Olympic Surfing in Wave Pools? Italo Ferreira Says “100%”

Surfing’s long-awaited Olympic debut came some 100 years after Duke Kahanamoku’s push to include the sport in the Games, during Tokyo 2020, and it also coincided with the current rise in wave pool proliferation. The question was floated at Tokyo, along with a few years later at Paris 2024, whether or not to hold the surfing event in a manmade surf park, or au naturel in the drink?

Ultimately, the ocean was chosen for both events. And ahead of surfing’s third Olympic appearance at the Los Angeles 2028 Games, it looks like surfing will again return to the sea, with the event being held at either Lower Trestles or Huntington Beach Pier. (The rumor mill is leaning more towards the latter, which, what event organizers – and fans and competitors – will lose in quality of waves, they’ll make up for in pre-existing infrastructure. However, the official announcement is TBD.)

And yet, the pool is still in the conversation. Particularly from surfing’s first-ever Olympic gold medalist Italo Ferreira, who, fresh off testing out the new digs at Brazil’s PerfectSwell-powered freakish launch ramp at the Sao Paulo Surf Club, spoke with local news about his passion for pools.