World of Red Bull Big Wave Surfing Now On Apple Vision Pro

I’ve long wondered if technology could get to the point where the recreated experience was so realistic people would actually stay out of the water. Like, if you could simulate the surfing experience to such a high level, that less people would go surfing. Wouldn’t that be nice?

Well, it seems like we may have actually gotten there with the latest news from Red Bull and Apple Vision Pro. While the price isn’t cheap (they start at $3700) neither is traveling and training for years and years to get to the point where you can finally get a crazy barrel at Teahupo’o.

Personally, I’m far too invested in the real life journey to be interested. Honestly, I would be happier if we didn’t even have smartphones and social media. Take me back to paper maps, VHS tapes, dumb phones, and the days of 976-SURF.

Oh well, you can’t put the genie back in the bottle, but you can put these futuristic devices on your head and become a cyborg core lord. Just don’t call them goggles. Nor headset. If that’s weird, don’t worry, they’ll find a way to implant technology directly into your brain soon and you won’t even have to worry about what to call them, you won’t even have to think.

Which, honestly, seems to be the point where half of the heads in any given lineup tend to be. A bizarre collective phenomenon of non-thinking in action, where all they need is a soft top, or an undersized thruster, and a clueless desire to rip like the pros.

For those surfers out there, this is the best thing to happen since the Wavestorm. For the rest of us, it’s far better than that.

All jokes aside, the technology here is pretty top tier tech. World of Red Bull – Big Wave Surfing, a new Apple Immersive Video production, launches on Apple Vision Pro on October 2, putting viewers inside Teahupo’o’s barrels alongside nine surfers, including Italo Ferreira, Molly Picklum, Lucas “Chumbo” Chianca, and Tahitian local Michel Bourez.

The production was shot using stereoscopic 3D imagery captured in 8K with a 180-degree field of view and Spatial Audio, with cameras positioned on the boat, in the channel, and inside the breaking wave itself. That last position is the one that matters most. Instead of watching Teahupo’o from a distant angle, the format is built so the camera’s point of view becomes the viewer’s own, surrounded on all sides rather than confined to a screen.

Getting there wasn’t simple. Salt + Air Studios, led by ocean cinematographer Mike Prickett, worked alongside Apple and Red Bull to solve two major problems: keeping the camera steady enough on a moving boat for immersive playback, and keeping water spray off the lens, since even a single drop can compromise a much larger portion of the viewer’s field of vision than it would in conventional footage. The team also developed new methods for capturing slow-motion sequences built for Apple Vision Pro’s format.

The result is a production built entirely around proximity, putting the viewer as close to Teahupo’o’s barrels as the camera equipment allows.

World of Red Bull – Big Wave Surfing will be available through the Apple TV app on Apple Vision Pro starting October at 6:00 PM PT.

Related: Skindog’s Surf Etiquette Masterclass: Every Surf Spot Is Like a Bar, Not a Starbucks