Set on a leafy, riverside campus near Albany, NY, Aquatic Development Group (ADG) started as a commercial pool contracting business in the 1950s. The company got into the wave game in the 1980s and has been designing surf park experiences worldwide ever since. They’ve had a hand in film sets like the classic “North Shore,” and built some of the first purpose-built surf pools in Southern California, which hosted the first professional surfing competition in a wave pool back in 1989.
Along the way, ADG has continued creating new types of surf experiences, including a 3-in-1 boogie boarding pool in Australia, a 3-acre compact surf development concept, and more than 130 FlowRiders as the North American licensee. In more recent years, ADG developed EpicSurf, a deep-water stationary wave that can fit in spaces as small as a parking lot (which is where this writer got to try out the wave) — unveiled at Heroes Paradise, a Florida activity complex where ADG is installing the second-largest standing wave in the continental U.S. ADG now also manages the Citywave USA business from a sales, engineering, manufacturing, and construction perspective, this new partnership allows the company to continuing pushing its mission to bring more waves to more people.
For ADG, the wave is only one piece of the equation. The company’s broader focus is designing and building specialty aquatic destinations that function successfully both in and out of the water.
“The surf industry is accelerating at a very quick rate,” said Jim Dunn, president of ADG. “When we start working with a developer who wants to build a surf park, a lot of times the client wants to focus immediately on the technology. And we’ll say, ‘Let’s start with your business plan, your goals, your customer, how many people are coming, where are they coming from, and what kind of experience do you want them to have?’”
According to Dunn, ADG’s 360-degree approach started in the ’80s, when water parks were just beginning to take off.
“We liked that people wanted to come to the park and enjoy the rides, but the entire family needed to enjoy the whole experience,” he said. “Not just the water, but a comfortable deck experience, good F&B options (like chicken fingers), and changing rooms laid out for strollers and families. When approaching a surf park design, it’s really no different. It starts with asking a lot of questions.”
That dual outlook — on water and, well, chicken — speaks to the company’s dual specialties. Since the beginning, ADG has been designing equipment and building wave systems. But with decades of experience as builders, the company also looks at how all the elements and spaces work together while balancing operations, guest experience, timelines, and budgets.
Julie Kline, Director of Sales and Marketing for ADG, described this puzzle-solving approach through the lens of the different people who may visit a surf park and what each of them needs from the experience.
“There are so many different models for surf park developments,” said Kline. “Some guests may visit as a resident tied to a residential component, a private member, a day guest, or even a spectator. You start thinking about what the customer journey actually looks like once the guest model is determined. Do I need to sign a waiver? Do I need to rent equipment? Do I get my wetsuit with my surf package? Then you start asking operational questions. How do I return the wetsuit? Is somebody helping guests select sizes? What happens if I bring my own wetsuit? Where do I meet the surf instructor?”
“Once you determine the experience you’re trying to create and how guests are expected to move through the property, the design discussions can begin,” continued Kline. “For example, if I have 40 people in a surf session, how many wetsuits should be in inventory? How should the storage and cleaning facilities be designed to support operations? Those are the details that ultimately shape the project.”
Jim Dunn added that it’s the little things that matter when looking at the big picture.
“I call it the ‘What If’ game,” said Dunn. “What if we’re here to surf? What if we’re here to drink? What if we’re here to relax? You start playing those scenarios out in your head and begin learning how to strengthen those spaces. It’s all the little elements that determine what the site plan is actually going to look like, not just starting with the basin. It’s important to research what surf technology and provider you want to work with, but there are many other pieces that go into creating a successful project.”
Dunn attributes ADG’s agility to its culture of curiosity. When he joined ADG in 1987, he was only a few years out of college with a degree in architecture. After regularly commuting five hours from Buffalo to visit his girlfriend in the Albany area, he ultimately decided to relocate there himself. During his first week at the company, with only basic experience in residential pool design, he was handed a project that had to be completed in the metric system. Then his coworkers left town for a trade show, leaving Dunn to figure it out on his own. (Spoiler: the project went swimmingly.)
“ADG is a small organization,” he said. “Very can-do, hands-on, figure-it-out. I like to say our most successful people are naturally curious about how things work and why they work.”
Over time, that curiosity has helped ADG continue refining both its specialty construction and equipment manufacturing businesses. “We just kept asking questions,” said Dunn. “We would build something and go back and ask, ‘How did that work? What could be better? What have we seen at other locations that could apply here? In the surf park market, surfing is a sport, and it needs to be treated that way. Water parks are more of a novelty experience. But even though surfing is a sport, the way people recreate around water is still very similar.”
Looking ahead, one of the industry’s biggest discussions is where new surf parks make the most sense. According to Kline, there’s an ongoing debate between building in established surf markets like Florida and California, or developing projects in places like Nebraska or Bahrain (where a surf park is currently being built!), locations where the absence of a coastal surf culture may actually create stronger demand.
“There are hundreds of surf parks around the world in different stages of development right now, all using different technologies and business models,” said Kline. “As these facilities open and operate over the next several years, we’re going to gain much better access to data that will show which models are the most successful.”
One trend ADG is currently seeing gain traction is the concept of scaling surf parks differently. “We’ve been talking to developers a lot lately about creating compact surf park concepts,” Kline said. “Not every project has to be a massive $100 million destination. What about a $20-40 million development with a smaller pool and a more intimate experience? Something that allows developers to target urban parcels and gives investors a project that pencils out more easily?”
Dunn imagines these smaller-footprint surf experiences playing a significant role in hospitality and surf culture. These compact surf parks, he said, could be built in parking lots, malls, and other three-to-four-acre parcels with easy highway and neighborhood access. They could even be enclosed to create weatherproof entertainment and event spaces.
“For the wave-curious guest, which is a huge part of the population that aspires to surf, this becomes a much more approachable starting point for progression,” said Dunn. “I might go to this smaller venue first, get my surf legs under me, have some fun, and then eventually move to a larger surf pool or even the ocean. The variety of surf park sizes and experiences helps build new business for everybody because once people catch the bug, they continue looking for new and more challenging surf experiences.”
This is where ADG believes it can draw on more than 50 years of experience, leveraging lessons learned, insights gained, and challenges overcome across decades of aquatic development. Playing a role not just as a consultant but as a builder gives the company a more grounded perspective on costs, functionality, local codes, scheduling, and ultimately the ability to deliver projects successfully.
The future of the compact surf park is still taking shape, and ADG’s role within the surf industry: from large-scale surf destinations to standing waves and smaller urban surf concepts, will continue evolving alongside it. But one thing will remain constant: Dunn, Kline, and their colleagues will keep asking, “What if?”
