Surfrider Europe has taken an official stance on wave pools. Photo: World Surf League
In the last few years, wave pools have exploded in popularity. The ball was a slow roll, but once a bunch of smart people figured how, exactly, one could recreate one of nature’s most impressive features, that ball became a juggernaut. They’re a divisive topic, though — turns out that making a perfect wave in a pool leaves a very large environmental footprint. Surfrider Europe has officially taken a side: It does not support artificial surfing wave pool projects.
“Though many arguments exist for their recreational benefits, Surfrider Foundation Europe, a nonprofit created by surfers, takes the stance that the environmental concerns outweigh their value,” Surfrider wrote in mid-June.
It’s a tough position for a lot of surfers. Most, of course, are at least slightly concerned about the myriad environmental issues we’re facing. But most, of course, love surfing a good wave. And while surfing a good wave is indeed very fun, it pales in comparison when it comes to real-life importance. Surfing, aside from being fun, is useless. Utterly and completely useless. Its sole purpose is fun. Which is a wonderful thing, isn’t it? One could argue that the only really important thing in life is to have a good time, since none of us are making it out alive and only a select few will make any lasting difference. Face it: within a few generations, unless you do something huge, you will be dust in the wind and no one will remember you, so you might as well have a really good time while you’re here. But wave pools, while extraordinarily fun, will have lasting effects on the environment, and those future generations that will have forgotten all about you are going to need the environment to survive.
“Their construction implies land artificialization (pool, parking, roads) on natural or agricultural areas,” Surfrider continued. “This artificialization contributes to habitat destruction and adds to the decline of biodiversity… Operating them implies a huge water consumption, with pools containing anywhere from 25 to 35.000m3 (equal to 10 to 14 Olympic pools), it is unnecessary and irresponsible to build these operations in the current context of climate change where water availability is on high alerts.”
Wave machines are indeed an enormous energy suck. According to Surfrider Europe, the Waco wave pool’s wave generator, which uses American Wave Machine technology, uses 450 kW of electricity. That’s the same average consumption as 800 French households. “In the framework of energetic transition and renewable energy development,” Surfrider wrote, “consuming less energy is a priority for our society.”
It must be noted here that Surfrider’s Los Angeles chapter was the recent recipient of $10,000 from the WSL’s Rumble at the Ranch, which, of course, was held at a wave pool. The Surf Ranch in particular does a few things to offset the inherent environmental issues: back in 2016, it was announced that The Kelly Slater Wave Company partnered with PG&E’s Solar Choice Program to go 100 percent solar. The wave is powered by renewable energy and reportedly emits zero carbon emissions, but it’s still a complicated web. It would be better for the environment if wave pools didn’t exist, but the simple fact is that they do exist and will continue to exist. And since they’re not going anywhere any time soon, it’s better that they at least try and do their part to have a lower footprint.
Surfrider Europe addressed that in a roundabout way in its announcement. “Now is not a time for excess consumption, economic growth-seeking, or projects disconnected from the environmental issues we are facing today,” it said. “The reality of climate change should force us to rethink our growth models to reduce natural resource consumption and reconcile our relationship with nature.”
