What’s it like to sink a big chunk of your life into something unproven at the commercial level? Not like a hipster, vegan, donut store in a trendy neigborhood, but a giant multi-acre concrete behemoth filled with water and moving parts? What’s it like to build the “first ever” of anything? What’s it like to be Andrew Ross? Find out in our latest podcast…

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Andrew Ross has a rack of achievements lined up in his resumé. Apart from a law and a business degree he’s worked in Russian oil and gas, headed up an investment fund and taken on the monumental challenge of building an untested and completely new-to-market surf park. Is he nuts? Quite the opposite.

The other day we called up Australia and got to chat to Andrew Ross. It was a great conversation, not just because he’s such a down to earth relaxed professional but because he’s opening one of the first two Wavegarden Cove’s in the world. It’s quite tense watching both Bristol and Melbourne (as I do), releasing tidbits about the boxes they’re ticking and the milestones they’re hitting and gliding by. It certainly isn’t always smooth sailing, but let’s dig deep into Andrew Ross’ life and find out how URBNSURF came to be.

Wave Pool Podcast Show notes

• Early days in Melbourne, moved to Perth and completed University at Murdoch University.
• Surf exploring down south near Margaret River. Sharks.
• Law Partner at 28, turned it down and went to London/Moscow.
• Crazy Russian business deals. 
• Wavegarden’s “blackliner video” and Andrew’s first experience of Wavegarden in 2012.
• The funding journey for URBNSURF.
• Details of seed funding and how Andrew went about it.
• Competition and exclusivity with Wavegarden.
• Dark times and how there weren’t any!
• When did you get the press involved?
• Opening date – potentially December 2019.
• Wavegarden Lagoon vs Wavegarden Cove
• URBNSURF’s future plans in Australia.
• Melbourne detail of the actual park itself: suits a resident based Cove.
• The future of surfing and “splinter categories” of surfing.
• Competitions in surf parks and we talk about the “Freshwater Pro” vs new styles of surfing competitions.
• The future of surf parks in 2021 to 2022 and also we chat about Aaroon Trevis’ Surf Lakes.
• Major milestones for URBNSURF.

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