The wave pool revolution is well underway. But it’s really more like an evolution. From Taj and Parko in Malaysia, to Dion Agius and the Wadi Adventure Park, to, wait for it, our boy Rick Kane owning the Arizona pool that created the impetus for 1987’s North Shore (loosely based off of this wave tank), humans have long wanted to “surf park.”
And why not? Surfing is kinda behind the 8-ball when it comes to “riding park”: snowboarding, skateboarding, even mountain biking are way ahead of the freeride curve, allowing aficionads of those particular pursuits to hit the same jump, the same hip, the same what-have-you over and over again. That means they get really good with repetition, especially in the air. Pro or joe, surfing just hasn’t had the park game that the rest of its counterparts do.
That’s obviously not the case anymore. And the wave pool “evolution” has as much to do with new parks popping up all over the world as it does with the quality of wave – of which there are many quality fake waves these days. New parks, of course, mean more people riding more chlorine. Is it good? Bad? More waves (even non-salty ones) can’t be a bad thing, right? The cost just has to come down.
In this episode of one of my favorite little web series, Dylan Graves becomes one of us, a member of the media throng, spitting out a semi well-researched piece on wave pools before testing out the latest North American park in California’s high desert: Palm Springs. Dylan doesn’t really come to any solid conclusion on the validity of the man-made surf tub (a truly, objective reporter) but he does take an interesting look at where this craze has come from – and maybe where it’s going.
Read our interview with Dylan, here.
