There’s no telling how many wave pools and surf parks will pop up in the coming years. They can appear hundreds, if not thousands of miles from the ocean, or ironically settled right on the beach itself. Wavegarden is currently the biggest name that’s opened its doors on a park offering man made waves to the masses, while Kelly Slater Wave Company undoubtedly has the most dreamy of waves on offer for the core surf crowds. It seems as if roller coasters and theme parks will be a thing of the past in no time, overtaken by manufacturing a day at the beach, getting barreled – even if you never see the ocean.
K.C. Hoos, CEO of Chicago Surf has such a plan for his city which just so happens to be, you guessed it, Chicago, Illinois. In 2014 Hoos attempted to get his proposal for a park picked up by the famous sharks of ABC’s Sharktank, featuring an American Wave Machines Surfstream standing wave. Surfing in Lake Michigan is always an option for Chicago natives, but then again who gets pumped for waist high onshore closeouts and wearing a 5-mil? Sometimes I do, and so do you, but that’s beside the point. Hoos has been working on the project for seven years now according to The Chicago Sun Times, and most recently his proposal for a park was rejected for the third time. The party crashers? Birds.
The plot of land Chicago Surf had hoped to lease is settled in the lakefront area near Montrose Beach; a perfect location for Hoos’ vision of the park. The only problem is it would be just a few hundred yards from a lakefront bird sanctuary. Apparently Chicago birds don’t like surfing, according to bird enthusiasts in the area. Or maybe the bird enthusiasts themselves just don’t like surfing, because they raised enough of a stink over the proposal that they had the whole plan shut down. The bird lovers organized a campaign against the whole plan and convinced the Chicago Park District to shut it down. “No wave for you.”
“Every bit of green grass counts for the migratory birds that come through and need a spot to rest,” Charlotte Newfeld told the Sun Times. “I think it’s absolutely outrageous. Most of the people in Uptown do not own surf boards and most of them have never been anywhere near the ocean. You have to leave the lakefront free and clear.”
The major bummer for Hoos is that he’d reportedly spent a six-figure amount on the planning, money that’s all but vanished at this time. His plan also included spending $2 million on construction of the park, with renovations to a historic concessions stand that would have been near the pool along with a tiered patio…potentially a cool hangout for the birds. Or not. Either way Chicago Surf is still awaiting it’s chance to come to fruition, and in the meantime local residents will just have to settle for those 5-mils and onshore days in Lake Michigan.
