The swell at the new UrbnSurf is incredible – but is surfing about more than just catching waves?
But as I found this week, you don’t need to head to the city’s east coast to find the perfect wave – you can find them through a building in Olympic Park with whitewashed walls, where surfboards are strewn across a manicured lawn and surfers slice through impossibly turquoise water.
“What we’re creating is a bit more of a welcoming experience to surfing. It can be intimidating in the ocean,” the chief executive of UrbnSurf, Damon Tudor, tells me. When I was asked which board I’d like to rent, I asked for one that would give me the best chance of standing up. I was handed an 8 ft soft board that a UrbnSurf staffer referred to as “a boat”.
We all waited patiently in a line for the sets to roll in. Then it’s my turn. I was ushered by one of our two guides to the taking off spot – a line marked on the pool wall. The wave swells behind me, and the guide yells: “Paddle! Paddle! Paddle!” I don’t paddle fast enough and miss the wave.Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins/The Guardian
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