During WavePoolMag’s visit to Waco this year a few things struck us as odd about the clientele. First off, there was a large contingent of Hawaiians. Second, there was a large contingent of Hawaiian groms. To our point, surf dad Spencer Suitt reached out to us with footage of his 13-year-old-daughter Skai dropping in at Waco for the first time during their wave pool trip. 

“She’s born and raised on Oahu and for some reason she’s been dreaming to surf Waco for a long time now,” said Spencer. “So we left Hawaii and spent less than 48 hours in Waco.”

Spencer said they tried to go a few times over the past few years but it never worked out, until this year when some friends from Tahiti said they were heading to Texas.

“So we left Hawaii on a red eye flight to Austin, arrived at 7:30am,” continued Spencer. “Rented the car and headed to Waco. We got to Waco around 10am and our first stop was In-N-Out Burger since we don’t have those in Hawaii.”

At the pool they booked back to back sessions at one and two pm, then two more sessions at four and seven pm. The next morning they had the first session of the day at eight am and another one at 10am. 

Spencer said he thinks it’s good to break it up sessions. 

“Back to back sessions give you no time to review your waves to see what you need to adjust your approach on the waves. At least for your first time there.”

The crew also did a pro right session for 90 minutes, which is broken into three settings: Lowers, an air wave and a barrel, but Spencer advises to plan ahead if you can.

“Honestly from our group, we all wanted to do the air wave. Most people in the session wanted to get the barrel. Wish I would have thought of asking to trade someones air waves for my barrels. You only get like 5-6 attempts at the air. To get the most attempts in the air wave you have to book a “private” session and unfortunately they couldn’t do privates sessions during the days we were there.”

The Hawaiian surf dad said they headed back to Austin to make their flight.

“I got seven-and-a-half hours of surf time in two days and my wave pool dreams came true. All in all I felt like it was the perfect amount of time to be there.”