Deep in the hot, humid heartland of Texas, several tenacious Canadians are reassembling steel and wooden structures built thousands of miles away in Vancouver. They’re surrounding the wave pool at Waco Surf with a fully suspended, crane-mounted halfpipe, a street skate course on top of the pump house and a 7-foot miniramp in the water.
This isn’t the set of a Mad Max movie. It’s the setting of Swatch Nines Surf, a bold and creative attempt to inject fresh energy into the surf sphere. If last year’s event was a test run, this is a suped-up drag race. The event is closed to the public, but it will be streamed live on The Couch Surfing Show here on June 23-25.
Swatch Nines
Twenty-two surfers have been invited to this year’s event, including some of surfing’s highest fliers: Mason Ho, Matt Meola, Chippa Wilson, Jacob Zsekely, Balaram Stack, Hughie Vaughan, and Cam Richards. Sixteen bikers and skaters also got the invite. Expect to see Greyson Fletcher and Olympic medalists Pedro Barros and Sky Brown flying over the poolside ramps, but they’ll likely give the pool a go as well. Catch the full invite list below.
Today, Swatch dropped renderings of the new features that will adorn Waco Surf next week. And it looks like nothing we’ve seen in a pool before. The concepts took shape at a riders’ gathering in Encinitas last February. Noah Beschen and Zoe McDougall provided the surf POV while freestyle skater Andy Anderson and BWX weapon Kevin Peraza added their input. The goal: collaborate with builders and think of outrageous ways to surf, skate and ride the pool.
“The brainstorming process is an iterative process where one thing leads to another, like a snowball,” said Zenga Bros cofounder Benny Zenga. “‘Oh, we want a surf feature…that’s somehow in the water?’ And then realizing, it has to be mounted above the water. So that means a crane or something. And it just builds and builds to what we will see come to life next week.”
The big new attraction/challenge this year is what organizers call “The Swatch Flying O.” Built by the industrious Zenga Bros in Canada, it’s a suspended skateboard miniramp with a custom-made wall ride and rail for surfers to hit from the water. Last year, Mason, Jacob Zsekely, Balaram Stack and others had a crack at boardsliding over a short pipe. This time, they’ll face an upgraded section dubbed the “Reef Fanning Feature.”
Swatch Nines
“I’ve been wearing my Fanning shoes a lot lately—it’s got me pumped to try and surf across the big version,” Mason said. “I’ll probably just fly at it full speed and see what happens. Attending Swatch Nines is special because they make the impossible possible and bring together a group of athletes who push each other to go harder.”
Swatch Nines
The Nines began as a ski event in 2008 as an alternative for athletes to try radically different tricks without the constraints of a conventional contest. There are no stakes, no prize money or ranking points. But Swatch’s deep pockets and a creative edge have allowed the athletes to push themselves into new territory. The Swatch Nines has since expanded to include snowboarding, mountain biking and surfing, which debuted at Waco Surf last year.
Related: 5 of the Craziest Moments from Swatch Nines Deep in the Heart of Texas (Video)
“We have so many talented athletes from around the world joining in for these three days of action,” said Nico Zacek, founder of the Nines. “Together with athletes and designers we put our creative forces together to create an epic setup that’s never been seen before in surfing or skating – it’s going to be wild. Big thanks to all our partners and everyone making this event come to life! Can’t wait to kick it off in a couple of days.”
After last year’s showcase, Mason, Coco and Makoa Ho reflected on their experience and what could be improved in the next iteration. Specifically, Mason was intrigued by the rail and how it could be approached.
“As a surfer, I have all these feelings and checkpoints in my life and it feels like I’ve done almost all of them,” Mason said. “But that feeling was something so new. It felt like I was in kindergarten again. Like, there’s 12 grades of this. I want to graduate this rail.”
We’ll be on the ground in Waco to see if anyone can ace this exam. One thing is for certain, however. Landed or now, this will be something completely new.
“We’re in a workshop building a surf wallride—just those two words don’t really go together, you know,” Benny Zenga said. “There’s no question in my mind that very unique, NBDs (never been dones) will happen… I mean, pretty much everything here will be NBD.”