<div><div style="text-align: justify;">Spotting an opportunity to share their latest developments with the best, the guys at Wavegarden cleverly took advantage of this nearby event. They invited many of the teams to come test out their artificial wonder waves.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Here's the footage of some of the groups who made it over to Northern Spain.</div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><span style="background-color: #ffffff;">The joy at seeing barrel after perfect barrel is plain to see across the teams. For them, this is unbelievably rad. And it is. </span></span>*Shakas to the developers at Wavegarden*</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><span style="background-color: #ffffff;">It really IS impressive. These waves replicate nature so well that the future of training (and indeed competition) looks set to progress heavily in this direction. From a coach's perspective the chance to increase wave rides per session is HUGE. Who isn't impressed by the sound of '1000 perfect waves an hour'? Just think of the</span></span> potential for rapid improvement in skills.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">All those with salt water rushing in their veins will feel some of the euphoria towards this, but there is also a massive <em>loss</em>. For where is the natural unpredictability and flow of a natural break? The connection to nature? The fun of reading the sets and knowing that each and every wave will run a little different?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Olympics machine is likely to swallow up the natural aspects of our sport pretty quickly. They'll see the benefits of increased enjoyment for spectators (non-stop action without waiting?!), and a level playing field for all competitors. Maybe the purists have held off the man-made option for Tokyo 2020, but surely it can't be long before the artificial wave rules supreme. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>