Last year, a backyard wave pool took the internet by storm. Well, the surfing part of the internet, anyways, which is pretty small. But still, it was a real tempest in a teapot for surfers. Well, the crew responsible for it made it better. And Ben Gravy got to test their wares.
“I received a random DM about visiting a wave pool that was built in a guy’s backyard,” Gravy said last year. “The pictures weren’t very impressive and I had no way of telling how big the waves were, but as the novelty guy of course I agreed to visit. When I arrived in Arizona and got to experience the first set, my perspective changed immediately. It was a massive layout with 3-4-foot perfect waves pumping through on command.”
When the footage hit the internet, people were curious, to say the least. The possibility of a backyard wave pool seemed… possible.
“Everybody was trying to figure out where it was, what the tech was, how it worked, and why the water was so brown,” Gravy said. Well, now we know it is in Prescott, Arizona, and Gravy and The Wave Source, the scrappy little group responsible for the minor miracle that is this little pool, decided to give it some upgrades.
Back in 2011, when wave pools were just a flicker of hope far in the distance, I spoke with the founder of Wavegarden, Jose Odriozola. We talked about the little pool he’d built in the Basque Country — a tiny proof-of-concept that was the precursor to the wildly impressive technology that’s now in wave pools around the world. I asked him back then whether it would ever be possible for the layman to have a wave pool in his backyard.
“We’d like to think that it is too complicated, but you never know,” Odriozola answered. “It’s taken us a long time of research and development… Regarding the idea of having your own Wavegarden, it definitely needs too much money and too much room for the average surfer to have your own private Wavegarden.”
The Wave Source, however, is attempting to crack that code. “Our innovation empowers developers and partners to achieve higher profitability while delivering authentic surf experiences in scalable environments,” it explained.
The upgrades the Wave Source team made are myriad. Longer walls for a longer wave, a filtration system for clearer water, and a few other odds and ends.
“We’re making the wave better, bigger, and longer,” Gravy said. “… [Wave Source’s] vision is access to waves for everyone. While the rest of the industry seems to be in a competition to build the world’s most expensive waves and create elitist surf playgrounds, Wave Source is trying to expand opportunity. Surfing was built on sandbars, community, and shared stoke. It was never meant to be a luxury product.”
