We spoke to Surfing Doctors member and wave pool aficionado Dom Howell
What sort of experience do you have in pool surfing? Which ones have you surfed?
I’m kind of a wave pool nerd. I’ve been following Webber and Kelly’s designs for ages. I’ve surfed URBNSurf Melbourne 2x and Sydney 3x, wave settings cruiser to expert. I’m keen to get in one of the PerfectSwell pools. The Boa Vista clips are looking pretty psycho.
How does URBNSurf shape up compared to the rest?
URBNSurf has hit the sweet spot between the frequency of waves and length of ride (not that I’ve surfed Kelly’s yet).
The six wave sets in Sydney (compared to 12-13 in Melbourne) don’t seem to cop much reverb.
The short breaks between sets create almost constant waves, keeping everyone moving. For our crew, there were constant hoots and hollers throughout the session.
What was the biggest they cranked it up to for the Surfing Doctors URBNSurf WavePool Conference?
Once everyone was comfortable, we ran a lot of the expert barrel setting. It’s a super mellow take-off, but it packs a lot of grunt when it barrels. There are just so many tubes!
What was the surf highlight of the conference?
The entire three days were pretty unreal. Everyone was stoked in the second day-first session because they knew what was coming.
- A single wave, watching Dave Hateley get kegged right in front of me.
- A session with the groms hitting the last barrel session with us!
Surf low light?
My personal one was landing on and creasing my board on day one and getting flipped in a barrel. You’ve got to pay to play, so I got lucky.
What was the work side highlight?
We are treating a lot of different surfers at our outpost clinics in Indonesia, as well as the work we do with the WSL tour elite athletes. Both are exposed to the elements and pick up a range of musculoskeletal injuries, and we often approach these guys with our emergency medicine mindset.
Trevor Lawrence Brown and Adam Trypass gave me a lot of insight. We see the pressures pros and everyday surfers put their bodies under and how we can best manage these injuries, whether in the jungle or on tour.
The all-round highlight was the amount of information sharing and an added focus on the longevity of us as Doctors (particularly in NSW at the moment) and our patients as surfers.
What would you do to improve such a conference in the future?
A hard task! Back-to-back barrel sessions, maybe? I think that’s the only way.
Do you ride different equipment in pools? If so, how different?
I’ve only just started changing it up. As an all-rounder, I ride a Pyzel ghost 6’0 – 30l in the ocean.
I took out a Pyzel MiniGhost 5’11 32l in the pool. The extra float definitely stops you from sinking a little on the take-off, but keeping it short seemed to help in a pretty tight pocket.
It was epic getting the Demo set from the guys at Hayden Shapes. The crowd favourite was definitely the 6’0 “Holy Hypto.
I also took out the 6’2 Hypto with something like 38l. I just set the line on the barrel, which went like a freight train.
What was the funniest moment from the Surfing Doctors URBNSurf WavePool Conference?
It’s probably an unnamed soldier who got locked out of their Airbnb and slept on a foyer bench between days two and three! Recovery time for the back and shoulders would have been suboptimal, to say the least.
Read more: Meet The Crew – Kirsten Thomas