Professional surfer Kelly Slater and his team from Kelly Slater Wave Company have built an artificial wave machine near Fresno, California that creates a perfect wave.

Few people thought it was possible. But in December, after two years of construction in near perfect secrecy, Slater released an extraordinary video of his machine in action. The excitement the video caused in the surfing community is hard to overstate. "That thing basically broke the internet," said Craig Brokensha, surf forecaster for surfing news site Swellnet.

In that video, the wave curls over silently, dark and mysterious in the early morning light. The water from which it rises is glass-flat; the wave’s curling edge is smooth, sharp, almost sculptural. "It is," Brokensha said, "almost too perfect."

"It's the most bizarre-looking thing you've ever seen," said Tom Lowe, a British professional surfer. "A robotic wave which goes forever." Lowe watched the first video, when it came out in December, 20 times over.