It was dusk on a Saturday night in late summer, and I had been looking forward to this evening for what felt like forever. I arrived before the sun set, slightly nervous, not knowing how the night would go. Would I score? Would it be everything I dreamed of? Is this the first time I would remember forever after?
Get your mind out of the gutter. We’re talking wave pools here … and I remember my first like it was yesterday. But to understand why my first time was so meaningful, we must take a step back in time.
Surf media was my main reference living in Baltimore, Maryland, as a surf-obessed grom. Surf magazines and videos filled my head with an overflow of inspiration, especially when I came across a story on Typhoon Lagoon wave pool in Orlando, Florida. The smooth fluorescent blue water, the contrasting rugged brown backdrop with prefect (at the time) peeling waves pushing through on demand was mind-boggling. That became the dream for a progression-hungry surfer who – well – didn’t really get to surf much.
The idea of getting to surf fun waves regardless of weather, tides, swell, and temperature was truly a dream. And it remained a dream for many years (12 to be exact) since access felt limited to professional surfers who got to visit the Disney-owned water park for publicity, media coverage, or Surf Expo after parties. Booking a $1,000 plus private session and hoping I could find 10 buddies to pitch in several hundred dollars wasn’t feasible as a jobless grom, or even as a broke recent college graduate. Until the invite finally arrived in the fall of 2009. I was invited through a friend of a friend to join a group of 10 surfers that regularly coordinated sessions.
My portion of the session cost, split 10 ways, was $125. That means the three-hour session offering 100 waves total was $1,250 back in 2009. The reality was working two jobs at the time; hotel mail courier by day and local restaurant bar back by night. The $125 for a wave pool session was a chunk of my $8.50 hourly barback earnings, but I didn’t flinch. My first experience was worth each of my 12,500 pennies.
I remember being nervous leading up to that first pool experience. I moved to Florida following undergrad and was sleeping on my older brother’s couch while working two jobs. What little swell we had in the ocean meant practicing so I could be at my best performance for when it came time for Typhoon Lagoon. This was the first time I was paying to surf afterall. With no idea what to expect in a wave pool, I was brushing up on my small wave game.
The day arrived, and we made the 1+ hour journey to The City Beautiful (Orlando, FL). Typhoon Lagoon offers morning sessions before the water park opens to the public and evening sessions after public hours, and my first session was the latter. We pulled up into the parking lot well before sunset to grab all our boards and meet at the entrance. Guests all need to sign a waiver, it’s a Disney-owned attraction afterall. Then an employee walked us through the gates and to the tail end of the wave pool for a briefing.
Now, to set the tone and mood for a private surf session in the Typhoon Lagoon wave pool. You get to connect a phone (or iPod back then) and play your favorite music over the water park speakers for the whole session. There’s a wave counter-clockwise where you enter the pool so you can keep count. The 3-hour session includes 100 waves (90 sec apart), and you can choose rights/lefts/split peaks in sets of 25 (split peaks only in the evening). The sun is either setting into the night with lights illuminating the whole wave pool, or you are arriving at dark and surfing as the sun rises and steam covers the pool for dawn patrol private sessions.
The wave pool sets the mood, your surf crew sets the tone, and it’s nothing but stoke from my personal experience. To this day, 37 years since this wave pool opened and 17 years since my first experience, it is still one of my favorite wave pools. Yes, the wave might not compare to the 21st-century wave-making technology like Wavegardens or Endless Surf, but my grom-like stoke never fades when invited to a session at Typhoon Lagoon.
To This Day
Despite being my “local pool break” where I live currently in Florida, I don’t frequent Typhoon Lagoon as much as one would assume. It’s not practical to try to find other surfers to commit to a specific date months in advance and pay a couple of hundred dollars, especially when you don’t know what the swell’s going to be like in the ocean on that day. Whether it’s a friend from up north visiting sunny Florida or a birthday, there always seems to be an occasion warranting a session every other year or so.
Not Always The Most Magical Place
Everyone in Florida wants a piece of this wave pool. Of my eight experiences at Typhoon Lagoon over the years, my least favorite were when I joined an organized group through a “vendor.” I put vendor in parentheses as most aren’t Disney-approved businesses and are just organizing their own sessions and upcharging. One experience organized through a local influencer included photos and surf coaching. The surf coaching basically meant the influencer got to mix in with us paying customers and catch some free waves. I also realized that the “surf coach” got most of the photos and videos while I received a whopping 8 photos from the 3-hour experience. I was particularly bummed as the last surfer in the queue (trying to be polite) since I got one less wave compared to everyone else who paid for this experience, but the coach got to catch the same number of waves as the other 9 surfers.
Another organized experience through a Florida video company included clips of all your waves surfed. Surfing with a handful of others I never met before wasn’t as fun to begin with. One surfer had a mechanical fin that helped push him into the waves. Another surfer was visibly frustrated and added to the already awkward mood. To top off this overpriced experience, all customers received an email explaining the videographer they hired to cover the session (guess they outsource) discovered his memory card was corrupt and no one was receiving video of their waves. That was my last Typhoon Lagoon session booked through a third party.
@surfparknerd Giving Flowstate Pro a GO ▶️ #surfing #technology #wavepool #disney #surftok ♬ RINGS – Otis McDonald
Can’t find a friend to film your Typhoon Lagoon session? Give Flowstate Pro a go!
Typhoon Lagoon vs The World
Will this wave pool continue to thrive as new surf parks featuring state-of-the-art wave technology are built here in Florida? Time will tell, but I have noticed private session costs have increased for the first time in many years. With The Point opening this year (2026), E-Town Wavegarden announced for Jacksonville, EpicSurf opening on the Florida West Coast, and Peak Surf Park in Tampa, I’m hopeful the supply of surf parks will balance out the demand and costs for the no-name paying customer like myself.
Latest Typhoon Lagoon Pricing: (source)
- Morning Private Surf: $1450, tax included
- Evening Private Surf (Sundays through Thursdays)
- Base Price: $1550, tax included
- 125 Waves: Additional $300, tax included
- 150 Waves: Additional $650, tax included
- Evening Private Surf (Fridays and Saturdays)
- Base Price: $1750, tax included
- 125 Waves: Additional $400, tax included
- 150 Waves: Additional $750, tax included
While session costs have increased recently, your cost remains a balance of how many surfers you invite vs how many waves each rider gets.
Everyone’s First Time
Regardless of which wave pool, it’s safe to say it will be a special and memorable experience. You get to experience fun waves on-demand, like clockwork. The atmosphere is catered to any level of surfer and wave size/power/length are curated for your ability nowadays. With no benchmark to compare to, likely any first surf park wave will be magical. I can’t imagine if a Wavegarden or PerfectSwell wave was my first experience!
Unproven science shows surfing in one wave pool tends to lead to a desire to experience many other surf pools.
Connect with me on LinkedIn to chat all things wave pools or on Instagram @SurfParkNerd for more on Typhoon Lagoon wave pool.
Will I see you in the happiest lineup on earth?
