We shared a table with Rob Machado at a cafe in France to drink tea and talk about wave pools. In this edit, Rob shares his design for a perfect wave pool, then stops, reflects, and dishes out a few more ideas.

You’ll also find out why an Alaia or Twin works best at Kelly’s wave and how Munich could be the model for the wave pool surf scene.

What does your dream pool look like?
I don’t know why someone doesn’t take all the technologies and put them in one pool. I want to be able to take off on a mushy section and go down the line and do two turns and then see a wedge coming together where you do a check turn and then just get drained and then you see a whitewater coming at you.

You’ve surfed Kelly’s Wave quite a bit, how is that wave?
The first time I went to Kelly’s pool I road an Alaïa. To me the Alaïa is the fastest thing I’ve ever ridden and I could barely keep up with the wave because of the way the energy was travelling. I was just letting the board do the work and just trimming and just gliding and it felt really cool. But Kelly’s Wave has that feeling like someone’s holding onto your leash. You feel like you’re getting sucked back all the time. You see guys surfing it and they’re always working to get speed to stay ahead of it. On a fish you can do one highline, and a fish is the only board where I felt like I could go and touch the fence. Which is hard to get too. It’s right there, so you feel like ‘oh man, I could get to that fence.’ But you can’t get there. But that was the one board where I felt like on that wave riding a board that generated more speed was a better approach.

Check Out the Full Interview in the Clip Below