China has finally put its first artificial wave pool to work.
On June 12, 2019, four Chinese surfers - Jiarui Yang, Jingwei Wang, Moyu Huang, and Wei Huang - tested their country's first technological adventure into the wave pool world.
The Qingfeng Extreme Sports Center Wave Pool is located in Qingfeng, an inland county in the northeast of the Henan province.
Five months ago, a video revealed a giant human-made wave lagoon producing small yet surfable left and right-hand rollers that peeled smoothly across the pool.
Now, the Chinese seem to want to prove to the Western civilization that they're ahead of this game and above their competition.
Make no mistake - Qingfeng's wave pool works, even though they look incredibly similar to the technology developed by Kelly Slater Wave Co. and Wavegarden.
The Chinese beta-testers are former national surfing team members, former national junior champions, surf coaches, and longboard champions.
Although the produced wave is still small - in the two-foot range - it proves the concept can work and will definitely force the American, Australian, and European wave pool manufacturers to step up their game.
China's artificial surfing technology may not be state-of-the-art, but if they put their competitive pricing strategies to work, they'll become a force to be reckoned with.