Team rider Caleb Pont recently became the first (known) person to foil the Kelly's Wave at Surf Abu Dhabi—a wave pool engineered for surfers, not hydrofoils. Pulling into multiple barrels on one of the world’s tightest artificial tubes, Caleb pushed into territory few foilers would ever attempt. In this Q&A, he breaks down how the idea started, what it felt like inside the barrel, and why he believes a clean make is possible. 

Q: What first sparked the idea to foil Kelly’s Wave in Abu Dhabi, especially given that this wave pool is known for world-class, hollow barrels that even top surfers chase around the globe?

The idea started as soon as I found out I was heading to the UAE in the first place. I’ve always wanted to surf a wave pool, and once I realised I’d have the opportunity to get a couple of sessions there, I started wondering if foiling it was possible too.

I had no idea if Surf Abu Dhabi would even let me foil it, I was pretty sure no one had foiled that particular pool before, so I packed my hydrofoil alongside my surfboard just in case they were keen. Turns out they were frothing. 

Q: Before you made the trip, what were your expectations and fears about foiling a wave like this?

Did you have any specific goals in mind for your session? I honestly set zero expectations because I was fully prepared for them to turn me down. But once I found out it was possible, the goal was simply to see if it was even possible to get tubed or at least properly try to get some turns in.

My biggest worry was the foil hitting the concrete bottom and breaking something. Surprisingly, the foil didn’t touch the bottom once. Once you’re up on foil, you don’t actually need that much depth. Maybe I got lucky, but I genuinely had no issues at all.

Q: Walk us through the moment you dropped in on that barrel. What were you feeling in the seconds leading up to it, and what was going through your mind once you were inside?

The first barrel I tried to get was actually an accident. I breached the foil leading into the section. I have no idea how I pulled it back together but fixing it forced me to sit a little deeper behind the section than I planned.

Luckily, with a foil you can generate speed so quickly, so I just did a bottom-hand turn, set my line, and tried to pack it. That first attempt was probably the best one because the time inside the barrel was the longest. Everything happened so fast I didn’t even have time to think or react, it was over before I could process what even happened. 

Q: How many attempts did it take for you to finally get into the barrel?

I did three sessions in total. In the first session, I surfed four of the six waves, then swapped over to the foil just to see if it was even possible. The lifeguards wanted to test the waters with me first, so they only let me foil the Profile 5 wave, which is a bit mushier and beginner-friendly. That was still epic though, it gave me a chance to get a proper feel for the foil and rip a few turns.

I came back another day to do it properly and foiled the entire session: three lefts and three rights. I started on Profile 4, then ended up pulling into the tube on my first Kelly Slater wave profile.

All up, I reckon I had about four real attempts at trying to make a barrel, plus the two waves I fell on during the take-off.

For the third session, I just wanted to surf. Surfing is my background, and nothing beats getting barreled and smacking the lip, so I dedicated that whole session to going back to my roots. 

Q: This was a first-of-its-kind attempt: foiling a barrel on a high-performance wave like Kelly’s. Was there any physical and mental challenges you faced, and how did you prepare for them?

I’m the type of person who just makes stuff up as I go, to be honest. Foiling the pool was something I’d never experienced before, and it was so different to the ocean. It’s hard to truly prepare for something like that. For me it comes down to trusting your ability and figuring it out as you go.

The hardest mental challenge was trying not to waste waves, because shits expensive haha. For around $1500 AUD you get six waves, so when I fell on the take-off on two of them, I was pretty rattled. It felt like I’d just thrown about $250 down the drain.

Physically, I was mainly just trying not to slice myself up. Getting folded on the foil inside the barrel isn’t the best feeling, and I reckon on some of the wipeouts the foil missed hitting me by a bee’s dick.

Q: Even though you didn’t come out the other side of the barrel, you got some amazing footage and photos. What do you take away from this experience, and will you do it again?

Not coming out of any of them was definitely a bummer. But after watching the footage back, the wave is so tight on a foil that the margin for error is tiny. I had to drop off foil while I was inside just to fit, and once the whole foil is in the water you get heaps of drag, you slow down too much and end up getting gobbled up.

I still 100% think it’s possible to make one. Practice makes perfect, so if someone wants to shout me a few waves, I reckon I could get it done haha. Nah But overall the whole experience was unreal. I also got to ride a normal surfboard and do some turns and even get barreled the traditional way, which still felt amazing. I’d absolutely do it again.

Big thanks to the photographer Yaando for coming out and trusting me not to run him over.

Q: What setup were you riding in the wave pool, and how did you decide it was the right choice for this type of wave?

I rode the FLITELab* Flux 707 with a 125 stab, kind of my go to setup. If I had to do it again I’d definitely downsize the front wing to a 606 as there was way more power than I anticipated.

Q: How does riding a perfectly engineered wave in a pool compare to charging natural ocean barrels? What’s similar, what’s different? 

It’s totally different. I expected it to feel slightly similar because it’s salt water, so I assumed the buoyancy and hydrodynamics would be the same, but I was wrong. It feels like a powerful boat wake, but shaped like a proper wave.

It was super tricky to find where the power was, because you’d go from having absolutely nothing to getting overloaded, with nothing in between. The one thing that did feel similar was the line you take to set up the tube. Like in surfing, line is everything, so that part felt familiar.

Q: What was it like being in Abu Dhabi for this project, the setting, environment, and community around the wave pool?

It honestly feels like a whole different world over there. It’s hard to explain unless you’ve been. You go from this desert, empty-looking area… then you pull up to Surf Abu Dhabi and it’s like your own little oasis. Seeing that first wave is surreal.

There’s house music playing, beach clubs, really nice restaurants, and everything you could want in terms of surf gear and facilities. The whole experience was so worth the money, and the staff and lifeguards are super friendly and helpful. Safety always comes first with them, so it was cool that they trusted me and my ability to try something new in a safe way.

It’ll be interesting to see if there’s a future wave pool designed specifically for hydrofoils, and if there is, I definitely want to be involved.