Don Your Steamer – Switzerland’s First Wave Pool Contest Gears Up!

MyPR: Don Your Steamer – Switzerland’s First Wave Pool Contest Gears Up!:

There’s always a first, as Switzerland’s first pool event gears up.

Sion, Switzerland – This weekend, 4/5 December, we will see the inaugural Alaïa Open Winter Cup wavepool surf event at Alaïa Bay. Yep, Switzerland’s first pool event gears up.

Omicron threatened to steal some of the thunder, but the crew at Alaïa Bay haven’t come this far in their first year to be battered down by a miscreant variant. 

Although there are quite a few restrictions and quarantine hassles, some surfers have already figured out a few sneaky passages into Switzerland, and the contest looks like it will be a big one.

To ensure that the Alaïa Open will be the place to be this winter, the organisers have also hired some of the best of Ibiza’s DJ’s for a 5-hour set into the night on Saturday. These DJ’s from Lunarts include the likes of Landikhan, Jo.Ke (live) Raw Main, Manduta (live) and Angie O. Apparently, these guys rule the electronic scene, and if you’re into this kind of music, these guys and gals are the real deal.  

Still, it is a surf event, with $ 75,000 US as prizes and cash. So there is some real interest in this event. It will be cold, but those guys who have experienced surfing this particular pool have said it’s easily manageable. A good suit and lots of paddling, and all is warm as toast.

It’s pretty late in the day to get to Switzerland by the weekend, especially with the travel restrictions. However, at last count, there were a few slots still open in the event. So if you happen to be in the area or nearby, you could still get a slot and get a few sessions in the pool. 

Alaia Bay is a Wavegarden Cove model, but it is perfectly streamlined with a smaller beach area for the best in a high-performance wave pool arena. Less pool area means slightly bigger wave faces, more power and a rather fierce-looking Beast Mode.

“We’re very excited about the upcoming Alaïa Open,” said Alaïa Bay founder Adam Bonvin. The 25-year-old Swiss surfer has been the driving force behind the realisation of the Alaïa Bay facility. This competition will further cement Alaïa Bay as the on-trend wavepool and the place to be. “My wish is for everyone to come to this event and have fun. The surfing will be high performance, and the Surfer Evening will be a great place to listen to some great DJ’s, network and meet like-minded people,” added Bonvin. “Surfers, surf industry members, sponsors and media will all be together, but let’s not forget that this event is all about the surfers. It will be great to have the best Swiss surfers here, and we look forward to watching them surf. We are also very excited to see the international competitors competing at our wavepool.“

 

Talking of competing at the Alaïa Bay wavepool, It took many talented surfers quite a few sessions and so many wipe-outs to figure out the Beast Mode. However, the advice that seems to come through from everyone who has surfed there – the likes of Zeke Lau, Jeremy Flores and Rob Machado, to name a few – is to point your board forward, towards the ‘beach’ so to speak, and not towards the exit of the tube. 

Sounds tricky, but the tube is so round, the wave is not moving that fast, and to stay in the pocket and not pearl, you need to point your shooter more towards the front of the tube. Almost as if you were going to doggy-door the barrel. But you’re not. You’re going to come out in a blast of frozen Swiss winter slush and get the stoke and the rush of surfing just around the corner from some epic pow. 

In fact, there’s every chance that, if you were into it, you could do the Californa Double (surf and snowboard on the same day). That would be quite a thing. 

Check out the Alaïa Open Facebook Group 

To check a bit of Beast Mode, watch the Surfline Webcam. 

 

Video: Don Your Steamer – Switzerland’s First Wave Pool Contest Gears Up!

More Info on Don Your Steamer – Switzerland’s First Wave Pool Contest Gears Up! here: https://alaiabay.ch/en/alaia-open-winter-cup/
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