Kelly Slater Wave Company Launches First Surf Pool

Kelly Slater locked into a barrel… outside the ocean at the KS Wave Co prototype surf pool facility. Photo: Kelly Slater Wave Company

Kelly Slater Wave Company launches video of Kelly Slater surfing their new prototype surf park facility in California.

Kelly Slater dropped this on his Instagram this morning: “Now that the world title has been decided and events for the year have finished, I’m excited to show you what I’ve been sitting on for the past couple of weeks. For nearly ten years, my team and I have been working on creating the first truly world-class, high-performance, human-made waves.

Watch the video of Kelly Slater surfing his first waves at the Kelly Slater Wave Company prototype facility here:

“This is our little secret spot about 110 miles from the coast. This is probably like when I won my first title and it didn’t sink in for quite a long time. Having seen that, I’m 100% confident that our team built the best wave that anyone’s ever made. It’s a freak of technology. Realistically I’ve been waiting for this moment since 2005 It’s the best man made wave ever made, for sure, no doubt in my mind!” – Kelly Slater, 11X World Surfing Champion

This is something I dreamt about as a kid. Through rigorous science and technology, we’ve been able to design and build what some said was impossible, and many very understandably never thought would actually happen. I’m proud to say we took our time to get it right, and the first fully-working prototype of the wave now exists (a huge personal thank you to everyone in our lab and on our team for seeing this through!). 

Kelly Slater locking into a crisp cold water barrel…outside the ocean.

I’ll be sharing more details in the coming weeks and months but I can’t wait any longer to share a film of my experience surfing the wave for the first time, almost two weeks ago. It was an insane day. I’m still a little in disbelief, and trying to process how much fun this wave is, but it certainly feels like this is going to change a lot of perceptions about human-made waves. 

There’s a direct link in my bio to kswaveco.com to view the short film. Can’t wait to see other people surf it soon and show what is possible on this thing. #KSWaveCo #FreakOfTechnology#LooksLikeSuperbank but #NotCrowded!”

Production: Aether Films (aetherfilms.com)

Director: Andrew Mackenzie; Producers: Kyle Bullington & Davis DiLillo; Camera I: Gordon Yould ; Camera II: Seth Naugle; Aerial Cinematography: Davis DiLillo, Kyle Bullington, Andrew Mackenzie Water Cinematography: Daren Vinson Crawford; AC Camera I: Brooks Burgoon; AC Camera II: Jeff Ball, AC Camera III: Josh Hill Production Coordinator: Dana Kurth; DIT: Bruce Schultz; Editing: Gordon Yould & Andrew Mackenzie; Color: Seth Naugle; Music: DARKSIDE