The Kelly Slater Wave Company announced plans to build a wave pool in the desert city of La Quinta, California.
The Kelly Slater Surf Resort will feature an 18-million-gallon surfing basin in Coral Mountain and near the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival area.
The man-made wave pool will be surrounded by a network of ponds that will be open to stand-up paddleboarding and electric foil surfing.
The $200-million development includes a 150-room luxury hotel and 600 private residences.
Meriwether Cos. and Big Sky Wave will be in charge of the project's development, which also integrates additional sports facilities, including skateboarding, rock climbing, and other extreme activities.
"The Coachella Valley is dominated by more than 150 golf courses," notes Noah Hahn, partner at Meriwether Cos.
"We went to Palm Springs last Thanksgiving for five days, and by day two, we were already bored because there was nothing to do."
Kelly Slater wants his new Surf Resort to be used for professional events and believes that this project will allow his company to further build on their technology.
"I'm excited to make another Kelly Slater Wave Co. design and create a new wave that will be the blueprint and a stand-alone design that nowhere else in the world has," explained the 11-time world champion.
The World's Largest Wave Pool
The California desert will have the world's largest wave pool with room for 25 surfers at a time, with five on the main wave and ten on the smaller waves at the ends of the lagoon.
Developers underline that the wave pool will use less water than an 18-hole golf course because the lagoon holds and does not use water.
Kelly Slater Wave Co., a company owned by the World Surf League (WSL), will adopt the same technology used at the test facility in Lemoore, Central California.
The 400-acre Kelly Slater Surf Resort will be built in La Quinta, west of Madison Street and south of Avenue 58, close to the Andalusia Country Club.
The city's planning department will now review the application, and developers will conduct a series of air quality, noise, traffic, and water supply studies.
Construction of the Kelly Slater Surf Resort is expected to start in 2021 and open to the public in 2022.