STATUS: Operational at a handful of public and private locations
WAVES: A-Frame center peak with options for dedicated left or right
LOCATIONS: Palm Springs and Rotterdam (Public)
Wave pool OG scientist Tom Lochtefeld finally saw his design come to light in 2020. After years of test tanks and sketches, the inventor of the FlowRider pumped out waves at an abandoned water park in the desert. Today, the wave pool technology can be found in Holland (he explained the system in a podcast) and at two undisclosed private venues.
SurfLoch’s technology uses pneumatic systems within big caissons (a watertight concrete or metal chamber) that push out air to displace water and create a wave. When wave programmers fire the chambers in a specific sequence, any number of wave types can be created. The pool at Palm Springs Surf Club has 12 of these chambers. A full-size SurfLoch design could count up to 24 chambers.
Wave sizes range from 2-to-6-feet with the ability to go bigger in the right setting. Waves can be created to break right, left or as a central peak producing both a right and a left. The length of the ride depends on the size of the pool and the number of swell-producing chambers. The Palm Springs test pool offered six-second rides but the new full-scale pool offers 12-second rides. The system is controlled by software designed by industry heavyweight Siemens. Surf Loch told WavePoolMag they currently has projects ongoing in Spain, Australia, The USA and elsewhere.
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