15 New Wavegarden Locations

I am not a massive fan of the idea of the wave pool, admittedly I have not had a go at surfing anything man-made so reserve the right to change my mind. The idea just does not sound conducive to the same stoke as the waves we surf that are provided by nature. I have written previously about how competitions at the elite level, held in such areas would spell the death of the sport as far as spectators are concerned.

There is though, a new kid on the block which, to me, seems to bring a lot more to the table and indeed the discussion.

'The Cove' is the latest offering from the Basque-based Wave Garden crew, and as far as we can tell, they seem to have created some kind of monster. Here are the stats:

• Capable of creating a wave every eight seconds or one thousand waves per hour. (you do the maths)

• Can be set up with lights for night surfing.

• Wave specifics can be adjusted in seconds. Surf Trestles on one wave, push some buttons, surf Cloudbreak the next wave.

• Can be scaled to any size (might put one in the back garden)

Now, this may seem impressive, and it sure looks like I need to have a go on one. I could see the uses personally, like when the ocean becomes too polluted, we could all just move into the wave pools. It's probably better to spend the money on these things than on cleaning up the plastic rubbish islands in the Pacific and Atlantic. Yep, that would solve the shark problem too and it would stop localism. Maybe it's not such a bad thing.

As it turns out, it does not matter what I think, the revolution will continue unchecked as there are wave pools of this very ilk already planned for these lucky locations : Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Barcelona, Madrid, Costa Del Sol, Edinburgh, Bristol, London, Tel Aviv, Marakesh, New York, Miami, Coachella Valley and Santiago. So the guys at The Wave Garden have been busy busy and it looks like the biggest waste of money and energy will commence soon and on a global level.

'Stop running wave pools down' I can virtually hear you screeching. ' It's great to get people in the water' or 'Imagine learning on that wave, it would be perfect, so easy!' Which brings me to my next observation, another reason for writing these words and maybe a counter argument to The Wave Garden's new monster.

I have recently had the experience of surfing with someone who learnt to surf in a wave pool, and had spent little or no time in the actual sea. He had reached a fairly competent level of surfing, I was shown some video footage and saw some pics of some cutbacks and immediately (as you do) allotted a certain level in your head. That was until we went surfing together in the sea.

I am not sure what I expected to happen, but what did happen filled me with a mixture of surprise and disbelief. It turns out that we need to think about all the separate parts of surfing to make up the sport of surfing. What happens in a wave pool is that you learn how to ride a wave. What you don't get to do (it now seems evident) is duck dive, have any knowledge of rips or currents in the water, water wildlife, how waves arrive in sets, how waves can be of varying sizes and how all waves don't do the same thing. These things all became obvious quite quickly once we paddled out. What became clear a bit later and after some conversation was another thing that I, again maybe take for granted and a huge part of surfing as I see it, how the weather affects the waves and how to forecast rideable waves.

Without going into details of the session, let's just say that I came away with the impression that the confidence that a wave pool may give you without the actual experience of time in the ocean, could be a very dangerous thing. If we really are going  to accept this technology into the surfing world, what should be encouraged maybe might be a bit of knowledge or training in the ocean too.

All being said though, I would still dearly relish a go in this new wave pool. Taxiii.