Maverick's Bid to Bring Surfing to the Stadium

Surfing in Switzerland or Kansas could become as popular a sport as it is in Hawaii or California as a result of a startling project being pioneered by a maverick oceanographer.

Professor Kerry Black, based at Waikato University in New Zealand, has developed a series of techniques aimed at taking surfers from the beach to the confines of inland pools and reservoirs. Now his technology is being pioneered in Florida.

The aim is to build artificial reefs and indoor surfing centres around the world in a few years, he says. 'Our innovation has the potential to turn surfing into a stadium sport where spectators can watch top surfers compete on an international circuit.'

The prospect of 50,000 spectators eating hot dogs and cheering on their teams of surfers has outraged many of the sport's purists. Surfing is for outdoor activists, they insist. Nevertheless, Black is confident he will soon be able to pull off his dream and make surfing a spectator sport that will rival football as a global entertainment.

At present, there are a handful of pools round the world which use standard machines to generate artificial, surfable waves, though these are fairly tame affairs. However, Black's technology, when used with wave machines, is designed to generate waves as powerful as those found at some of the best surfing beaches. The secret lies with the Versareef, a shape-shifting artificial reef fitted to the floor of swimming pools.

Black, who is backed by millions of dollars of development cash, and his researchers spent five years surveying the best reefs in the Pacific to find out what seabed characteristics generate the best surf. 'Extensive monitoring of wave conditions, and how they are affected by subtle changes to the seabed by even very small reef features, has shown us that the shape of the floor has the greatest influence on the form of the breaking wave,' he says.

The end result is the Versareef, a system of computer-controlled pneumatic jacks that lie beneath a tough rubber mat, which subtly alters its shape so that a rush of water, sent by a wave machine, is moulded into a powerful, curling surf wave.

Recent tests in pools at the Ron Jon Surf Park in Orlando, Florida have, according to the journal Nature, had an initially disappointing outcome. It was discovered the prototype reefs could not withstand the pressure of the waves generated inside the pool. But Black insists these flaws have now been overcome and recently announced that the first successful surfing waves were produced this month.

The project has generated immense interest in Florida, where thousands have already put down their names for membership of the Ron Jon Surf Park in anticipation of a successful outcome.