Great article, even though I don't really care about surfing.<p>One thing that struck me is how he describes the physical attraction of the wave, the need for it. After spending every surf session in your entire life waiting for a good wave, yearning for it, scrutinizing each swell to see if this is finally the right one, to have this perfect wave available whenever you want... It must be like handing the keys of the prescription drugs cabinet to an opioid addict.<p>I wonder if a good parallel for the wave machine is the advent of climbing walls in the 80s. I would say, 40 years on, that indoor climbing walls have indubitably been a Good Thing for climbing in general. Yet I'm pretty sure they sparked the same debates about the nature of the sport, its democratization and professionalization, etc. when they made their first appearance.