Surf Planner Update: The world’s latest wave pools – Is your town on the list?
Welcome to our latest edition of the Surf Planner update. This month saw a flurry of activity globally with more wave pools planned for Europe, South America, Australasia and the USA. The WavePoolMag Surf Planner is currently up-to-date with nearly 95 projects worldwide.
How do we do it? How do we track down all the developing projects in the world? In all honesty, it’s a mixed bag. Sometimes developers reach out to us and the information flows. Other times, our queries are as welcome as a Nigerian Prince inheritance email typed out in all caps. It always depends on which side of the publicity fence a wave pool project sits on when we reach out. During the fundraising and publicity cycle projects are very chatty and want visibility. WavePoolMag is their best friend. But once the dealmaking, regulations navigation or, say, the discovery of Neanderthal bones on-site occurs, things go. quiet.One of our favorites rejections came from Kelly Slater Wave Company. After several back-and-forth volleys of info through the various media teams were simply told, “Had a talk with Kelly Slater last night and I’m not in a position to release any information at this time.”
But we are here to celebrate the possible, the do-able and support all those dreams that will ultimately produce surf-able waves. When we started this column 18 months ago we had under 50 wave pool projects listed. Now, one year later it’s nearly doubled. On top of that, one industry insider told us our map is missing several secret sure-bet projects.
Of the pools that come to life, some will change the face of landlocked communities and prevailing social paradigms going as far as producing a real-life Rick Kane. But most, hopefully, will simply become a neighborhood surf spot to session and share good times with family and friends,
New technology by the Olas company plans to bring a wave pool to the more-than-a-mile-high city of Quito (9,000ft). Olas says their system can produce high-quality surf by stacking modules. These modules can be customized to fit any desired size or budget of surf park. According to the company, their first pool will hit the two-meter wave height but there are plans to go bigger in the future and produce bigger waves delivered as rights, lefts or both at the same time. The company claims that the cost of their wave pool would be much less than what is currently available on the market.
“The park will be built in a nature-surrounded location, very close to Quito, and minutes from the international airport, in a beautiful valley east of the Ecuadorian capital,” the company told us. “The wave pool will have a capacity of 672 one-hour sessions per day and will be open 14 hours every day. It will offer perfect, 1.80m high waves with 16 seconds duration.”
Webber Wave Pool Coral Springs, Florida
Ocean Sports Development will be the first to bring to life Greg Webber’s two decades of wave pool research. The pool will be located in Coral Springs as part of a larger development. Greg Webber confirmed to us via email that the park would use Webber Wave Pool technology.
“Hopefully it’ll be worth the wait!” Webber told us. “And yes it’s a single channel linear pool that goes up and back. About a 25-second ride at head high and they are planning on making 2.25-meter waves. About 120 waves an hour with one hull and nearer to 180 with two hulls. The plan is for this smaller non-looped design for the colleges and training and the full scale looped linear for larger-scale developments next to existing hotels. What’s great is that it will still allow for customized waves and they want to use the current control system too.”
For more information on Webber’s system check this link.
Manchester, Modrn Surf Manchester
A £60m outdoor wave pool is planned for a plot of land near the Trafford Centre. A Belfast-based property developer, McKinney Group, is seeking permission from the local Council to develop the area near Barton Dock Road in Trafford Park. The plans call for a full-size Wavegarden Cove surrounded by a fitness zone, skate park, pump track and other “action activities.” Amenities will include a bar, restaurant and equipment centre. If approved it will help rebrand the area as a health destination and sit adjacent to a massive new £250m Therme Manchester. That site will have warm water lagoons, slides, botanical gardens and spa facilities.
Southport Cove Resort will feature a spa and resort vibe in the seaside town of Southport an hour west of the major metropolitan hub of Manchester. The wave pool will be built on the Merseyside coast by a group called Go Surf who expects to attract around 150,000 visitors per year. The central attraction will be a wave pool by Endless surf, a pneumatic system, where air is forced into chambers to push out water in the desired effect. The company re-envisioned the standard wave pool shape and hydraulic sequencing to create longer, and potentially more significant waves.
Surf n Play Aquapark, Kingston Victoria Australia
Just 50 minutes from Urbnsurf, the City of Kingston in Melbourne’s southeast is planning an Endless Surf wave pool as part of a $100 million project. Artist renderings show the new surf spot surrounded by water slides, a human-made beach, and family attractions. In a similar fashion to the Palm Springs Surf Park revamping the Wet n’ Wild water park, the Surf n Play Aqua Park in Melbourne will be built on the old site of Zagame’s Wild Water Park.
Surf the Wave, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
One of Asia’s most significant land developers is creating a large mixed-use community using Endless Surf as an anchor amenity to attract residents. The area is being dubbed Vietnam’s Silicon Valley, becoming a new hub for technical industry and innovation. The development will cater to a skilled tech workforce within shouting distance of Ho Chi Minh City and close to the Thu Duc district. To support the growth of this new administrative region, $12 billion is being invested in infrastructure and commercial developments, including a new financial district. And, of course, a new wave pool.
Double wave pool of unknown technology to be built on the site of an abandoned coal mine. One of the surf pools will be huge at roughly 300 meters long with the other one slightly smaller. The Surfwrld facility will double as a research center to study wave action in the winter non-surfing months. Project logistics and funding is just getting started but hopes to be done by 2023. Artist renderings show lefts and rights peeling from the point of a triangle that feeds into a long narrow rectangular pool with a short central pier at the start of the wave. Surfwrld said wave height will be 2-6 ft. Length of Wave: could be well over 100 yards/meters
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