World Champ Caroline Marks Trains At Kelly Slater’s Abu Dhabi Wave Pool
2023 world champ and 2024 Olympian Caroline Marks will start her title defense in a little more than a month’s time when the WSL Championship Tour season kicks off at Pipeline the end of January. Until then, it’s time to get the body and mind right, and have a little fun.
With the opening of a new Kelly Slater-designed wave pool in Abu Dhabi, Marks headed to the United Arab Emirates to get some labs in and, as they say, get her feet in the wax. It’s fair to say this is the first time a world champion surfer has spent time training in this relatively waveless part of the planet, but technology being what it is, here we are.
The word from those in the know that this version of the pool is “even more perfect” than the initial prototype that was engineered in the California Central Valley. Bottom contours have been refined and the wave-making tech dialed in even more. It’s hard to imagine a man-made wave being better than the one in Lemoore, but apparently Abu Dhabi is.
Hoping back across the Atlantic to her home state of Florida, Marks puts a big, old smile on her face has she buzzes around in one of Red Bull’s stunt helicopters and enjoys some class, down home, Sunshine State surf with friends and family.
It’s going to be a big year for Marks with a world title defense and an opportunity to earn an Olympic gold medal in Tahiti, based on this latest video drop, she’s is healthy, happy, confident, surfing great and looks ready to once again take on the world.
11-Time World Champion Kelly Slater Launches World-Class Surf Park in Abu Dhabi
With more than 25 years of writing about surfing, the ocean and action sports, Jake Howard continues to share stories, profiles and issues that shape the surfing world. One of the premier subject-matter experts in the field today, he's savvy in the ways of print, digital and social media, his breadth of work is expansive. Getting his start writing Surfline surf reports and recording the phone reports for 976-SURF in the late '90s, Jake served as the managing editor for Surfer Magazine in the early 2000s before moving on to launch RedBullSurfing.com and cover surfing for ESPN and the X Games. Over the years, Jake has also enjoyed time behind the edit desk at The Surfer's Journal, as well as the World Surf League, where he worked as the Senior Editor for a number of years. Beyond producing editorial content, Jake has served as a digital marketer and copywriter for iconic surf brands such as Quiksilver, Roxy and Rip Curl. Writing thousands of pages of copy for Surfline, he has deep SEO experience as well. The surf columnist for the San Clemente Times, Jake continues to dedicate himself to the culture and history of the sport through his involvement with the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center in San Clemente.