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American Wave Machines celebrates completion of PerfectSwell Shizunami

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Carissa Moore_Training PerfectSwell

Pro surfers from Team USA and Japan were able to train for Tokyo 2020 at the new facility

American Wave Machines (AWM), a leading wave pool, surf park and wave technology company, has announced that it finished work on its latest surf pool in time for athletes from both Team USA and Team Japan to use it as a training facility, ahead of the Tokyo Olympic Games this summer.

In spite of the global pandemic, PerfectSwell Shizunami in Makinohara, Japan, was completed in a record 389 days. This new facility features AWM’s newest wave innovations, alongside clear blue water, for top-quality surf in a small footprint.

It also includes a new wave design feature, Temporal Distortion, allowing for new dimensions of hydrodynamic control.

Olympians train at PerfectSwell Shizunami

During construction, the team worked closely with the Olympic team to ensure that it could create waves like those they could expect at the Olympics surfing venue during the competition. As a result, the athletes were able to practice specific manoeuvres in the run-up to Tokyo 2020. One day two of the Olympics surfing competition, Kolohe Andino of Team USA landed the highest-scoring manoeuvre of the event, after perfecting it in the PerfectSwell pool just days before.

Thanks to the opportunity for precise training in the new PerfectSwell venue, athletes Carissa Moore (USA) and Amuru Tsuzuki (Japan) went on to win Olympic gold and bronze medals respectively. 

“Getting to train in the wave pool before heading to the Olympic venue in Chiba gave me a lot of repetition and a bit of confidence going into the event window,” says Carissa Moore.

The above video shows Team USA’s training session at PerfectSwell Shizunami.

AWM also recently invited pro surfers Evan Geiselman and Kevin Schulz to compete in the first-ever game of SURF held in a PerfectSwell wave pool, and showed how PerfectSwell technology is being used for surf lessons, making it the ideal tool for people of all levels to improve their skills.

Top image: Gold medalist Carissa Moore fine-tuning her backhand snap at PerfectSwell Shizunami in preparation for surfing’s Olympic debut.

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charlotte coates

Charlotte Coates

Charlotte Coates is blooloop's editor. She is from Brighton, UK and previously worked as a librarian. She has a strong interest in arts, culture and information and graduated from the University of Sussex with a degree in English Literature. Charlotte can usually be found either with her head in a book or planning her next travel adventure.

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