time the WSL held a CT event in a wave pool, at Surf Ranch, in Lemoore, California two years ago. “I think it's a great test for the mind, as far as you only get a couple chances at it. There's not as much stress as far as like, is the wave gonna come? Obviously, everyone has the same opportunity, but it's really stressful because it's actually really hard to link together a wave from start to finish. And so it's really nerve wracking. “It's also cool to have like a structured event. Obviously, surfing, we rely on Mother Nature. And as you saw last week in Pipe, we waited like 10 lay days where this one, you know, you go and you it's kind of like a normal sport, how it's structured. You go, you practice, you compete, and you leave.” The CT held events at Lemoore – which is also powered by Kelly Slater Wave Company technology – in 2018, 2019, 2021, and 2023. Boukhiam, who made his CT debut last year, has never competed in a wave pool like this before and the Moroccan admits the drama of the countdown to the start of the wave and the slim margin for error makes it quite stressful. He recalls the first time he tried the wave at Surf Abu Dhabi with Slater and the group in the autumn of 2023 was a tricky experience. “I think I fell the first two waves. It was pretty stressful. It's still stressful, to be honest,” the two-time Olympian said. “I think the most stressful part for me is to miss the wave. I always look at the countdown and I'm like, ‘OK, you think I'm gonna miss this?’ But then once you go, once you get your first turn in, the nerves go away, and you can actually perform.” World No 2 Leonardo Fioravanti is coming off a runner-up showing at Pipe last week and the Italian is bracing himself for a challenging weekend. “The wave pool is amazing, but it's very physical. It's one-minute waves. You're doing eight, nine turns, whatever it is. So it's something that your body has to handle,” he explained. The surfing purists are still on the fence when it comes to wave pool competitions and there are fans who are against the league’s move to incorporate events with man-made waves. But most of the surfers appear to be on board, including Toledo, who believes a CT stop in Abu Dhabi can help breed talent in the region. “I do understand the people that don't agree with the wave pool surfing. But our sport changes, it evolves and we've got to follow it. And this is for the next generation,” said Toledo. “This is for the next surfers. One day with this facility, with this support that we have here, we might have someone from Abu Dhabi win a world championship. So it's pretty cool. It brings variety for a sport. More eyes, more attention, more sponsors. So, yeah, it's a win-win.” A unique part of a wave pool competition is that unlike ocean events, where fans are watching from afar on the shore, surfing aficionados can follow their favourite athletes right from the edge of the pool, bringing them closer to the action than ever before. “It feels more like a normal sport [this way]. I'm assuming this is how a tennis player feels like or something. It's kind of cool,” noted Marks. Boukhiam is expecting to see several Moroccan flags from the sidelines and is excited to be competing on Arab shores. “I think it's a great start for the UAE, the Middle East, and why not some young Emirati champion soon?” he added. Growing the sport within the UAE is a big goal for Surf Abu Dhabi, whose general manager, Ryan Watkins, is keen on building a team to represent the country at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics. They have hired elite-level coaches and are capitalising on every opportunity to develop local talent. “We hosted yesterday Rising Tides, which was a number of young girls, Emiratis and expats, that all got to surf with some of the ex-world champion surfers, all for a great cause, conservation of the oceans and so on, which is beautiful,” said Watkins. In an effort to bring the surfing culture to the UAE community, a full slate of entertainment will accompany the action in the pool this weekend in Abu Dhabi. “We've got a number of bands and DJs that are going to be performing over the weekend,” revealed Watkins. “We've got a half pipe for kids to come and skate and have some fun. We've got amazing food trucks. There's retail to buy official WSL merch and Surf Abu Dhabi merch. It's all available here. So there's a whole lot of cool stuff for the whole family to do.” The inclusion of surfing in the Olympics since Tokyo 2020 has dramatically shifted public perception towards it. Igarashi, whose silver medal at his home Games helped popularise surfing in Japan, believes people are finally seeing it as a serious sport. “It's cool to see the shift in people's minds towards surfing, and I'm just really excited to be a part of that,” he says. “The thing about surfing is not just the feeling you get on the wave, although what you feel on the wave is amazing. You feel a sense of freedom. You have this wave and you can create your own line. There's no right or wrong way to do it. You're dancing, you're playing with Mother Nature. “It's a wave that was created, and whether it's in the pool or in the ocean, you're riding kind of a force of water that's really unique. It's just a unique feeling of it, but it's also a culture thing. You do it with your friends. You enjoy it. You're in the water. It's healthy. It's cool. It's a young sport. It's much more than just a sport. So I think putting that all together, I think surfing has a really bright future.”
