Wave Pool Mag

In our latest podcast Nick Robinson dives into the hot new topic of intervals in wave pools. Joining Nick and editor Bryan Dickerson are Baptiste Caulonque and Clement Ginestet of Endless Surf wave pools. The four explore the intervals inherent in popular surf systems and how that affects the surf itself, the customer experience and ultimately operating expenditures. It’s a fascinating dive into a...

Nick Robinson chats with WavePoolMag editor Bryan Dickerson about the latest happenings and goings-on in the wave pool world including upcoming projects, rumors and pipe dreams. The two also map out what wave pool contests could and should look like...

Aaron Trevis has been tinkering away for well more than five years on Surf Lakes. He built small 1:25 and 1:10 prototypes of the plunger to see if the idea could work. It did. Fast forward to today and licensing has been fast with Surf Lakes selling territories in Hawaii, China, the US, and elsewhere. In all, the company says they have 19 projects in the works with more to be confirmed. WavePoolMa...

Oscar Segall is the human behind Fazenda do Grama, Brazil and South America’s first surf-focused wave pool. In this episode podcaster Nick Robinson uncovers the how and why of Segall’s master development. The Wavegarden Cove is the central component to the private development and is only accessible via membership or residency. It could also herald the arrival of wave pools replacing golf courses e...

Urbnsurf Melbourne has been open for a little more than one year. In that time the gates have been shut more often than open. By not pumping out waves to a happy public on the daily, their learning curve for building a thriving, profitable surf park has been incredibly steep. CEO Damon Tudor shares with us an accelerated master class in wave pools, outlining the company’s plans including key targe...

Surfloch is one of the larger wave tech providers having originally made a splash with the sale of the Flowrider system to White Water. Tom Lochtefeld has led Surfloch into a new era of wave creation coming up with a powerful system for creating top quality surfing waves. He has proved it in the Californian desert at Palm Springs with ex-BSR wavemaker, Cheyne Magnusson and his team at the Palm Spr...

Jess Ponting relates his early days in Fiji and then working his way around the Pacific to San Diego. He ended up there for life becoming an Associate Professor at San Diego State University and is the Founder/Director of  Center for Surf Research . He has an impressive resume: Dr. Jess Ponting is considered the leading academic and consultant in sustainable surf tourism. He holds the world’s...

Nick Hounsfield had a background in healthcare and is the chairman of Surfing England, having long been involved in the governing body. His dream to build a wave pool in a field outside Bristol has captured the attention of thousands, if not millions of people around the UK and the world. He chats with us about the highs and the lows, not just of the inception period but also about ongoing operati...

I can picture Daniel teaching volleyball on Ipanema Beach in Rio de Janeiro and wondering how these guys can fly in from Norway and enjoy such an amazing quality of life. So, being a man full of initiative he figured it out, jumped on a plane and moved to Norway to study. He had no choice but to work hard and get his degree, which he did. It was an incredible challenge, but he overcame it and is n...

Catching up with Wavegarden is an exciting conversation. We discuss the traditional diamond shaped "Cove" and how it could be modified to fit different locations and topographies. We talk energy and how the Wavegarden is more efficient than any of it's competitors. We talk about some of the key projects that they're working on around the world and Séan lists the "next to market" contenders. It's d...

Scott Bass hails from San Diego and runs his own surf show: "The Boardroom Show" Check it out over here https://boardroomshow.com/ It's a solid surfing podcast and an excellent show where Scott brings people together around the stoke of surfing. We get to chat about his experiences in the following pools: Kelly Slater's Surf Ranch Typhoon Lagoon in Disney World NLand in Texas (now closed) BSR in W...

Mark has built a brand around making waves. It's called https://www.waveprizm.com/ , however he is not about to compete with the major players at this stage. In this long conversation Mark recounts how his life led up to his current experimentation with wave machines and discusses his claim that he can make bigger waves that are currently on the market. It's a long chat, that gets very technical i...

We have an amazing page on our website over on www.wavepoolmag.com called the surf planner. It details all the projects in the space that we've written about and there are potentially quite a few others under wraps. In this chat Bryan and I head through all the projects we're aware of and proceed from the point of view of the companies who provide the technology: Kelly Slater Wave Co. Wavegarden A...

Andrew Thatcher grew up surfing in the warm waters off Durban, South Africa and came to live in my home town, much further south before leaving for the USA back in 2000. The happiest coincidence occurred when a family connection to Tom Lochtefeld landed him a job at the legendary wave maker's Surf Loch and Wave Loch company. Tom had created the Flowrider and Andrew helped to spread the piece of jo...

Ryder Thomas is a fun, engaging character, and while he was sitting in a cold grey day in New York, I jumped on a call with him from my base down here in Portugal. We had a long and super interesting conversation all about the inception story of his company Pegasus Lodges, his relation to the Paris wave pool project and then his project down in the Caribbean at Punta Cana. Get this, it has not one...

Adam Bonvin had a dream a long time ago and worked diligently to create it. His story is an inspiring one, where someone with a completely different background to that of a big time property developer and armed with a passion for the sport envisaged a completely new tourism offer. He is on the road to opening that dream in April 2021 and not even Covid can stop him! Good luck for the launch Adam,...

Rupert Hill set up "Surf Simply" from scratch over in Costa Rica. He has made a remarkable success of it, going from zero to hero in over 10 years. It's been a long hard slog but he is on top of his game now, offering surf weeks for over $6,000 per person and boasting a two year waiting list. That's an incredible achievement. Well done, Surf Simply! Nick picks Ru's brain about surfing and how the...

Matt Gunn became disillusioned with the total lack of waves after moving out to Arizona from his native California. Being starved of surf certainly drives you crazy, but would you be crazy enough to build a wave machine AND a wave park? Matt's certainly not crazy, but he's really committed in a quiet, dedicated kind of way. Backed by a big hitters like Shane Beschen and others... well, he's bound...

The Paris project has been a fascinating combination of public and private co-operation and Baptiste has been working as a consultant in the thick of all the agencies working hard on the project. The promise of perfect machine made waves in the middle of a large capital city hasn't been realized yet - will Paris be the first to market? These large undertakings are notoriously riddled with problems...

We discuss Skips background, the wave pool industry as a whole and how he started Surf Park management. Probably the best story was when he flew down to some country in Central Americat to the location of a proposed surf park and was shocked to find a sex store and a gun shop neighbouring the property. Location is pretty important! We dig into his Turtle Bay Hotel project on the North Shore of Haw...

In 2014 Berlin was set to plant a Wavegarden Lagoon plow system at an old airstrip outside of town. When the plan was axed by the local council Eirik Randow got all frothy and took it upon himself to do something. In 2016 he kicked off a program to bring the new Wavegarden Cove technology to Berlin. “In the beginning of projects like that you don’t have a very good understanding of what you’re get...

Check out www.wavepoolmag.com/podcast for the show notes.

Brett grew up surfing in Long Island, New York and I caught up with him online to talk about the project he has been working on for over four and a half years. Apologies for the audio quality, (it's tough when you're doing these things over the web), however, you can hear him pretty clearly. Let us know on our Instagram if you have any questions about the park and we'll ask him on to answer them....

Sophie Everard is a journalist, passionate snowboarder and surfer who has worked extensively within action sports media for more than ten years and is a published writer for industry-leading snowboard titles. She has also set up a brand called "Mad to Live" through which she promotes a positive, modern message of female empowerment with original content. Attached to the content brand is a series o...

We get the full story on Andy Hadden's seven year journey in creating another jewel in the Wave Garden crown. By the time this surf park is constructed it could well be the seventh wave garden in operation around the world. Andy relates the story leading up to where he is at now - a massive journey already but still far from over. Exciting times for the wave pool industry!