Sydney seems set to have two wave pools opening in the next couple of years, and the technology market is heating up globally. So, let’s take a minute to look at what’s on the horizon that might have surfers looking west of Pittwater Road for the first time.
The leader in wave quality has to be KS Wave Co, which works by towing a submerged foil back and forth. That freak-of-engineering looks destined to remain out of reach for most humans, with a price tag of over $500 a wave. Surely for that kind of money you could bribe yourself into a real wave just about anywhere. As for creativity, it’s hard to go past Yeppoon’s Surf Lakes. They’ve basically put a giant plunger in the middle of a lagoon and built artificial reefs around the outside. This provides great variety and a solid wave count, but it’s been a rough road, snapping the main plunger during early testing. They are finally on the road to a public opening this decade. In the meantime, it’s been a private paradise for a few lucky professionals and that guy who plays Thor.
Then, there’s the proven model. Most commercial wavepools use the same basic premise – you’ve got a pool with contours on the bottom, and a series of moving parts lined up along one of the walls. Those moving parts are operated by a computer to push out a controlled amount of water, resulting in segments of a wave. Individual control of the segments determines the type of wave; turn sections, barrel sections, air sections, and so on. This means that the pool can offer up a whole range of different waves at the touch of a button. Pools like this are great for the masses. There’s potential to crank out a wave every 8-10 seconds, and with the usual mirror (left/right) design that means about 1,000 quality waves an hour – or about 100 times what DY Point offers on a good day.
Sydney’s slated to get two pools using this sort of tech, although they’ll be very different. First, there’ll be URBNSURF at Homebush, with basically a cookie-cutter copy of an existing Melbourne pool (although with less arctic water). That uses a diamond shaped pool, with generator modules along a central pier to create a left and right on each side. It’s efficient and compact, although arguably not especially attractive. Perfect for maximising activity on the turnstiles.
Then, there’s Wisemans, brought to you by the Northern Beaches crew behind Balnce, with tech from Endless Surf (backed by Whitewater, the biggest name in waterslide parks). They’ve gone for a split-peak design, with generator modules all along a back wall. That allows for a “bonus” mode which runs end-to-end with a 25-second ride – that’s like Snapper to Greenmount. It’s a little less efficient, but as a “members only” facility, there’s less focus on maximising visitor numbers.
So, what will this all mean for our local beaches? Will we see an exodus to the west whenever the waves go flat? Will we see a bunch of groms from Parramatta start to dominate? Or will the ocean just keep getting busier and busier until everyone moves to Byron? We’ll see.