Words by Henrik Bydal
Photos by Kjetil Simonsen / Norwaii Longboards / SurfNorge

I’m not entirely sure what I imagined when I first started surfing, but it certainly wasn’t this.

To be fair, what I was doing back then barely qualified as surfing. It was more like flailing around on the surface, occasionally interrupted by an attempt to stand up on a surfboard. And that went on for years.

Little did I know where all that flailing would take me. I certainly never imagined that one day I’d find myself surfing in a former mining site in Scotland. Let alone that, in the hopefully not-too-distant future, I might be doing the very same thing in a patch of woodland near Oslo’s Gardermoen Airport.

How did I end up here?

Before surfing, there was snowboarding. And skateboarding. Then I saw someone riding a wave for the first time. That was pretty much it.

I gave it a go. I was hooked.

When that happens, weather charts suddenly become far more important than they have any right to be. Weekends and meetings are arranged around wind direction and swell period. You turn up at work still smelling of neoprene. Holidays are spent in places where there’s a reasonable chance of finding waves. And perhaps somewhere to sleep.

You drive ridiculous distances for very little. Often even further for absolutely nothing.

Stranger than fiction

I’ve paddled out in a lot of places over the years. Some incredible. Others downright questionable. A few that don’t even exist.

But none of them have given me quite the same experience as a wave pool. Because the waves weren’t just good. They were perfect. They just kept coming.

And this is where the wavepool paradox begins.

What happens to surfing when you remove so much of what has made surfing surfing to me?

Will I never have to endure another flat spell? Never stand at the water’s edge in the freezing cold after driving for hours, only to discover the forecast got it wrong? Never get caught off guard by a freak set that sends me straight into the rocks?

And have I set off with low expectations for the last time, only to round that final bump in the road and discover there actually are waves? Better than forecast. Much better.

Sometimes, you don’t even need to see the ocean to know.

You just hear it.

Whump.

Whump.

Whump.

The sound of waves breaking. A sure sign that you’re going surfing. That, and the sight of flags hanging limp from their poles.

I suppose what I’m talking about is anticipation. Everything that surrounds the rather peculiar lifelong pursuit of standing sideways on a board and riding along a breaking wave.

Whump.

What about now?

Is everything supposed to be perfect from now on? Well. Maybe. And that’s actually pretty amazing. Because I’ve had more than a few bones to pick with the weather gods over the years, and a wave pool can offer something the ocean has never been able to promise. Consistency.

Waves when they suit you. Just the size you like them.

But a wave pool will never replace the real ocean. Not for me. I’ll still want to head off somewhere. Still study the weather charts. Follow the wind. Sit in a car on my way to a place where I hope there will be waves by the time I arrive. I’ll still want the surprises.

The wasted journeys, too. Even if I’ll curse them just as much as I always have. But I can also have something that a middle-aged, decidedly average surfer like me desperately needs. More waves than my calendar, adult responsibilities and the weather would normally allow.

Everything the ocean can’t promise

A wave pool can give other people exactly what they need, too. Even if they don’t know it yet. It might give some kid that incredible feeling of finally finding something they love doing. It might give an experienced surfer hundreds of attempts to land that air. Get barrelled. Blow those fins out.

It might give a complete beginner a genuine chance of actually catching a wave. It might even prise a couch potato away from the crisps and get them up on the nose.

It can create jobs. Get people moving. Make people happy. It’s hard to object to any of that on principle. Especially when it also gives me more of the very thing I’ve spent most of my life chasing. Waves.

Surfache

Surfing has been part of my life for well over half of it now. My shoulders are starting to remind me of that. But surfing in a wave pool near Oslo Airport? I know. It sounds completely mad. But it might actually happen. The land is secured. The team behind Lost Shore is on board. Hundreds of surfers are backing the project.

Come to think of it, perhaps I’ve got this all wrong. Perhaps, paradoxically, there is no paradox at all. Because a wave pool doesn’t take anything away. It simply adds another dimension. Another chance to surf.

Surf the ocean when it’s firing. The pool when it’s flat. Enjoy the occasional wasted road trip when the mood strikes, or just for old times’ sake.

Yes. I could live with that. Even if it’s absolutely nothing like what I imagined when I first started surfing.

But then again, I bet you didn’t see it coming either.
—————————————————–

Read more about the project at SurfNorges website.