Development in the heart of Europe’s vacationland will get wave pool…

Spain’s Costa del Sol is known throughout Europe for sun, seaside raves, five-week vacations and grand, grand development projects. It’s extremely popular with ex-pats from Scandinavia and the British Isles. At the intro to the Y2K classic “Sexy Beast” a swollen, sunburnt Ray Winstone bakes by the pool somewhere in the hills above the Mediterranean. The ex-gangster has set up digs in Spain to escape his mob past and live the good life. Now, thanks to government approval, a 2023 reboot of the film would include leisurely hanging out by a wave pool.

This week the Official Gazette of the Andalusian Regional Government granted regional approval for a commercial and leisure park by UK developers Intu. The project will see 6,000 dwellings built for an estimated 13,000 residents and many of the one million tourists who pass through Torremolinos annually. At the center of the project will be the wave pool by Surf Loch.

While Surf Loch has had many false starts these past few years, the world is waiting impatiently to see the full-scale genius from Flowrider inventor Tom Lochtefeld to come to light. There’s a chance other Surf Lochs will open before this one, but exactly where is still a secret. The mad scientist sees Costa del Sol as the perfect place to launch his next-generation wave generator in Europe.

“The Wave House surf park and entertainment lifestyle venue is coming to the most exciting retail development in the world: Intu Costa Del Sol,” Lochtefeld told Across Magazine. “A shopping resort with this vision, scale and ambition is the ultimate place to launch Wave House 2.0 in Europe. Powered by our Surf Loch Wave Systems, Wave House offers a taste of the surfing lifestyle…”

While Northern Spain is home to Wavegarden HQ (technically the Basque Country) the company webpage shows five new Coves in the works for the entire Iberian Peninsula. One of those looks to be in Costa del Sol. So, as of presstime, there are either two wave pools planned for southern Spain or Surf Loch got the nod for the Intu Costa del Sol project ahead of Wavegarden.

Tom Lochtefeld has been pretty hush-hush about his surf-able wave pool technology. He declined to speak to us because he steadfastly won’t promote “vapor waves,” a term used for wave pools yet to be built.

The massive €800million development will include the surf park, an auditorium, hotel and more in Europe’s premier vacation destination. It’s expected local councils will approve the project, with construction beginning shortly thereafter. The opening will be sometime in 2023.

For some cultural contest, here’s the famous opening scene from “Sexy Beast”