Photo: Surf Lakes
Surf Lakes has the weirdest looking wave pool tech on the market, hands down. Or, maybe it’s not weird so much as it’s just the most eye-catching. A giant plunger pumping in and out of a pool while sitting next to some kind of miniature offshore oil rig is going to catch your attention, after all. Aesthetics aside, there’s a method to the Mad-Max-ness.
A new short video from Queensland, Australia-based Surf Lakes shows the different surf zones created in its pool with each plunge. Obviously, there are a whole bunch of mechanics involved and bathymetry factors that bring it all to life, but a bird’s eye view in the video shows how all that wave energy gets dispersed. Now, just about every wave tech touts each individual wave creating a section for more advanced rides and a smaller, slower, softer sections for beginner-friendly rides. That two-for-one packs a punch for developers and investors. But a unique aspect of the Surf Lakes design is that the pool disperses wave energy into zones for five different ability levels spread throughout the pool under different setups.
At six waves per set with 48 rides per set, 50 sets per hour, the plunger churns out a high volume of rides. A pool can support 208 surfers at a time, which either sounds like your normal hellish day at Trestles or dollar signs at the ticket counter, I guess. Under scenario number one in the new display video, Surf Lakes says its pool produces 2,080 rides per hour. An older video has an animation of wave cycles that includes how and when surfers rotate between sets, where and how wave energy is dispersed and where each ability zone lies.
Some quick math after watching that rotation video and seeing how each surfer shifts through the lineup with each set, you are left with 10 waves per hour. While more than 200 people in a lineup sounds like absolute chaos, it would be difficult to convince yourself that you’d get 10 waves — good waves ridden to completion, not just a pop up and kick out — in the midst of 200 ravenous people in California’s Pacific Ocean.
