As the northern hemisphere rotates into winter, what are wave pools doing to keep customers coming back during booties and gloves season? We spoke with park operators in three very different climates to learn how they incentivize their venues. In this feature, Japan, Melbourne, Bristol and Waco share tips on keeping busy during the cold season.

The sun is shining, the weather is toasty, and the water warm – meaning stellar days and plenty of guests through the gates for wave pools everywhere. But what about when the weather cools? You still need surfers in the pool to keep the operation going. How, when many folks are hunkering down at home to stay warm and dry, do you convince people to come out to cold, albeit perfect, waves? The short answer? Price and atmosphere. But every pool offers something different to incentivize surfers.

“Winter months are slower here for sure as you never know if the winter will be brutal with snow and hail storms, or mild with minimal winds and above freezing temps,” said Waco Surf’s Amy Hunt. 

Prices during those months are much lower, as the surf lagoon’s water temp fluctuates directly due to the ambient air temperature. Installing amenities like a hot tub and the Surfside Shack, where warm drinks and tacos/burritos are served, have also helped get people here in the shoulder season, reckons Amy.

During winter, The Wave in Bristol, England, has to balance attracting enough surfers to keep the business running with closures for annual maintenance and harsh weather conditions. 

“We’ll typically have to close The Lake a few times per winter for water temperatures dropping below the 4 degrees that is allowed . . from a customer experience safety perspective,” said Joe Dale, Head of Commercial. 

To attract keen surfers, The Wave has also introduced free access to lakeside saunas all winter to help surfers warm up between surfs. Joe said this was seen as a huge added-value experience. Also offered is a same-day surf discount, which is either 25% or 50% (for community members) off a second surf booked on the same day. Regular surfers will often attend The Wave knowing which wave they want to book next, but it’s also an excellent hook for beginners/learners to build on the endorphins of having a great surf session and wanting to go again.

Japan’s Surf Stadium, which also faces cold winter temperatures until March, has some novel approaches. 

“We held a tournament in the cold of early April, with the aim of increasing the number of people who use the pool to practice for the April tournament. This effort worked well,” said Surf Stadium’s Public Relations liaison, Atsushi.

Another unique winter-season program for Surf Stadium has been distributing discount coupons exclusively to customers in areas without waves during the winter. Atsushi reckons this approach has worked well, with an influx of new domestic visitors outside Surf Stadium’s region. As a flow-on, this has also benefitted accommodation providers and restaurants in the area.  

Completely closing an operation for a few weeks does have an upside, though. 

“We get to work on the scheduled maintenance and any construction projects we’ve got lined up,” said Waco Surf‘s Amy Hunt. “It also provides a nice slow lead-in to retrain existing staff on anything new and train all our new staff for the incoming year – before the peak season mayhem,”  

She added that during the shoulder seasons, just after re-opening, she gets to take time off and celebrate with staff – which means more staff surf sessions – proving that planned closures certainly come with a silver lining.

URBNSURF began offering the Winter Warrior Pass at their Melbourne pool. AU$1500 will give you unlimited surf sessions (bar the expert wave setting) for 30 days in June. Morning, noon, night, weekdays, or weekends, all times available.

As an extra incentive, the person who surfs the most sessions will win a one-hour private after-hours lagoon hire to be used in July. 

If this is successful, we’ll find out soon. And it’ll be interesting to see if other pools in temperate climates may follow suit with similar unlimited session deals.

The Wave has opted to simplify its payment structures instead of going for seasonal pricing. Previously, they offered six pricing tiers throughout the year, but as of 2024, they have Off-Peak, Peak, and Summer Holidays. 

“Pricing on all reef waves is now the same rather than increased for the biggest wave settings, meaning the most regular big wave surfers will see a noticeable saving over the course of a year,” said Joe Dale.

Surf more, pay less, add a bit more rubber, and luxuriate in that poolside hot tub this winter – is it worth the discounted price of admission? Do these offerings entice you to become, in colorful Aussie terminology, a Winter Core Lord?