People are still more than willing to pay for barrels like this. Photo: PSSC
A wave pool brought to the surf industry’s epicenter — Southern California — is, on paper, an untapped gold mine. When Palm Springs Surf Club opened its doors back in January, finally there was a pool for the massive demographic of affluent SoCal surfers champing at the bit for fresh water tubes.
But Palm Springs Surf Club only opened for 10 days and then closed in January due to “technical challenges.” It wasn’t exactly the grand roll out plan that they, or anyone, were hoping for.
Fast forward to April, after a few months of radio silence, and Palm Springs Surf Club has revived its dormant Instagram account. The facility is back to posting and announced its reopening along with parties to attend and the unveiling of a new “sampler sesh” that combines rights, lefts, and a-frames into one session.
Pool hungry SoCal surfers are rejoicing, right? Well, not everyone. I know you have to be careful using a social media comment section as a gauge of overall sentiment, but as I scrolled the Instagram comments of the announcement post, there was a palpable somber tone — more anger and frustration emanating than elation.
The main complaint appeared to be that one key piece of information was missing from the reopening announcements: The prices had been raised. Customers who had already paid for sessions prior to the closure that were subsequently canceled were asked to cover the difference in price if they wanted to rebook a session. And those who already had paid were not given booking priority, quickly discovering that all the sessions that opened had been sold out.
That sounds frustrating: paying for one thing, not getting it, then being asked to pay more. I sent some DMs to several surfers who were venting in the comment section to hear what the deal was. Here’s what they said.
“We originally paid $150 a session, for five sessions,” Melanie Lucia, a San Diego surfer, told me. “(They) canceled on us with about a week’s notice, which barely got us any money back from the Airbnb we rented. We (had already taken) the days off of work too. They raised the price to $200 a session, so, to surf what we should have surfed, we will have to pay an extra $250.”
“It was terrible communication and not honoring what we originally reserved,” Lucia added. “We have lost any interest in the pool and we love Waco…like a lot.”
According to Lucia, some of her friends were able to get refunds, but she hadn’t decided how she’d proceed.
Max Boyen, also a San Diego surfer, has been frazzled by the whole situation.
“When the machine broke they emailed us and gave us a credit back for the same price we had paid,” explained Boyen. “When they opened the wave back up, they didn’t give us first priority as people who had already purchased the wave, and they also raised the prices. So the credit they gave us back didn’t cover all the cost. I still owed a balance of about $300 for three tickets.”
“We’ve called three or four times and they don’t answer the phone,” added Boyen. “We’ve sent DMs. And they delete comments from their Instagram posts. Now the wave has been booked out. It defeats the fun of it. It’s too expensive now and we can’t even get a refund if we wanted to because no one is answering us. I just want them to honor their original price or at least respond to us for a refund.”
Another customer, Ian McKenzie-Pevec Ryan, an L.A.-based surfer, added his story:
“I felt like the team at PSSC did not handle this accordingly,” said Ryan. “Paying customers should be their first priority, which in this case I experienced first hand that it isn’t. I get they are a new company and trying to figure things out, I just wish they respected people, their time, and their money a little more. For a second I thought I got robbed and they were pulling a ‘Fyre Festival’ stunt.”
It’s possible that the business minds at Palm Springs Surf Club have a logical reason for their decisions, but, if they do, they haven’t been vocal about it. They didn’t respond to my email or Instagram message for clarification, so their reasoning is still a mystery. (If you’re seeing this, my inbox is still open!)
The glaring problem seems to be a lack of transparency. When I last checked the company’s site, all the sessions were booked except for a few slots on the slab wave. Given the nearly sold-out bookings, it feels like enough people are still excited, or forgiving enough, to go test out the pool. If everything goes as planned and they shower the surfers of Southern California in chlorinated stoke, the closure will probably be quietly forgotten in the not too distant future
