Watch: Palm Springs Wave Pool Update

Craig Brokensha picture
Craig Brokensha (Craig)
Reels

Fresh vision from the latest update to the Palm Springs Surf Cub wave pool is here, and the verdict is in.

Fun, fun, fun.

While short in nature, the sections, bowls and incoming wedges look just like a pumping East Coast beachie.

Dylan Graves got to test all the different settings while also making up his own wave.

Comments

crg's picture
crg's picture
crg Friday, 15 Dec 2023 at 10:15am

That’s probably as fun and realistic as I’ve seen a wave pool look. Also a good insight into their future potential with the customisation of waves.

Gowsa's picture
Gowsa's picture
Gowsa Friday, 15 Dec 2023 at 10:16am

I like the wave pool concepts
The Biggest issue with surfing is the elements have to combine....wind, swell, tide, banks etc.
Its like trying to pick the winning lotto numbers.

Boring to watch Comps in but reckon they would be fun as..
Every time you turn up you get a surf

Kym Wright's picture
Kym Wright's picture
Kym Wright Friday, 15 Dec 2023 at 11:17am

Great waves .The take off can be varied so you can get into the bowl . I would like the ride longer so the wall would have to be wider and longer which would use more land . Same for URBN at Melbourne an extra 10 sec. on the ride would add to the fun. Doing my yearly surf trip (gym) to Melbourne URBN where i know i will have waves all week late Feb. then down along the coast for a March surf .

nolocal's picture
nolocal's picture
nolocal Friday, 15 Dec 2023 at 11:41am

better than I expected. Just needs a bigger pool.

OzChopper's picture
OzChopper's picture
OzChopper Friday, 15 Dec 2023 at 11:44am

That build-a-wave option would make for some interesting takes.

Definitely looks like all round fun either way.

thermalben's picture
thermalben's picture
thermalben Friday, 15 Dec 2023 at 11:51am

Love the look of this pool.

Wonder how the numbers stack up though, from a biz POV?

"We throw 3 wave sets at 15 second intervals between waves with approximately one and a half minutes between sets."

That's two minutes and fifteen seconds between the start of each set. Allowing for some flexibility (make it two and a half minutes all up), that means the machine can pump out 24 sets per hour.

Of course, if they're switching things around and allowing surfers to paddle to other sections (i.e. the A-frame breaks in the middle, not off the wall) then this figure will get smaller.

But.. how many concurrent surfers can it handle?

I'd argue that if they allowed just three surfers per session, they'd be flogged after thirty minutes of non-stop riding and paddling (i.e. twelve waves for the half-hour). Truth be told, I'd prefer this kind of short intense session, than one that's long and drawn out, waiting while I watch others ride.

Six surfers in the water means everyone would be riding one wave every five minutes. This would seem to be quite realistic, and with twelve waves per hour, on par with most of the sessions I have had at URBNSURF.

Any more than six surfers in the water, and we're starting to reduce wave count quite a bit.

Is this enough to pay the bills? Of course, smaller numbers in each session means a greater chance that they'll fill the daily schedule. But, URBNSURF has two waves running concurrently, and I've seen up to eighteen people in the water on each wave (so, they can achieve up to thirty six paying customers per hour, plus all of the beginners on the inside section).

Anyway, I'll def give it a shot next time I am over in the USA. Looks super fun.

Nick Bone's picture
Nick Bone's picture
Nick Bone Friday, 15 Dec 2023 at 4:09pm

$350 aud for 1hr "advanced" session

zenagain's picture
zenagain's picture
zenagain Friday, 15 Dec 2023 at 11:54am

Just quietly, looks fun.

wbat's picture
wbat's picture
wbat Friday, 15 Dec 2023 at 12:29pm

All good fun but didn't quite knock Russ Bierke off the top of the news feed.

freeride76's picture
freeride76's picture
freeride76 Friday, 15 Dec 2023 at 1:00pm

hahahah- true.

Have to admit, I skimmed through it. Unlike Russ's clip.

Craig's picture
Craig's picture
Craig Friday, 15 Dec 2023 at 1:10pm

Ha.

crg's picture
crg's picture
crg Friday, 15 Dec 2023 at 1:54pm

Good point - but pretty much every second of surf content in the world would be the same…

I look at that and imagine if I saw 2ft random wedges with a barrel a turn and a closeout section out the front I’d be frothing…and that’s a first for wave pools for me.

Wong's picture
Wong's picture
Wong Friday, 15 Dec 2023 at 1:26pm

Nailed the water colour

Jono's picture
Jono's picture
Jono Friday, 15 Dec 2023 at 2:19pm

Some more footage here

Craig's picture
Craig's picture
Craig Friday, 15 Dec 2023 at 2:42pm

The slab is mental.

Sprout's picture
Sprout's picture
Sprout Friday, 15 Dec 2023 at 3:01pm

Plus JOB, Mason, Dylan... Apparently they had a video embargo lift yesterday.

JackStance's picture
JackStance's picture
JackStance Saturday, 16 Dec 2023 at 1:33pm

the skim at 16:40

peabo's picture
peabo's picture
peabo Friday, 15 Dec 2023 at 2:39pm

Slab option looks fun. But some of the other options look like they would leave you wanting a bit more. Wave is over very quickly.

Kinda looks like something for rich billionaires to buy for themselves rather than something which will do well open to the public.

Sprout's picture
Sprout's picture
Sprout Friday, 15 Dec 2023 at 3:13pm

Clean, looks fun.

Pops's picture
Pops's picture
Pops Friday, 15 Dec 2023 at 3:42pm

Found the vid kinda uninspiring.
Suspect it'd look better in the flesh though

Gra Murdoch's picture
Gra Murdoch's picture
Gra Murdoch Friday, 15 Dec 2023 at 5:54pm

Pretty rad to think we've now got wave shapers as well as board shapers.

frog's picture
frog's picture
frog Friday, 15 Dec 2023 at 7:32pm

Dbah lookalike

Bit too sharky for me.

Stok's picture
Stok's picture
Stok Friday, 15 Dec 2023 at 11:30pm

Have wavepools peaked?

Seeing Kelly on that first wave of the ranch came with so much froth.

Seeing Surf Lakes, Seeing wavegarden become a scalable commercial option....feels like years ago. The momentum has slowed.

And now this - it looks really fun. But is it about 2 years too late?

zenagain's picture
zenagain's picture
zenagain Saturday, 16 Dec 2023 at 12:07am

Too late or too early? The ability to direct the system to tailor make a wave puts it ahead of the others I reckon, even Urbnsurf.

In the future you might see air shows or tube fests or slab feasts all dialled up in the one huge pool stadium.

Or, it could be another monorail...

crg's picture
crg's picture
crg Saturday, 16 Dec 2023 at 1:10pm

I think that’s the key to wavepools in the future Zen…jumping in to the pool for your one hour session and having a variety of waves randomly throughout and not having to wait for different settings.
Start out with a few runners with turns…drift over to the peak and warm up the backhand…then the chip in barrel…then a few slabs…then a few bowls for critical turns to end or whatever combo you want.
Identical waves every time gets boring for me.

Stok's picture
Stok's picture
Stok Saturday, 16 Dec 2023 at 1:55pm

Oh yeah for sure it's ahead of Urbn, and looks more fun than Kelly's, just to me feels they missed the real wave pool push that was happening a few years ago.

Yes we all now know you can get perfect sheet glass blue little 2ft kegs in pools now.....nothing new and not really interesting. Particularly given how out of reach expensive it all is now.

dastasha's picture
dastasha's picture
dastasha Saturday, 16 Dec 2023 at 8:42am

Can anyone who's had a go in one of these things comment on the difference between salt and fresh water?
Are EPS boards preferred?

tip-top1's picture
tip-top1's picture
tip-top1 Sunday, 17 Dec 2023 at 2:20pm

looks fun , not sure the average punter could afford it though

batfink's picture
batfink's picture
batfink Sunday, 17 Dec 2023 at 4:53pm

Wave maestro (Shane?) has a touch of the Owen Wilson’s about him.

Looks like fun, and even better, the water isn’t 10 degrees Celsius.

So there’s that.

northeasterly's picture
northeasterly's picture
northeasterly Monday, 18 Dec 2023 at 10:55am

It looks incredible. The water colour and the wave look punchy and really fun.

But... at the risk of sounding like a kill joy, that wedge will send plenty of people onto the concrete floor head first. UrbnSurf is nowhere near as shallow as that pool and it can clobber punters all day. This new one looks dangerous AF. I suppose everyone signs a waiver so it doesn't really matter from a business perspective.

The cost of a session made my jaw drop. It looks fun but maybe not that fun. But then I'm a tight fisted scrooge.

haggis's picture
haggis's picture
haggis Tuesday, 19 Dec 2023 at 4:06pm

Looks fantastic

Stephen Allen's picture
Stephen Allen's picture
Stephen Allen Wednesday, 10 Jan 2024 at 2:33pm

My ejaculations last longer...

udo's picture
udo's picture
udo Friday, 12 Jan 2024 at 10:49am

Closed