Austin Keen, has truly made a splash into world of surfing this last week. Austin is a professional skimboarder who has many titles including World Champion of Skimboarding and SurferToday’s Most Influential in Wave Sports (next to Kelly Slater). He has also become iconic for his “gotta-see-to-believe” boat wake hijacks behind Axis A24. This past week, Austin made yet another shattering title in the surf industry. He rode the Kelly Slater Wave Pool at the WSL Surf Ranch, making him the first person to ever skimboard the wave pool.

There were a handful of obstacle to overcome before he could have this opportunity. Austin said that to go out, he had to meet safety regulations, so he asked the maintenance worker to drill a hole in his skimboard so that he could attach a surf leash. He had to start running before he could even see the wave so that he could gain the speed and momentum to make it into the curl of the wave. On Instagram, Austin said, “Everyone was frothing over the slide out to the wave, and if you look closely you can see me shaking like a leaf, hoping I time it right, slide out far enough, and don’t blow it"” Despite everyone’s reservations about what he was going to do, he skimmed to and caught the wave perfectly the first try!

In a recent interview with Adventure Sports Network, Austin Keen said, “I saw this as a huge opportunity to show the world what skimboarding was. It’s a small industry and too many people think that skimboarding is a tourist activity and not an actual sport.”

Axis Wake Research is proud to have such a thriller like Austin Keen backing us. Keep shattering the status quo, Austin!