| Wave pools will be the future of surfing |
| Thursday, 21 October 2010 13:54 |
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Wave pools are one of the biggest potential markets in the surf industry. Who's telling you that? Well, a man called Kelly Slater. In a very interesting debate he had with Surfing Magazine, the 9-time world champion believes wave pools are the future of time saving. Slater showed a two-week trip to the Mentawais, as an example. "Any one hour you’re in the water, you’re probably going to catch six or seven waves an hour. So for any hour in the water you’ll surf for a minute, meaning five minutes of surfing a day, or 50 minutes of surfing. In two weeks. if you could go an hour from your house and get five minutes of good wave-riding any day you wanted, who wouldn’t do that?", he stated. That's why the Floridian believes an excellent wave pool might be a good bet for the future, even if surfers demand the "organic experience of going surfing", in an open ocean. Slater says a quality wave pool is a 10-20 million dollar investment and spends a lot of electricity. Pools in water sports are not new. One of the most famous venues is ExCeL London, an international exhibition and convention centre that has already seen an indoor windsurfing competition of the Professional Windsurfers Association (PWA). In the last years, there was a special project for the Docklands, in London, but the main developer of Silvertown has gone into liquidation and the surf centre with it. Another surf park - bigger and better - is currently being studied for the same area of England's capital. One of the best and most clever technical suggestions has been made by Webber Wave Pools. This Australian company presents waves that break constantly around a circular island within a doughnut shaped pool. The pool generates at least 5 waves at all times. Watch it, here. |
