From nose dives to fist pumps: an Esquire editor takes Urbnsurf

THERE ARE HUMBLING experiences, and then there is learning to surf as an adult. For the past two to three years, I have been trying to become someone who surfs, and while I’m not the most consistent student — if the weather is inclement and the conditions are rough, I’m staying on dry land — I have a crack. Especially when the sun is shining and the waves are small and peeling. On one such day recently, a friend and I joked that if the conditions were always this groomed, by now, we’d have learned how to dance up and down our boards like longboard queen Josie Prendergast. Of course, that’s the beauty of surfing — we don’t control the conditions, mother nature does. But the thought of practicing on a perfect wave that breaks the same way every time? To a rookie like me, that’s appealing. So when Urbnsurf opened its first wave pool in Sydney, I packed my board into the car and headed straight for Homebush, where the park is located.  

For decades, a very determined pocket of the surf community has been consumed by the quest to create the perfect artificial wave. The journey hasn’t exactly been smooth. From Japan’s trailblazing Ocean Dome, which caught the world’s attention when it opened in 1993, only to close in 2007 and be demolished in 2017 with billions of dollars of debt (it made the Guinness Book of Records for being the most costly bankruptcy in history), to the iconic Big Surf pool in Arizona, which closed in 2022 due to the Covid pandemic and aging technology, it’s been one trial and error after another. Not even Kelly Slater, aka the G.O.A.T of professional surfing, was spared criticism when he opened his Californian wave pool, Surf Ranch, in 2015.

Yet engineers have finally dialled the tech, and the patented Wavegarden Cove tech, which powers Urbnsurf, is one of the most advanced systems in the world. It’s powered by an ‘electro-mechanical system’, that moves a series of panels which in turn cause the water to form waves just like those you’d find in the ocean. The system is concealed beneath a curtain under a shed-like structure in the centre of the fan-shaped pool, which makes it feel kind of mysterious. But it works; Wavegarden technology is being used in parks all over the world, from Switzerland to South Korea. 

At its Sydney and Melbourne locations, Urbnsurf offers six different session categories that cater to diverse experience levels, from the most beginner-y of beginners to people that can actually shred. The easiest level is Cruiser and the hardest is Expert — pretty self-explanatory. I opted for Progressive Turns, which sounds intimidating but is only one level above Cruiser. Also, the ‘surf level’ description on Urbnsurf’s website says Progressive Turns is perfect for those who haven’t surfed in a while, and are just starting to pop up more consistently. “You love the smaller breaks and are in it for the good vibes and the improvement.” Me to a tee. 

You can book a left or right session, depending on whether you are goofy footed or natural — or want the challenge of being natural and surfing left, or vice versa.

After arriving at Urbnsurf and signing in at the entry, I pulled on my wetsuit and, because it was 8am and freezing, rented some booties from the ‘surf shop’ (boards, gloves, wetsuits and everything else you need to surf is also available for hire there, so you don’t need to own any gear to partake). Booties on, I headed to the safety briefing. Just like a real point break line-up, we were advised to form a line and stay in it, with one person taking off per wave. I hung towards the back of the line to size up the competition, and quickly realised most of the competition was . . . vastly better than me. These guys were performing actual ‘progressive turns’; the only other female surfer in my session was performing turns that, if my current trajectory is anything to go by, I’m at least three years away from executing. 

But the wave didn’t look too big, so when it came time for me to paddle in, I did so with confidence. 

It took approximately five seconds for me to perform an exquisite nose dive. I came up laughing at myself, something I’ve become much better at since beginning to surf. Quickly moving out of the way as instructed — I didn’t want to ruin the next guy’s ride — I caught the white water to the front of the pool and joined the back of the line-up. Again, I performed a similarly embarrassing crash. Thankfully, there were a few more in my session on the kookier side — after each stack, we smiled at each other in solidarity. 

But practising on a man-made wave is like rote learning; it’s the repetition and consistency that helps you work it out. After watching my fellow strugglers crash when attempting to pop up in the steep zone — I tried to take off on the fatter part of the wave. Sure enough, I popped to my feet and soared towards the shallows. If you’d have seen my celebration, you’d be forgiven for thinking I’d just won Pipeline. 

By the time I got to my final wave — while there’s an instructor in the water at all times, the guys in the lifeguard tower put an announcement over the loudspeaker to let those in the session know it’s time to catch their last wave in — I felt like I’d made an improvement. I wasn’t performing progressive turns, rather staying low and hoping the wave took me with it, but I’d found a certain consistency in under an hour. In reality, I probably would’ve done well to book into the Cruiser session, and I’d recommend that to other learner surfers planning to hit the pool. But you know what they say about surfing: if you don’t challenge yourself, you don’t improve. 

After plunging into Urbnsurf’s heated pool post-session, a luxury you most definitely can’t find on the beach, I stuck around to watch some of the more experienced guys tackle the Advanced session. They looked like they were having a blast, weaving and ducking to get barrelled on the bigger sections, stoked to be reunited with the feeling of riding a bigger wave after months of very little surf around Australia’s East Coast. Which, to be contrarian, is the beauty of a manmade wave — when the ocean isn’t cooking, that Wavegarden system is humming along, creating perfect peelers for beginners like me one moment, and burly barrels for more experienced people the next.

Some purists will argue this goes against the unpredictability of the pastime, but those perfect peelers aren’t lost on me. No doubt, there are a few chargers (and purists) out there who would also argue a manmade tube is better than none. 

Related:

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An Esquire columnist’s futile quest to become a surfer