Kelly Slater’s Pro Surfer wasn’t the only surfing game to go for full realism – Namco Bandai’s TransWorld Surf also licensed a load of real-life surfers and also featured 10 real-life. The Game Boy Advance version of Kelly Slater was produced by HotGen, the development team responsible for Activision's other non-Tony Hawk extreme sports series on the GBA, Mat Hoffman Pro BMX.
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Professional surfers will be riding the waves again on Sunday for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic shut down the sport in March.
The Surf Ranch in Lemoore, California, some 100 miles from the Pacific Ocean, will provide a perfect bubble for the World Surf League’s Rumble at the Ranch featuring 16 surfers, including 11-time world champion Kelly Slater and Olympic qualifiers Kolohe Andino, Caroline Marks and four-time reigning world champ Carissa Moore. They’ll compete in a mixed doubles event for charity.
It’s a welcome return for a sport that was set to make its Olympic debut at the Tokyo Games, which have been postponed for a year.
“It’s a specialty event, so the importance comes with, hey, athletes haven’t gotten to put on a jersey in five to eight months and the fans haven’t gotten to see live surfing in that amount of time, either,” Moore said in a phone interview. “I think it’s good for everyone to get going again. I also think it’s something positive and a good distraction for us. I’m really looking forward to it.”
The WSL has had events the last few years at the Surf Ranch, which was developed by the Kelly Slater Wave Company and is owned by the WSL.
“It’s very fun,” Moore said. “You can imagine that every surfer’s dream is to surf a perfect wave over and over again. It’s really different. I mean, you’re surfing in the middle of nowhere. The competition is super different, too, because you don’t get much time to warm up because of the number of athletes competing.”
Moore hasn’t competed since a contest in Australia in March, just before the WSL shut down due to the pandemic. She returned to her home in Hawaii.
She qualified for the Olympics in December. The Tokyo Games were postponed in late March.
“I think it’s the best decision for everyone at this time,” Moore said. “I’m very grateful it’s being postponed and not canceled, and that I’m still part of the U.S. team. There’s a lot of positives, like getting another year to train. I just hope that it still happens.
“The goal is still there,” she said. “I surf every day. It’s part of my lifestyle. I’ll keep surfing every day. As travel restrictions start to open up, I’ll try to venture out a bit and try to do the contests that I can.”
Slater, 48, failed to qualify for the U.S. Olympic team. He was eliminated from contention at the last qualifying contest, the season-ending Pipe Masters on the North Shore of Oahu in mid-December.
The WSL’s 2021 tour is scheduled to start in November on Maui for the women and in December on Oahu for the men, subject to the approval of state and local government agencies, as well as effective protocols that allow for safe international travel.
Kelly Slater Pro Surfing Game
Sunday’s contest will be broadcast live on WorldSurfLeague.com and FOX Sports starting at noon PDT.
There has always been a surprising lack of professional surfing games on the market—but, nearly twenty years after its initial release, Kelly Slater’s Pro Surfer is still at the top of the list. With an emphasis on the actual sport of surfing rather than minigames playing over the waves like a Mario Party entry, Kelly Slater offers players one of the few, more authentic, surf experiences. Inspired by the success of the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series, Treyarch (now famous for their Call of Duty Black Ops series), tried their hand at replicating the addictive fun of skateboarding, with a surfboard on the waves, instead.
It’s All About the Physics
What Treyarch realized when designing their surfing game and what many, even titles released more recently like Virtual Surfing don’t fully understand, is the waves are the main event in a game like this.
Nailing the physics, the look, the sheen, the froth, the feel of the break and the barrel is the most important part of immersing players in the game. That being said, even by today’s standards, the water effects of Kelly Slater still stand close beside some of the best modern games—even those with really great wave physics like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey or Assassin’s Creed Black Flag. Conversely, newer surfing entries like previously mentioned, Virtual Surfing, has the gelatin looking water that Fallout 3 was famous for—it looks nice aesthetically, but for some reason it just feels off. Even with the limited capabilities of the systems it was released on, the pixel quality or polygon count—Kelly Slater runs at a smooth 60 fps and handles most all surfer animations and, especially, unique wave generation, wonderfully well.
Where Do We Put the Camera?
On the other hand, one of the main drawbacks is something that most surf games have struggled with—where is the best place to put the camera? Another successful game, Trans World Surf, opted for a third person perspective when paddling that zooms out when riding to get a bit more breadth of the wave. Ultimately, this is probably the best camera option for a surfing game—but Kelly Slater instead opts for a front view of the wave which allows a great scope of incoming sets, but still can feel a little limited as far as control standpoint. The points where you find yourself in the barrel are the most exciting as the camera moves to a third person close-up perspective of the character. When it comes down to it, the most immersive feel when surfing comes from that close third person perspective or the newly realized VR first-person perspective from Virtual Surf. However, the camera placement is a small gripe when the gameplay feels as varied as it does.
Embrace the Good Vibes
In an effort to cash-in on all the more extreme sports of the world Activision attempted to set up multiple franchises based around a sport-star like Tony Hawk for skateboarding, Matt Hoffman for BMX, or Shaun Hoffman for snowboarding.
The wonderful twist of Kelly Slater Pro Surfer, is that Kelly Slater became a big part of the development of the game—even offering stories for some of the locations and narration throughout. His involvement allowed his own feelings about surfing to be echoed in design. His love for the sport and the ocean encouraged the construction of the wave physics, the sound design and the overall relaxed feel of the game opposed to the punk-rock vibes of the Pro Skater series.
Unfortunately, this was the only entry in the franchise, but it still holds up today as an amazing surfing video game and fans of it still hope for a sequel or, at least, a remaster.
Kelly Slater’s Pro Surfer wasn’t the only surfing game to go for full realism – Namco Bandai’s TransWorld Surf also licensed a load of real-life surfers and also featured 10 real-life. The Game Boy Advance version of Kelly Slater was produced by HotGen, the development team responsible for Activision's other non-Tony Hawk extreme sports series on the GBA, Mat Hoffman Pro BMX.
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Professional surfers will be riding the waves again on Sunday for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic shut down the sport in March.
The Surf Ranch in Lemoore, California, some 100 miles from the Pacific Ocean, will provide a perfect bubble for the World Surf League’s Rumble at the Ranch featuring 16 surfers, including 11-time world champion Kelly Slater and Olympic qualifiers Kolohe Andino, Caroline Marks and four-time reigning world champ Carissa Moore. They’ll compete in a mixed doubles event for charity.
It’s a welcome return for a sport that was set to make its Olympic debut at the Tokyo Games, which have been postponed for a year.
“It’s a specialty event, so the importance comes with, hey, athletes haven’t gotten to put on a jersey in five to eight months and the fans haven’t gotten to see live surfing in that amount of time, either,” Moore said in a phone interview. “I think it’s good for everyone to get going again. I also think it’s something positive and a good distraction for us. I’m really looking forward to it.”
The WSL has had events the last few years at the Surf Ranch, which was developed by the Kelly Slater Wave Company and is owned by the WSL.
“It’s very fun,” Moore said. “You can imagine that every surfer’s dream is to surf a perfect wave over and over again. It’s really different. I mean, you’re surfing in the middle of nowhere. The competition is super different, too, because you don’t get much time to warm up because of the number of athletes competing.”
Moore hasn’t competed since a contest in Australia in March, just before the WSL shut down due to the pandemic. She returned to her home in Hawaii.
She qualified for the Olympics in December. The Tokyo Games were postponed in late March.
“I think it’s the best decision for everyone at this time,” Moore said. “I’m very grateful it’s being postponed and not canceled, and that I’m still part of the U.S. team. There’s a lot of positives, like getting another year to train. I just hope that it still happens.
“The goal is still there,” she said. “I surf every day. It’s part of my lifestyle. I’ll keep surfing every day. As travel restrictions start to open up, I’ll try to venture out a bit and try to do the contests that I can.”
Slater, 48, failed to qualify for the U.S. Olympic team. He was eliminated from contention at the last qualifying contest, the season-ending Pipe Masters on the North Shore of Oahu in mid-December.
The WSL’s 2021 tour is scheduled to start in November on Maui for the women and in December on Oahu for the men, subject to the approval of state and local government agencies, as well as effective protocols that allow for safe international travel.
Kelly Slater Pro Surfing Game
Sunday’s contest will be broadcast live on WorldSurfLeague.com and FOX Sports starting at noon PDT.
There has always been a surprising lack of professional surfing games on the market—but, nearly twenty years after its initial release, Kelly Slater’s Pro Surfer is still at the top of the list. With an emphasis on the actual sport of surfing rather than minigames playing over the waves like a Mario Party entry, Kelly Slater offers players one of the few, more authentic, surf experiences. Inspired by the success of the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series, Treyarch (now famous for their Call of Duty Black Ops series), tried their hand at replicating the addictive fun of skateboarding, with a surfboard on the waves, instead.
It’s All About the Physics
What Treyarch realized when designing their surfing game and what many, even titles released more recently like Virtual Surfing don’t fully understand, is the waves are the main event in a game like this.
Nailing the physics, the look, the sheen, the froth, the feel of the break and the barrel is the most important part of immersing players in the game. That being said, even by today’s standards, the water effects of Kelly Slater still stand close beside some of the best modern games—even those with really great wave physics like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey or Assassin’s Creed Black Flag. Conversely, newer surfing entries like previously mentioned, Virtual Surfing, has the gelatin looking water that Fallout 3 was famous for—it looks nice aesthetically, but for some reason it just feels off. Even with the limited capabilities of the systems it was released on, the pixel quality or polygon count—Kelly Slater runs at a smooth 60 fps and handles most all surfer animations and, especially, unique wave generation, wonderfully well.
Where Do We Put the Camera?
On the other hand, one of the main drawbacks is something that most surf games have struggled with—where is the best place to put the camera? Another successful game, Trans World Surf, opted for a third person perspective when paddling that zooms out when riding to get a bit more breadth of the wave. Ultimately, this is probably the best camera option for a surfing game—but Kelly Slater instead opts for a front view of the wave which allows a great scope of incoming sets, but still can feel a little limited as far as control standpoint. The points where you find yourself in the barrel are the most exciting as the camera moves to a third person close-up perspective of the character. When it comes down to it, the most immersive feel when surfing comes from that close third person perspective or the newly realized VR first-person perspective from Virtual Surf. However, the camera placement is a small gripe when the gameplay feels as varied as it does.
Embrace the Good Vibes
In an effort to cash-in on all the more extreme sports of the world Activision attempted to set up multiple franchises based around a sport-star like Tony Hawk for skateboarding, Matt Hoffman for BMX, or Shaun Hoffman for snowboarding.
The wonderful twist of Kelly Slater Pro Surfer, is that Kelly Slater became a big part of the development of the game—even offering stories for some of the locations and narration throughout. His involvement allowed his own feelings about surfing to be echoed in design. His love for the sport and the ocean encouraged the construction of the wave physics, the sound design and the overall relaxed feel of the game opposed to the punk-rock vibes of the Pro Skater series.
Unfortunately, this was the only entry in the franchise, but it still holds up today as an amazing surfing video game and fans of it still hope for a sequel or, at least, a remaster.
Kelly Slater Pro Surfer Gamecube
Pros
- Multiple surf-venues
- Amazing wave physics
- Relaxed, exciting gameplay
Kelly Slater Surfing Game
Cons
- Simple character animations
- Limited mode variety
Kelly Slater Pro Surfer Game
