You may have seen the footage of Kelly Slater’s Ranch wave pool recently, especially if you follow surfing as well as windsurfing. While man made surf installations aren’t new (Wave Garden and others have been around for ages) Kelly Slater’s version is possibly the dreamiest, most picture postcard version to date.

Love it or hate you can’t deny the images and videos of the recent WSL pro test event look amazing. And really, what’s not to like? Perfect fun peeling hollow surf on tap. Left and rights sliding through all day long. Fun at the flick of a switch. Some may suggest this isn’t surfing at its purest; doing battle with Mother Nature’s natural offerings is the only way to achieve that. But for those juice starved riders or rippers looking for a consistent training ground the benefits can’t be ignored.

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