More about Swell MFG

A lot of questions came up after this week’s announcement about the USA’s newest wave pool, Cannon Beach in Mesa Arizona. To answer some of the queries and to get more information on the new, unseen tech we sat down with Matt Gunn, one of the creators of Swell MFG, the technology that will power the Revel Surf Park. We found out that the waves will break for a “soft” opening while the world waits for the official launch.

Will the wave pool open before the rest of the development? This was the practice at Turtle Island in South Korea and it seems to make sense.

Yes, we will plan on wave testing before opening alongside a soft opening under invite-only before we fully open. While surf parks that are open now have shown various methods for managing the volume of surfers and differences between beginner/intermediate vs advanced sessions for certain wave systems (ie AWM and WG) our wave system and lagoon is of a different design and will require our own learning for the right number of surfers per session and flow between various levels of experience from beginner/intermediate and advanced surfer sessions. All of the surf parks open have worked through those challenges to find the right flow. We expect to do the same. 

Can you share any more about your technology? Levers? Pneumatics?

Until we formally reveal our technology we are keeping the details private. I can share that we use a lever-type function vs pneumatics. This leaves us in the arena with WG rather than AWM / Surf Loch / Endless Surf on how to generate waves. Once we do reveal our lagoon, it will become apparent as our system does not hide behind a screen or wall. That is something we are very excited to showcase at the right moment. 

Will you have to hide any of your tech from early press imagery during construction like Wavegarden does?

I expect us to keep fine details private during construction; however, we will plan to bring folks along for the journey and share certain aspects of our construction process. While we will certainly host tourists and travelers to Revel Surf, we are building Revel Surf as a “home break” for those in the Phoenix area. There are many surfers here who are stoked to have a wave. We want to bring them along for the journey so they can also get excited about what will become a local break for them. Already, locals are getting excited as news begins to travel. It will not surprise me to see some at the fence looking over for a sneak peek. I know I would if I was on the outside looking in. We love the local support we’re getting already. It’s very cool. 

Check the Podcast with Matt Gunn here