After a well-documented journey from concept to concrete, Surf Center just launched its flagship facility this week. The Brazilian indoor wave pool is surrounded by fitness equipment, a reflection of a new type of surf park business model, that of a gym utilizing surfing as the centerpiece.
Housed in the southern Brazilian metropolis of Curitiba (population two million), owners have been working for eight years to bring the facility to life. It is the first full-scale Brazilian-made wave technology and the first indoor and heated wave pool to launch in the Southern Hemisphere.
And with the new technology comes a new business model that sets itself apart from much of what’s currently available.
“Since the focus of our project is accessibility, we made a wave that’s more accessible – it’s very surfable for beginners, intermediates, and even training for advanced surfers,” Surf Center’s Founder Luiz Balioli told WavePoolMag. “(It’s) the most viable pool in Brazil for people to actually have access to surfing (beyond the coast).”
The São Paulo Model
Balioli’s message adds a different note to the current private club and residential model currently booming in Brazil. That growth, centered on São Paulo, is dominated by two companies, KLM and JHSF.
In São Paulo, facilities like Praia da Grama (KLM) and Fazenda Boa Vista (JHSF) produce high-quality artificial waves, yet they are largely inaccessible to the general public. Entry typically requires purchasing high-end real estate within private developments. This model—tying surf access to luxury property—has proven effective for initial development but remains exclusive.
The recently launched São Paulo Surf Club (by JHSF) and Beyond the Club (by developers KLM) sit just a few miles from each other and work on the country club model. Annual buy-ins are costly but provide access to waves and amenities.
Beyond The Club covers over 100,000 square metres and features high-end amenities. The São Paulo Surf Club bills itself as a “sports lifestyle and amenities” facility. Both are centrally located near the famous Transamerica Bridge, making them attractive to wealthier urbanites who want to session at set hours.
Artificial Wave Technology
While the KLM projects have licensed Wavegarden Cove technology and JHSF has signed on with PerfectSwell, SurfCenter is promoting its own homegrown tech.
“Pneumatic waves already exist, like PerfectSwell and Wave Loch,” explained Balioli. “But they use a technique that creates a junction of energy, starting in deep water and moving towards shallow water. You can make rights or lefts, but the wave loses size and energy over the course of the ride if you don’t add additional air boxes to support the wave’s height. It demands a lot of extra boxes and blowers. We were able to utilize a bottom contour and air chamber placement that maintains the size of the wave for longer. Our wave is 3-4 feet, but it runs for 40 meters at about that size, only losing at most 20-30% of its height.”
In the video, you can see how the new technology maximizes pool space with the wave traversing the pool diagonally rather than perpendicularly.
Balioli says the wave runs for 8-12 seconds and covers 40 meters. The relatively small footprint uses just two million liters of water. The company said the hourly wave count is 240 waves per hour, four per minute, with a one-minute break between sets.
Surf Center’s co-founder, Fabricio Stedile, flaunted the preliminary interest in their technology in a press release, stating, “We are negotiating (for new pool locations) in places like Brasília, São Paulo, Mato Grosso do Sul, the countryside of Paraná, and the northeast, with the expectation of opening 20 new Surf Clubs in the next five years throughout Brazil and also abroad.”
Initial membership prices were discounted to between $10K and $20K. A call to the sales agent yesterday found that pricing had increased. We were told that current pricing requires a down payment of R$23,000 ($4232.45), then 36 installments of R$5,749.92 ($1058.10.) The total of which comes out to R$229,997.32 ($42,324.04.)
