When you’re designing your own waves at a wave pool research facility, you’ve made it. Photo: YouTube//Screenshot
Near the end of November, Wavegarden announced it had revamped its original facility to something called the Wavegarden Lab. It’s touted as “the first private wave pool “dedicated to continuous R&D and high-performance surfing,” and R&D means they need surfers who are willing to research and develop. Surfers like Matteus Herdy.
Herdy, the Wavegarden team, and the crew from Fluid Dynamics put their heads together to create a custom wave built for Herdy, who has a particular style of surfing. The Lab is an interesting place. It’s not all that big, but it serves as a proof-of-concept center for what could be included in bigger versions down the road.
“With a water surface area of just 90 meters by 45 meters (295 feet by 148 feet) the Wavegarden Lab can now generate waves up to 2.2 meters high (seven feet), with ride times of up to 14 seconds and barrels lasting up to seven seconds,” reads a press release announcing the newly unveiled Lab. “Located in the Basque Country, the original Wavegarden Cove prototype has recently been transformed and extended to provide an increased variety of waves and new design features to ensure thorough testing of the upgraded technology before commercial use.”
Herdy wasn’t the only one there to put the facility through its paces. He was joined by Kelly Slater, Shane Dorian, Bobby Martinez, Leo Fioravanti, Kauli Vaast, and Coco Ho. The wave the team came up with for Herdy features a steep in-run and two air sections, which Herdy put to good use.
