The power of wavepools, in motion.
WORDS BY PEDRO RAMOS
Does PerfectSwell sound familiar? It should. We’ll be utilizing their tech at Stab High Japan, presented by Monster Energy on June 22-23, 2024 (JST). Learn everything you need to know about the event here.
Since 2015, it has been impossible to celebrate a great feat in surfing for longer than 24 hours without some wave pool architect stealing your thunder. While we hope Xavier Huxtable has savored yesterday’s beng-bengs, it is now time to return to our inboxes and their occasionally show-stopping correspondence.
Today’s treat arrived in the form of a synthwave-scored short by Bruno Zanin featuring Tomas Hermes, Rob Kelly, Alejo Muniz, and Miguel Pupo peacefully trading man-made waves at the Boa Vista Village Surf Club, not too far from São Paulo’s 12 million residents.
The Double Vision: Rob Kelly syncs with Miguel Pupo.
This month will mark the first anniversary of Boa Vista Village’s grand opening party. That means for the past 12 months, while we’ve been trying to find a park to surf one-foot windswell, Brazil’s 1%ers have been consistently utilizing their private surfing facility. Their feedback has been invaluable to the American Wave Machines team, who have implemented changes directly in line with the members’ thoughts and additional feedback from pros.
Miguel Pupo and Alejo Muniz test The Stoke Stack. Photo: Carlos Carpinelli
Some of the upgrades introduced by AWM’s lead engineer Miquel Lazaro Cordero and his team can already be seen in the newly released clip. New barrel variations include J-Pass, The Keg, and the Double Vision (two kegs breaking simultaneously). There’s also a new Lowers-styled wall ending with a barrel section called The Peel Keg, as well as The Stoke Stack, a favorite among residents and pros.
The latter is a brand new wave that combines their Lowers wave with a little more open face to work with, allowing for a wider variety of approaches such as carving maneuvers, blow-tails, laybacks, and whatever else you can throw at it.
The broader canvas allows surfers more time to recover and spring back onto the face after maneuvers, offering a more user-friendly wave for non-pros as well as a wider variety of possibilities for elite surfers.
Regardless of the type of paganism that has created conditions like these at the push of a button, it begs the question: How many hours would you need in the ocean to match the quantity and quality of waves found in this pool?
Crucially, this PerfectSwell tech is the same one we’ll see on display at Stab High Japan, presented by Monster Energy. Learn everything you need to know about the event — including what section our surfers will be hitting — here.
