When Southern California’s notorious traffic isnt kind, the two-hour drive from Teddy Navarro’s home in Huntington Beach to work at The Palm Springs Surf Club can take up to four hours. Like many people in the surf park operations space, he’s learned to be flexible to accommodate everything from weird commute times to the on-again-off-again schedule of 2024. But the payoff is designing waves, perfecting roll-ins on the pool’s slab settings and bro-time with the talented assemblage of surfers at SoCal’s only wave pool in operation today. 

Okay, great. And what is your job title here at Palm Springs?

My job title at Palm Springs Surf Club is that I manage the surf pool and operations. So when it comes down to getting guys in the water to helping the surfers get situated in the lineup, managing a little team here for the surf patrol, basically day in, day out operations stuff.

And what is your background?

There is an asterisk by the name because we also do a lot of work for Surf Loch as well. So we’re kind of jacks of all trades, masters of none. I’m like a ghetto engineer if you want to call it that.

So you’re doing some engineering too with wave design as well as machinery work – kind of everything?

Exactly. I had an opportunity to dive deep into the company when we went down for a little bit. I took it upon myself to learn about the machinery in the back, learn how everything works from installing bolts to getting the blowers to actually producing waves and designing waves on the HMI and stuff like that. I’ve kind of dove deep into this project and took it head on to try to get more knowledge, get more experience because I want to lead the team. I want to try to be available for any kind of problems or assistance when it comes to wave pools.

And what is your background? Is it engineering?

No, nothing. My background is just strictly surf. I worked for Mau Loa Foundation which is a foundation for cystic fibrosis kids. I did that for a good 10-12 years, with actually some founders and investors here at the pool. It seems like I kind of tag along with those boys wherever they go.

How was it going from philanthropy to sequencing a chamber?

I think just the transition is very, well, you just have to have an open mind to things, you know, whether it’s professional surfing or helping out in the philanthropic world. You just got to have an open mind when it comes to transitioning into especially big projects like this. Finding opportunities where they arise.

Please run us through what an average day is like for you here.

I kind of try to get here about 6:45, 7:00, run through the back rooms, make sure that everything looks okay as far as the machinery. We have a couple steps that we have to go through as far as the opening up process. I just make sure that everything’s all buttoned up, get the coffee ready for the boys, and then start going through the checklist with the operators up front, the check-in girls, and make sure that we have our itinerary for the day set out. It’s making sure that we have our T’s crossed and I’s dotted as far as when customers come through the door. We have a good customer relationship, we try to be available for them. We get them their boards, we get them waxed if they need it. We take boards out onto the ledge. If they want to switch out boards mid-session, we really try to cater to the customer here and make the experience good because they’re coming to a wave pool. Some haven’t surfed a wave pool ever in their whole life. Even when it comes down to the water buoyancy, freshwater to saltwater, you got to recommend boards, just everything trying to get the people lined up so they capitalize on the waves when they do come out. It’s a little bit of a challenge for people, especially on an intermediate to beginner level.

What is the most challenging aspect of your job?

The most challenging thing when it comes to this job, I feel like just problem-solving in a time crunch, trying to keep everybody’s wits about them. When we run into problems, whether it be machinery, a schedule mishap, or anything like that, we just try to make sure those are some of the biggest hurdles that I find myself overcoming. As long as we stay positive and take a couple of deep breaths, I feel like we do a pretty good job of mitigating that stuff.

And what’s your favorite thing about this job?

I get to come here and see people walk in with smiles and walk out with even bigger smiles. We have a pretty cool crew of surfers, core surfers that love it, love the job, and they love surfing. We have a couple guys here that are like park mascots. They get more water time than pretty much anyone. And  anytime that they can fit in some sessions, they try to.