An hour of waves at Waco’s BSR Surf Resort will run you $90 an hour right now. Technically, you can’t book any time in neighboring Austin’s NLand Surf Park while they transition to new ownership by the WSL. But before the closure, you could snag two one-hour sessions in their pool for $196 after tax. Want to surf The Ranch? You either need a personal invite, tens of thousands of dollars to rent the place out, or a cool $3,500 for a day of training in KSWC’s new pilot program. For all the possibilities wave pools have planted in the minds of everyday surfers, surfing their waves isn’t exactly cheap.
But according to Walter Bennett, founder of a company named Swellspot, it doesn’t have to be that way much longer. According to the company’s website, their tech can produce 1800 “main rides” per hour and 1800 “inside whitewash rides” per hour in a 2.2-acre pool, all with a wave generator operated by “stored and reusable energy” and operating with minimal movable parts. Add those factors with the relatively low purchase and startup cost ($1.8 million for main surf lake and an additional $1.25 million for supporting infrastructure), and Swellspot is already declaring its parks will be able to offer surfers a cost as low as $30 for a one-hour session.
“For what I can build the pools for compared to other companies, well it’s better to stay under the radar,” Bennett told WavePool Mag this week. “I believe we have the best wave technology and best surf system in the world that checks off all the boxes. — i.e. quality of wave, frequency of waves generated, PLC control of the waves, cheap to build, feasibility, low cost to operate and maintain, and also targets multiple skill levels from beginners, to intermediates to advanced pro surfers. And our surf system can be built in very small footprints.”
Currently, the company website and Youtube channel has just one video of a demo wave — a beautiful little A-frame breaking in a small pool. It’s clearly not big enough for a person to surf, but if you imagine it on a three-to-six-foot scale as the developer claims it’s capable of then well, that’ll be $30 well spent.
