Maybe you're thinking, geez, I'd love to get the board out, wax her up.
Well, you reckon Today.
Surfers are unhinged and as the little baby Grom, oh, I.
Know they's true.
Yeah, you were a little grom. It was a coasty boy, your blonde curls.
And we needed to speak to doctor Anna Manaro. Now I want to say it's Manaro, right, Anna correct?
Okay, Minera Manaro. You know how it is here in camera?
Because yeah, because Minera Manaro is very confusing in camera and is your middle name Manica. So we need to speak to you because you're a surfing researcher at A and U and you've thrown your support behind a wavepool coming to camera.
Now.
If people don't know what these wavepools are, you may have actually seen them before. There's one in Melbourne, there's one in Sydney. I think it's called Urban Surf. It's a terrible name, but they look super cool and they're very popular or overseas too, there's some really big ones overseas. And you were thinking that maybe this is a good idea to bring something like this to camera, if we're going to reinvent the pool space.
Oh, thanks. Yeah, I think these facilities offer a range of opportunities and for sure, like surfing is part of Australia's identity, is the second most practice water based board only after swimming. We have more than seven hundred thousand surfers across the country and it's only growing in popularity. Wow. I think a wave pool like this can give the opportunity for kids like yourself or stuck now in landlocked camera but they still dream of catching waves and now being an Olympic sport, it also offers a pathway for children.
That's true.
That's true. Yeah, and we do have the AIS, so it makes sense that we would have that option.
Yeah, it makes sense. You also have this still an institute of sport, which obviously a facility like that could off opportunities into understanding how to improve performance, what surfing does your mental health, lot of other components that are very difficult to track in the ocean.
I also found it really interesting that the Sports Commission data revealed that there were four thousand, seven hundred surfers who lived in Canberra. Yeah.
Well I crunched that number, so we know there are more than seven hundred thousand surfers across Australia and their estimate was like zero point seven of those surfaces living camera, So that's about yeah, between like four and five thousand living in Camera, but there could be more.
And I guess then, as you know, we are landlocked, you'd have to be getting yourself to the South Coast all the time to get all your practice in which means you've got to take time out of your weekends or even time off school if you're a young kid and wanting to learn the sport.
So a wave pool would open up that opportunity.
I think so. I think it would have gout an opportunity for people who in Canberra to have those basic skills and then go back to the ocean. But you know what's really interesting, I think we would also open opportunity for people living on the coast to come here to train. So I was in the Melbourne facility in January and there were a number of like comment kids really like late teenagers living in the South Coast like Torqui, and they half world class free ways and they were traveling all the way to Melbourne with the coach to get a video, just getting feedback and and practicing the terms practicing the maneuvers one after the other just to get better. Some think they do complement each other. Nothing is ever going to replace the ocean. But I think I like this. They number one day offer surfing for a broader population, but also they do type into that high end athletes. And if you look at the world rank as Australia produces half of the world's top surfing athletes, pull be a country of twenty two million people. So our contribution to professional surfing is really unparalleled.
And you're a surfer yourself, I am.
Yes, and I am based in Perthal, although I do work for the AMU.
I am based in Wa, right, Okay, so you do get to surf a lot more than if you are based in Camera Yeah.
A little bit more, yes, Yeah. So I don't have no vested interest in the Camera pool, the full disclosure. I just think it would be a good facility. And there's always considerations and where this is going to be built. Is it going to be impacting native biodiversity? What about the water consumption, the energy consumption. I'm not saying it's a free fall. Yes, it's build these pools everywhere. I think there needs to be consideration for those you know, the costs and environmental impacts for sure. What I'm also trying to say is it's just not a pastime. It does really contribute to much more than people just getting getting barrel and betting stoked. And like the facility in Melbourne host mother's group which I also volunteer with. I'm in my free time and the president of our non for profit organization called Surfing Moms. So we have a mother's group who meet at the pool. They take terms looking after each other's children and they play in the playground. Moms get a coffee, they get a serf and yeah, they're happy for the rest of the week.
Oh you saw me.
Of course she's in any mother's group. She's in What's Your Birth Story? That's about the surfing. So when it comes to places like this urban surf, this artificial wave pool that's in Melbourne, what happens when it comes to winter time?
Oh, people just put on booties and a hood and they they got I knew it. Yeah, hot tubs and I think that it does close for a little bit. But you know what's interesting. I was told that because the water gets so cold, they were renting it out to a footy clock that was training just next door, you know.
Cold.
Yeah, so I was like, well, you know, yes, it gets killed. I think there's a lot of ways that it can be.
We can check the Raiders players in there after a big game.
Yeah, exactly. So I think there's a lot of ways that you can make these facilities, you know, cater for for a range of people and activities. Is not as I said, it's just not only getting waves. There's a lot more that goes on around these places.
Well, you've sold us, You've sold U stuff. I think I think this could be billed.
I need to come and test it.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
And also I haven't been able to serve since I was like eleven, and I went through a growth spurt and then I got too tall and now I'm too top heavy. I don't understand how my body works anymore once I hit eleven, So maybe it'd be good for me to get back in there again. I can't wait, jocor Benaro, let's see if this happens.
All right, Thank you, thank you so much.