Sometimes life presents an opportunity too good to ignore, a career move, family commitments, or the chance to start a completely new chapter. For surfers, those moments often come with a difficult question: Is it possible to embrace a new life away from the ocean without leaving the passion for surfing behind?
Former Danish pro surfer Emilie Uttrup knows that feeling well.
After representing Denmark at the European and World Surfing Championships and later building a career in surf broadcasting, she spent nearly a decade in Portugal, where surfing shaped both her work and her everyday life.
Then, at the end of last year, she got the job offer to work in the F1 Audi Revolut Team. It was, as she describes it, a “lifetime opportunity,” but accepting it meant leaving Portugal, moving to Switzerland, and stepping away from the surf lifestyle she had built over the years.
“I moved to a completely new country and had to start over,” she said. “When you have the ocean, it also comes with a certain community. I had spent so much time building my life around surfing. Part of me was asking: What am I doing?”
These days, her travel schedule looks very different. Instead of flying to surf contests, she travels from one Formula 1 race to the next. But rather than letting surfing slip away, Uttrup found her way to stay connected: wave pools.
Earlier this year, she travelled to Melbourne for the F1 Australian Grand Prix 2026 and had some hours left before going to the airport for the next race in Shanghai. While some people would have used the break to rest, Uttrup headed straight to URBNSURF Melbourne.
“Luckily, the wave pool is like right next to the airport. It was wonderful, I surfed all day and turned up to the airport at like at five in the afternoon and met the rest of the team”, Uttrup said. “They all looked at me ask ‘What happened to your eyes? You don’t look like you normally do’”, she remembered her colleagues saying. “I answered, I’ve just been surfing all day.”
“I think that’s where the wave pool comes in so handy”, she added. “With my busy schedule, it’s like I can still go surfing; I don’t need to look at a forecast. I’m guaranteed my kind of 14 waves, and then it’s done.”
Now she plans in sessions whenever she can instead of driving around for hours to find the best surf spot on the coastline.
“Before my life was always kind of decided by swells”, she said.
Like many ocean lovers, Uttrup was initially sceptical before she first entered a wave pool.
“I was kind of lucky the first wave pool that I ever surfed was Kelly Slater’s wave pool”, she said about her first experience in California. While on a work trip for Red Bull Surfing and part of the staff team, she got the opportunity to ride some waves. It was unreal,” she recalls about her first wave at the Surf Ranch. “After that first wave, I was thinking: wave pools are just the best thing ever!”
Since then, she has surfed in Kelly Slater’s wave pool in Abu Dhabi and in the O₂ SURFTOWN MUC in Munich, Germany. She said each pool comes with different benefits and challenges.
“I was surprised like also how different they are”, she said. “Obviously Kelly’s pool is like serving the best point break. In Australia it’s just super fun it feels more like surfing a beach break on a perfect day. In Australia the takeoff was like proper slabby. I missed the first like three waves. Because I was like, when do I paddle? What do I do? And it was just like a slab. Then it’s like, ohh, there goes my 10 Euro.”
When planning a wave pool session, she normally books three sessions to have time to figure out the wave, the timing and eventually have fun.
“It’s not like the ocean where you can read the wave as it approaches,” she explained. “In a wave pool, you have to learn the rhythm. Once you get that, you can focus on the technique.”
For Uttrup, wave pools are more than just convenience. At her recent surf stop in Australia, she shared sessions with friends, including long-time pool aficionado Jack Robinson and met other faces from the pro surf world.
“Those sessions reminded me that it’s possible to build this completely new career and still stay connected to surfing,” she said. “You meet people from the surf world and instantly feel like you’re still part of it.”
The next wave pool Emilie Uttrup wants to try out is the Alaïa Bay, just a few hours from Zurich.
“You are surfing in the middle of the mountains. It’s really something pretty cool and special.”
Living away from the ocean, she now spends more time in the gym, doing HYROX and other outdoor sports, and is excited for winter in Switzerland with snowboarding and skiing. Staying active and releasing energy is still an important part of her life.
But one thing has changed more subtly: her relationship with waves. Whenever she returns home to Denmark, she paddles out no matter the conditions.
“I’m definitely less picky with the waves,” she said. “My friends will tell me the conditions are horrible and windy, but I’ll still go out. And now I enjoy every minute.”
Distance has shifted her perspective, but not her connection. The ocean may no longer be close, but surfing is still a part of who she is.
Verena Tölle is a journalist based in Lisbon, Portugal. Originally from Germany, a trip to Portugal sparked her connection with the ocean and ultimately inspired her surf travel guide, I Did It My Wave. She writes about surfing, sports, and outdoor culture, with a particular interest in the human stories behind adventure. Follow her work on Instagram at @vthesurfingwriter.
