World surfing champion Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch has been making a splash throughout the industry for its ability to provide the perfect wave. Now, surfers on the World Surf League Championship Tour will hope the waves carry them to a title at the WSL Surf Ranch facility.
The World Surf League announced last week that Surf Ranch in Lemoore, Calif., will be a stop on the 2018 championship tour. The venue is a product of the Kelly Slater Wave Company, which Slater founded to create an innovative mechanical wave system. The company was acquired by WSL Holdings in May 2016.
“The experience of competing at Surf Ranch is pretty extraordinary,” Adrian Buchan, who competes on the Championship Tour, said in a statement. “What the team has created is hard to fathom at first—a perfect, 400-yard-long, bi-directional wave in the middle of rural California. I have no doubt that both the quality of the wave and the experience is befitting of hosting a world-class CT event.
“The ocean will always be our home, but as we grow, having the opportunity to showcase and share the stoke of surfing to new audiences and schedule with pinpoint accuracy the huge match-ups and drama of the WSL is really exciting.”
Slater’s system, which is in place at the Surf Ranch, uses a 70-ton hydrofoil to create waves that break in succession at specifically timed intervals, according to a New York Times story on the Surf Ranch. The waves take form, crest, and break across 700 yards on a man-made lake, The Times reported. The system works much like a FlowRider one would find at a water park or on a cruise ship, but with the force and speed of actual ocean-borne waves.
The waves are much longer than ocean waves and can be programmed to run at various frequencies, The Times reported.
The Surf Ranch system was tested by elite pro surfers and watched over by the WSL broadcast team, and WSL officials in September to determine if the venue could host a professional surfing event and maintain the integrity of the sport. The test was, obviously, successful.
“Based on the results of our test event this year and the feedback from surfers training at the facility throughout the season, next September’s event has the potential to be something special for both surfers and fans,” Sophie Goldschmidt, World Surf League’s CEO, said in a statement. “We’re only scratching the surface of how this technology can be applied and it is completely game-changing for the sport.”
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The Surf Ranch also provides a place for surfers to practice their sport in a controlled, predictable environment that facilitates learning and improvement. It also democratizes the sport, creating waves for surfers who don’t live near an ocean that is conducive to surfing, or any ocean at all.
“Surfing great waves in a controlled environment adds a new dimension, as there is no hassling for waves, no stress over who got the best wave — they are all good. Everyone can relax, have fun and focus on improving their surfing,” Slater told World Surf League in the announcement of its acquisition of his company.
Slater is already expanding his empire. The Seattle Times reported last month that a new Surf Ranch will be built in West Palm Beach, Florida, and is set to open in 2019 — perhaps just in time to serve as a stop on that year’s Championship Tour.