Japan will open a wave pool powered by American Wave Machines (AWM) before the start of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
The project is a joint venture between the wave pool company and Surf Stadium Japan (SSJ).
The new Japanese surf lagoon is currently being built in Shizunami, near Makinohara, in the Shizuoka Prefecture, and is expected to open by June 2020.
The artificial wave facility will be located around 175 miles (280 kilometers) from Tsurigasaki Beach, the official venue of the Olympic surfing program.
Several Olympic surfing teams have chosen the region for their pre-competition warm-ups and training sessions.
Developing the Japanese Surfing Scene
Surf Stadium Japan will feature AWM's PerfectSwell technology to recreate the natural surfing environment. The pool will produce a large wave every six seconds - ten per minute.
However, the artificial wave concept is adjustable, allowing users to choose size, shape, and patterns of waves from perfect-peeling point breaks and A-frame waves to personalized experiences involving, for instance, a barrel into close-out.
"We've been working on it for four years. Our goal is to expand the Makinohara surfing community and to develop the skills of our surfers," underlined Toshihiko Adachi, CEO of SSJ.
Surfing's Olympic debut will take place from July 26 to August 2, 2020, so Surf Stadium Japan should be available one month before the start of the event.
"In the future, wave pool will be part of the professional training thanks to its made-to-order waves. We will offer surf teams the chance to train in a structure that mimics ocean conditions with identical waves and swell periods," concludes Kimifumi Imoto, director at the Nippon Surfing Association.
PerfectSwell is currently only available at the BSR Surf Resort, in Waco, Texas.