Surfers + Scientists Team Up To Create The ‘Perfect Wave’ | Surfing hits NPR

Surfers fascination with creating the perfect manmade wave will never cease. Now the beloved NPR is looking into the fact that scientists are teaming up with surfers to get God’s work done:

“In a miniature surf pool near San Diego, an air-powered system cranks out tiny but perfect waves every 10 seconds.

“We’re trying to carve water here,” explains Justin Enjo, an engineer at Wave Loch and its sister company, Surf Loch. “We’re trying to make water exist in the shape of a ramp.”

That means first creating waves in deeper water, then providing a reef, or carefully contoured shoreline, that causes these swells to break in just the right way.

“As they hit the reef they transform, and they get that really hollow section,” Enjo explains. “In the science realm, they call them ‘plunging breakers.’ In surfing vernacular it’s referred to ‘the tube’ or ‘the barrel.’ “

 

Head over to NPR to read the whole insightful article about our potential future as surfers.