The Perfect Wave Is Coming
Long ago I lived in Santa Cruz, California. Almost every morning I would throw on a wet suit, grab my surfboard out of the garage, and head to the rocky cliffs just a few blocks from my house. I would descend a well-worn path to the ocean below, paddle out to the break, and spend hours surrounded by kelp beds and barking sea lions, catching waves, feeling exhilarated, and floating on my board, a world away from the troubles on land.
Those days are gone. I have a family now and have lived for years in the generally wave-less realms of New York City. But a few months ago I suddenly felt that old hunger again. I wanted to race out to the garage and grab a board. It was all because of a wave I saw on the Internet. And not just any wave. Head high, it came in fast, peeling left, its lip throwing off tantalizing moisture droplets before arching forward, a sheet of pristine, sun-dappled water folding onto itself to form a perfect barrel. A barrel that just kept going and going.
The wave’s shape and size were only part of its wonder. It was breaking 110 miles inland on an isolated 700-yard-long, man-made lake in central California. It was the dream project, come to fruition, of 11-time world champ surfer Kelly Slater. With a little help from aerospace engineers. “I’m 100 percent positive our team built the best wave that anyone’s ever made,” Slater said in the video, which quickly went viral. “It’s a freak of technology.”
Not so much a freak but a technological
