You are a dolphin off a warm coast at first light, and your legs are its tail. Swim the hoops, run the shoals, and when a swell comes under you, put everything you have into it and see how far out of the water you can get. The whole pod jumps with you.
Filling the sea…
The water
Sensors
Smart trainer or power meterNot connected
Heart rate strapNot connected
Speed / cadence sensorOptional, for dumb trainers
You
A sprint session dressed up as a holiday. Cruising sits around 60% of your FTP; every jump costs you fifteen seconds of everything you have, and then you get to glide while you recover. Expect eight to fifteen real sprints in twenty minutes.
How to play
Watts are the tail. Harder is faster, and faster is also higher — above about 60% of your FTP the dolphin climbs, below it, it sinks. That one rule is the whole game: the hoops are at different depths and your legs are the depth control.
← → swim left and right. Tilt works on a tablet, and so does a tap on either side of the screen.
Space, or the Dive button, tucks the nose down whatever your legs are doing. Use it to get under a deep hoop without easing off.
Sprint to charge the surge bar. Above about 125% of FTP it fills; it leaks away if you sit up. Hit the surface with a full bar and you go up like a rocket.
Swells are ramps. Meet a rolling swell on the way up and it throws you far higher than flat water will. The game calls them — SWELL AHEAD — so you have a few seconds to wind it up.
In the air, ← → spins you and holding Dive throws a front flip. Every full rotation multiplies the jump. Land nose-first to keep your chain; land flat and you lose it and most of your speed.
Breathe. The breath bar drains underwater and fills the moment you break the surface. Run it dry and you slow right down until you come up.
Shoals are free points and a little surge — swim straight through the middle of them.