Surf's Up

Something interesting is happening to surfing. For most of its history, surfing has had one obvious requirement: you need an ocean. More specifically, you need the right ocean, the right beach, the right conditions, enough confidence to paddle into a lineup and enough patience to figure it out. That is a surprisingly high barrier to entry, and most people never get past it.

The ocean is terrible at repetition. The waves change. The wind changes. The tide changes. You can paddle out one day and catch five waves, then return the next morning and barely catch one.

Then there are the surfers. Anyone who has seen Point Break understands localism. I had a genuinely unpleasant encounter with locals in Hawaii that was right out of the movie. So who's going to venture into an unfamiliar lineup and just figure it out?

Most people watch surfing from the beach, take a lesson once on vacation, and that's the end of it. I think that's about to change.

Man-made surf parks are appearing around the world, and these are not the wave pools we grew up with at water parks. They are purpose-built systems capable of producing real surf waves, consistently, with different sizes and difficulty levels for different abilities.

In Palm Desert, California, DSRT Surf has a 5.5 acre lagoon capable of producing up to 1,000 waves an hour and dozens of different wave profiles. In southern Utah, Zion Shores is building three different surf pools near St. George. China recently opened Riyue Bay Surf Resort in Hainan with engineered waves ranging from beginner settings to waves designed for elite surfers. And more are coming.

At first, I assumed these places were for surfers. If you already surfed and wanted something better and more consistent, this was the equivalent of helicopter skiing. Take something you love and upgrade it.

Then I went to Kelly Slater's Surf Ranch in Lemoore, California. I've surfed for years, including a lot of kayak surfing, but I haven't been doing nearly as much lately. Surf Ranch has an intimidating reputation. This is the wave Kelly Slater spent years engineering, one of the most famous man made waves on the planet. I was genuinely nervous. I wondered if I was good enough to enjoy it.

I had the whole idea backward. What surprised me most wasn't how good a controlled wave is for great surfers. It was how much a controlled environment changes the experience for everyone else.

Imagine learning to ski if the beginner slope changed shape every time you came down. That's essentially how we teach surfing. The ocean changes constantly, so the lesson changes constantly. A wave park removes that uncertainty. The wave comes from the same place. It breaks predictably. The instructor knows what's coming. The student knows what's coming.

Most importantly, you can do it again. That repetition changes everything. A beginner doesn't need a worse wave. They need the right wave.

I recently booked Kelly Slater's Surf Ranch for twenty members of my Executive Circle. Twelve of them don't surf. They're going there to learn in one of the most extraordinary surfing environments in the world. Instead of fighting the ocean while trying to figure out the basics, they get to concentrate on actually learning to surf.

That's what Topgolf figured out with golf. Millions of people who would never book a tee time, buy clubs or spend five hours on a course will happily pick up a club and start hitting balls because someone removed the friction and put the fun directly in front of them. Surf parks have the potential to do the same thing for one of the greatest sports in the world. And they're becoming more than pools.

Kelly Slater's Surf Ranch is one of the most beautifully operated experiences I've ever visited. The accommodations, food, equipment, instructors and service were exceptional. I made the not entirely joking comment that whoever runs their hospitality operation should teach a class. I've stayed at Four Seasons properties that didn't deliver that level of service. Newer developments are following the same model, building restaurants, accommodations, pools and other activities around the surf, because they understand the wave is only part of what they're selling.

Surfing has always been extraordinary. It has also been unusually difficult to access. Geography, conditions, confidence and inconsistency have kept millions of people on the beach watching someone else do it.

Wave parks are changing that. If one opens near you and your first thought is 'I don't surf', that's exactly the point. Surf's up. You finally have somewhere to learn.