VIDEO: Where are we? The state of wave pools

Dion Agius © Globe

Wave Pool Updates

Japan, Dubai and Kelly Slater lead the movement

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 10 September, 2012 : - - Kelly Slater and Greg Webber are about to unleash a torrent of wave pool projects that get much, much closer to the real thing. Along the way there have been some noble attempts at wave pools. The Seagaia Ocean Dome opened in the early 1990s in Miyazaki, Japan. Seagaia offered sometimes head-high, barreling chlorine wedges.

But the waves were short, and backwash from the first wave made consistency an issue. Then there was the whole business aspect of it — the gigantic complex’s astronomical utility and maintenance costs ultimately caused it to close down in 2007 despite solid attendance.

Things got slightly better when Murphy’s Waves constructed pools in Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon in Orlando, Florida; The Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas; the Siam Park in the Canary Islands; and most recently in the Wadi Adventure park in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates, which was featured in the short film “Electric Blue Heaven” .Note that the harem of half-naked Russian models surrounding the pool was not included in the initial design.

“Sheet waves” are another type of surf mimicry, and are created by pumping a sheet of water over a wave-like ramp. Tom Lochtefeld and his company, Waveloch, have been very successful with this type of wave, which is created with his Flowrider invention. There’s even one on a cruise ship. But surfing on sheet waves doesn’t compare to the sensation of real-life surfing, and thus they have been largely ignored by core surfers.

What’s the future look like?

Kelly Slater’s Wave Co. and renowned Australian shaper Greg Webber’s Webber Wave Pools seem destined to be a part of the race to get at something truly emulating ocean surf, but Spain’s Wavegarden team is clearly at the forefront of the new-school thinking on manufactured waves.

Inspired by a boat wake breaking on a riverbank, in 2003 Weber decided to shift his focus from making surfboards to designing a ring-shaped pool where waves are generated on the outer edge and peel around a central island. But in the patent process he ran into a bit of a standoff, as Kelly Slater had founded a wave company of his own with a very similar ring-shaped design. After the dust settled, Webber continued on with a unique design that creates two waves simultaneously, instead of Kelly’s one, thus avoiding infringement. Webber was even able to secure funding from the Australian Research Council.

Read the full article at Adventure Journal