The Surf's Always Up — In Waco, Texas

Short Wave

NPR

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4.7 • 6.6K Ratings

🗓️ 23 September 2021

⏱️ 12 minutes

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Summary

Some of the world's best artificial waves are happening hundreds of miles from the ocean—in Waco, Texas. They're so good, they're attracting top professionals, casual riders and a science correspondent named Jon Hamilton. Jon's been following the wave technology for years and says the progress is huge. These days, pro surfers are coming from all over to try out Waco's "Freak Peak."

Read more of Jon's reporting on artificial waves: https://n.pr/3zAX95k

Wondering what insights science has to offer for other sports? Drop us a line at shortwave@npr.org.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to shortwave from NPR.
0:05.0	Surfs up, Duterino. Shortwave is going to Waco, Texas.
0:08.9	Look at that, little two right.
0:11.0	I'm Emily Kwong, and I'm here with NPR,
0:13.6	Senior Surfing Correspondent John Hamilton.
0:16.4	Hi, Emily.
0:17.3	So typically you cover neuroscience?
0:19.5	Like what are you doing on this story?
0:21.7	Emily, I am the Senior Brain Correspondent in public radio.
0:25.8	Oh, I'm sorry.
0:26.9	But I grew up surfing in Southern California.
0:30.2	This was long ago when Dr. Delt still filled the skies.
0:34.3	So I've been following the evolution of artificial surfing waves
0:38.4	as kind of a hobby.
0:39.8	And the science of wave making has come a long way.
0:43.2	I'm into this artificial waves surfing science.
0:46.9	Let's do it.
0:47.5	Oh, yeah. Yeah.
0:48.2	In nature, it takes this really complicated interaction
0:51.9	between an ocean swell and the underwater contours
0:54.6	of the shore to produce a great surfing wave.
0:57.9	The best waves break in places where these really large ocean swells
	...

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