Wavegarden raises the bar with Japan announcement
Another week, another big announcement from the nocean industry. This time it's Wavegarden who in conjunction with a Japanese licensee have announced not one, not two, or even three new wavepools, but a somewhat random seven wavepools in the next seven years.
This equals the amount of pools Wavegarden currently have in operation, though they also have a further five pools in the planning/construction phase, including Sydney.
Wavegarden claim to have 47 more pools 'under development', though this can be anything as airy as an MOU or an EOI, both of which mean SFA.
That last statistic aside, by virtue of their finished projects Wavegarden are clearly leading the wavepool race. The nearest contender is American Wave Machines with two finished pools: Waco, Texas, and the more recent minipool at Shizunami, Japan.
Seeking brand differentiation, each company claims to have the most variety in their artifical waves, while Wavegarden claim to have the lowest energy and water consumption. Here to convince you is this video:
Comments
Please.
Definition: Oxymoron
‘Wave Park companies referencing the words sustainable or environmental relative to their products’.
Sounded like an ad cooked up by a major Australian political party during election time.
clive palmer wave pool ?
he would make an excellent displacement device...
Surfline 6ft ya
Mmmm...."Accessible community resource".....Not sure how many low-income-earner free sessions they run. Never liked how companies use throw away lines to make themselves feel better - as if they are doing it for the public good. Whats the cost of a session there again?
Every now and then Stu, a ripper sentence, worthy of Tom Waits this one > "as airy as an MOU or an EOI, both of which mean SFA."
Whooaaa..... @radiation - you might take the cake for the first ever mention of Tom Waits in a surf forum. Nice!!
Yes I thought that was a rippa too.
BTW over on Tracks (i assume it's rude to cut-and-paste from another site) the Bunbury Blimp - out to sea artificial reef - is getting another run.
I genuinely hope the artificial wave arms race is won out to sea; not by the inland glorified toilet bowls, which only add to the environmental malaise that is the reality of all material things associated with surfing.
I hope its won out to sea as well but I guess they can't make money on that or can they?
Nick> good point, who knows, such early days in the product development cycle?
$500,000 is the blimps stated sale price = "x"
Then "X" every Australian beach that has close-outs = "Y"
Then there's California etc?
Also, they claim they can install and de-install within a day? That's got to be compelling - for those councils that want a bet each way on new technology.
Where I live the local council has decided to spend $3M on "sand" to recover beaches that have been "degraded by development" > so $500k looks like an easy spend vs. major issues with wave-garden's pool-park - CAPEX at $10M +/-, EPA approvals, footprint, infrastructure, maintenance, etc
I'm sure it'll 'break' but I'm extremely dubious about it working with any degree of success, and for a variety of physical reasons (tides, weight of the rising water column pressing down on the airbag, sandbag slowly sinking). Lot of effort and risk for a wave that'll be perhaps 5-10m long, and without the shape we desire.
yep > I'm sceptical too > the constant interia of the ocean vs a flimsy skin..but a version that enhances natural waves is more interesting to me than a glorified theme park ride. More braodly it's the lack of environmental accountability of all surfing goods that gets to me, these wave pools will only add to that negative footprint.
By preventing coastal erosion with new/extra reefs, we would save ourselves 100's of millions with the current never-ending temporary erosion "fixes" [if you can all them that]
Went and looked at that - swellnet, get Troy on for a chat ... far out, if elegant simplicity counts for anything this is the horse to back .. I’ll be glued to the airflow trial in Bunbury with my fingers crossed - sure some would see legit environmental concerns and the purists won’t approve - but a better solution for sure if we’re going to head in this direction and it seems like we are
Troy still needing investment $ to go ahead with this ?
You mentioned Glued....i hope the glue he's using this time around is stronger.
Edit: no glue this time - A different material with a welded seam
https://www.waveco.com.au/the-failsafe-design-changes-inside-airwave-2-0/
https://www.sunshinecoastnews.com.au/2021/10/08/endless-surf-coming-to-c...
Coming to Sunny Coast....
Wow, we’re actually going to get a pool on the Sunny Coast, just approved by council, construction starting next month.
I drive past the location regularly, much better than where the KS pool was/is proposed.
from above ........Ride times range from 10 seconds to 26 seconds and the multiple zones can accommodate up to 75 surfers an hour, with each surfer catching dozens of waves.
Dozens of waves ..........wow super surfers..........maybe 15 waves........
The relative electricity demand of a wave pool is irrelevant. The absolute or total electricity demand of any wave pool is ridiculous and can in no way be deemed a sustainable mode of recreation. Sustainability is mere green washing of what is fundamentally a recreational burden on Earth.
Without "relative" energy consumption, how do we make sense of anything that involves energy? Energy is just energy, which isn't much help to us at all. So we need ways to compare the amounts used otherwise they are just arbitrary numbers/values.
I agree that no current-tech wave-pools are sustainable for the environment, but that doesn't mean it can't be done. Most of what humans currently do is also not sustainable for the environment either, but again it's just our mindsets/methods that need upgrading to better ideas and sustainable ways of doing things.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cornwall-58818256
Transportation delight. Not Japan though.
8 nuclear powered surf pools to open in OZ!! Don't know why,just putting it out there.... :()
We need a wave pool/park on the coast.
Another grovel day of waves today
Give me the plunger please
https://www.surf-lakes.com.au/licensees
Plunger is the biggest eye sore. And the waves lose energy rapidly as they refract.
Managing crowds/wave share per capita would be a nightmare.
Wave size won't rise without significant plunger enlargement - and then we're talking considerable plunger enlargement for minimal wave size increase.
LOL. Check those artist’s impressions!