It gets a little tiring watching pros in wave pools. Sweet digital candy that it is, there’s a big disconnect between what we as everyday surfers experience and the selected curation from the pros. Unfortunately, the other end of the scale is not much better. Many of the amateur wave pool clips feature dudes throwing out rapid-fire high-fives and tense shakes set to D-List hip hop. It’s cringy. But this week we found a happy medium between the slick-gloss of content by those who earn a living surfing, and the bland reality everyday surfers experience.

Aaron Neighbour hit the expert right session at Urbnsurf recently and posted an amazing YouTube edit stacked with POV tube sequences. We reached out to find out how a surfer who grew up an hour from the coast in Melbourne developed such an innate tube sense?

“As a kid, it was tricky to get down to the coast,” says Aaron. “Luckily my dad surfed and would drag me along. Having Urbnsurf 15 minutes from my office has given me the chance to surf before or after work, something I could never imagine living in Melbourne.”

Aaron’s experience is what we at WavePoolMag envision in 10 years, as city surfers swap out their cross-fit sessions for lunch-hour barrels and competition between surf parks brings down costs.

“Towards the end of last year we were going a couple of times a week which was getting a bit expensive,” adds Aaron. “Since the expert setting was released, which is limited to 12 surfers with 18 waves in an hour, we decided to save some money and just book that session once a month.”

But the gift that is Urbnsurf became inaccessible once the lockdowns rolled through Victoria – one of the hardest-hit states in Australia.

“Lockdown was tough, not surfing for four months,” adds Aaron. “But I’m so glad the pool is up and running again, and hopefully doing good business.”

Aaron Neighbour is an architect. You can follow his Instagram here (he designed a house for a cat!) If you have amazing clips from your sessions, reach out to us at editor at wavepoolmag.com.