Last September, I got lucky.
I found myself in the Maldives, covering a specialty surf contest, and my rudimentary understanding of geography sparked a scheme. “I’m not too far from the Middle East,” I thought. “What if I went to Dubai and surfed Kelly Slater’s wave pool?”
Somehow, it all worked out. And I got to sample the surf park – which is touted as the “high-performance surfing experience, featuring the world’s longest ride, biggest barrel, and largest man-made wave pool” – before its grand opening that October.
It’s a swanky place. Compared to Surf Ranch in Lemoore, CA, where you drive on a dirt road, surrounded by farmland and the aroma of cow farts, Abu Dhabi is a luxury operation. There’s a five-star restaurant (I ordered the surf n’ turf), multiple pools and hot tubs, a viewing deck where you can watch the wave with the Dubai skyline in the backdrop.
So, it must be a pricey ticket to surf, right?
In a new luxury surf travel piece from CNN, they talk numbers:
“They only allow four surfers in the main pool at once on the intermediate and advanced wave, each paying AED3500 (around $950). Each surfer is guaranteed six waves, though they can get more if another surfer falls off. However, Watkins says most people prefer to rent the pool out privately at AED20,000 (close to $5,450) for 90 minutes.”
Related: Video: Is Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch Really $7,000 Per Wave?
At $950 for entry, with six waves guaranteed, that equals $158.33 per ride.
However, Ryan Watkins, the general manager of Surf Abu Dhabi, says the price is justified:
“We’ve adopted a quality over quantity methodology. We run the best waves in the world; we definitely don’t run the most waves. Ours is a 55-second-long ride from tip to tip, and you’re going to get two perfect tubes.”
As for my experience? Well, that one fortunately came gratis – perks of the job. But if I had to pay, I probably would. There’s nothing like getting the most perfect tube of your life, on demand, in the most unlikeliest of surfing destinations (currently) on earth.
Related: $120M ‘Biggest Wave Pool in Southern Hemisphere’ Gets Greenlight