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.
