Surfer launching an aerial maneuver off a wave pool wave at The Swatch Nines event at Waco surf facility.

Recap: Leon Glatzer at The Swatch Nines Surf & Skate

First hand insights behind the scenes

Notoriously known for rad times, the Swatch Nines Surf & Skate returned to Waco Surf October 8–10th, 2026, bringing together some of the world's most progressive surfers and skateboarders for three days of riding, creativity and progression. ION was represented from our very own Leon Glatzer as only surfer from Europe on the event. We tasked Leon to tell us everything from behind scenes, his experiences and everything you want to know from this unique event style.

Five questions for Leon

#1 Best food in Texas?
The Smash Burger right here at Waco Surf

#2 Five words to describe The Nines.
Absolutely organized chaos, craziness. Just real good energy. (ok, we'll let the last one count).

#3 Give us positive gossip about your „competitors“
The more tipsy they get the better they perform haha.

#4 Which skate trick do you want to land on a surfboard?
I would like to do a kickflip on a surfboard. But that sounds really hard. I know there are like two people in the world who done it.

#5 If you had to choose one for the rest of your life: getting barreled or only doing airs?
I would say, you’re not going to believe it, getting barreled because I’ve done airs literally for my entire career. So I would like to get barrelled for the rest of my life.

Surfer launching an aerial maneuver off a wave pool at night, board fully airborne above white water spray.

Smiling shirtless male surfer holding a Red Bull-branded surfboard outdoors in warm golden light, wearing a Red Bull cap.

Swatch-branded outdoor venue at sunset with golden light reflecting on water, swim start pontoons visible in the foreground.

About The Swatch Nines Surf & Skate

What makes The Swatch Nines so special is that there is so much creativity going on. These things that happen here, you actually dream about it when you are a kid like can you actually rail into a wave and they makes it happen.

I would describe it as something you’ve never seen before mixing three sports in one event. Go on your imagination what’s the most impossible thing to do on a surfboard and The Swatch Nines makes it happen.

The vibes is definetely something special because it is not a competition. Everybody is genuinely supporting each move that the others are doing. You are not competing against someone. You want that other guy to go bigger than you. So you just follow up and do something bigger the next move. I think that’s what’s cool and different from any sporting event that I’ve been into.

»The entire surf scene can learn from this event. To take it to the next level in the future. To see a surfer mixing skate tricks in a wave is something crazy. I can’t wait to see what the next couple of years will bring.«
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Skateboarder performing a handplant on a Swatch-branded ramp beneath a colorful floral arch against a clear blue sky.

The biggest misconception people have about The Nines ist hat they think it‘s just like another competition. And it’s so hard to really show this on social media. It’s so hard to show what’s really happening here and how the energy is and how creative it is. And how hard it is to make an event like this happen. I was talking about it yesterday to Nico (founder of The Nines): to make a rail go into a wave, to have this massive crane that puts a half pipe in the middle of the pool. Nobody understands how diffcult this is. Yes you can create it, sketch it, draw it but to actually make it happen is something very very special. And there is one guy that made it happen and that is Nico Zacek (the creator of The Nines).

Spectators sitting on a Red Bull branded structure at an outdoor surf event under a deep blue sky, some holding surfboards.

What goes on the behind the scenes that people can’t see online is the fun that is apart from just the wave pool. There is so much more stuff to do here and a lot of people are just having a complete blast when they are not surfing.

The entire surf scene can learn from this event. To take it to the next level in the future. To see a surfer mixing skate tricks in a wave is something crazy. I can’t wait to see what the next couple of years will bring.

Reason for mixing surf and skate is that they are two sports you can really interlace. So we have this really big crane where they can put a half pipe right where the surfers are. So can jump over it, you can jump through it and have two sport interlacing with each other in one clip which you rarely see especially with surfing.

Leon Glatz Kerupt Flip at the swatch nines

Leon's personal highlights

I think my personal progression highlight: I never winched or been pulled by a cable into an air section. The first hour it didn’t work out and the next session I got the opportunity to do it and done one of the biggest airs I’ve ever done in a wave pool. The highlight was definetely this morning when I did the winch on my last day. I basically wanted to go as high as I could and I made it happen. I never did such a high air in a wave pool. I felt like I was flying.

The last day has been my favorite. We practised all of our tricks on the first to days and on day three it’s basically a full blow out and everyone basically just goes crazy.

Suprisingly for the first time in my life I didn’t break a board on this trip. That’s very very rare. I think they did some good boards.

My favorite challenge has been the rail into the water. I didn’t do it but it was my favorite challenge to watch.