How Olympic Surfing Is Trying to Ride the Machine Learning Wave – The Wall Street Journal

TOKYOSouth African surfer Bianca Buitendag uses some apps and websites to gauge wind and wave conditions before she competes, but she doesnt consider surfing a high-tech sport. Its mostly about trying to gauge the weather.

Thats about it, she said this week.

Carissa Moore, who on Tuesday faced off with Buitendag for the sports first-ever Olympic gold medal, takes a different approach. She loads up on performance analytics, wave pools and science. The American, who beatBuitendag by nearly 6.5 points to win the gold medal on Tuesday,has competed on artificial wavesand uses technology such as a wearable ring that tracks her sleep and other vitals to help her coaches fine-tune her training and recovery.

Their different approaches go to the heart of a long-running tension in surfing: dueling images of the spiritual, naturalist wave rider versus the modern, techie athlete.

Theres this illusion that youre trying to sustain, even if youre aware of all the stuff thats gone into [surfing], said Peter Westwick, a University of Southern California surfing historian. Hes talking about the use of advanced polymer chemistry-enabled products in surfboards and wetsuits and complex weather modeling that helps govern where and how competitions like this Olympic event are held. The tech has roots in military research and development, he said.

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How Olympic Surfing Is Trying to Ride the Machine Learning Wave - The Wall Street Journal

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