Citywave design to be built at existing Washington state waterpark…

German company Citywave will see its first project land in the USA as Slidewaters, LLC announced plans this week to build and operate the first American deep-water stationary wave.

Designed in the land of Eisbach River surfing (Munich’s most famous wave and home to a professional rapid surfing league), this wave pool is closer to river surfing than, say, a Wavegarden Cove design.

That said, the design is proving extremely popular with Citywaves opening globally, most recently in Japan at the Spork Shinagawa Oimachi.

One of the few surfers to rival Kelly Slater in the ’90s, Shane Beschen, is a proponent of the design.

“Every year the wave has gotten a little bit better,” said Beschen at a Citiwave event last year. “This year the wave was much better in my opinion. Much more like an ocean wave. The fact that you can push your maneuvers and you have the speed to really push your turns.”

One of the biggest sells for Citywave is the designs relatively small footprint. Where a full-size Wavegarden or Surf Lakes 5Waves requires a football field-sized pool, this design can fit in your backyard.

The 52 1⁄2 foot wide Citywave can produce waves up to 6 feet and can be surfed with standard surfboards. Slated to open to the public summer of 2019 as part of Slidewaters on Lake Chelan, Lakeside Surf will be a stand-alone surf park.

“From an operation standpoint, we wanted to add the surf wave so that we could utilize it with Slidewaters but also way beyond Slidewaters’ operating hours and season,” minority owner Robert Bordner said. “Lakeside Surf will be able to operate before and after Slidewaters opens each day as well as earlier and later in the year. We envision being able to host surfers 9-months out of the year.”

Lakeside is also extending hours to accommodate new users. The company will offer season passes, surf club memberships, pre-work sessions, open surfing sessions and private party bookings.

Current Citywave locations include Munich, Northwest France, Zurich, Vienna, Northern Germany, Israel and Tokyo with Switzerland coming soon.