The Wave in Bristol will soon open its doors. But, some who pre-booked their tickets say they had no idea it wouldn’t be running at 100 percent by the time it opens to the public. Photo: Wavegarden
Surfers know the feeling all too well. A solid gold forecast checked the night before a morning surf gives way to disappointment when you turn up to the parking lot and the surf isn’t exactly what was advertised.
Wave pools ostensibly solve that problem by taking the guesswork and unpredictability of the ocean out of the equation. But, some surfers who pre-booked sessions at what will soon be the first public surf park powered by Wavegarden’s Cove technology, The Wave in Bristol, U.K., are now saying they were misled. Or, at least they weren’t informed prior to booking that it would be some time before the place begins serving up the barreling, slabby waves designed mainly for more experienced surfers.
To build enthusiasm for its opening to the public, The Wave has been inviting a number of European pros and VIPs to test different waves and produce hype reels for release online. Online commenters who say they pre-booked tickets have expressed confusion and, in some cases, anger that the waves the pros are riding may not be the same ones available to the general public upon opening.
“Shame the public won’t get that same experience!” wrote Facebook user Gary Walsh on a post we shared of European pros testing the facility. “I have booked but do feel I have been mis-sold, to be honest!”
“The footage of the ‘pros’ surfing is misleading in my opinion…” Walsh wrote to us in a Facebook message. “I understand that they must market their product, but all the hype they made before they opened was aimed at something that is not available to the public and may not be for some time yet.”
Walsh said he emailed The Wave directly and received a refund without much hassle but he wasn’t the only one who believed the product being sold was misrepresented – or at least that there wasn’t full transparency.
One surfer named Matt Noel told us he booked flights from his home on the island of Jersey and a hotel room only to be disappointed the place will not be operating at full steam when he arrives early next month. “It’s a shame that I’ve spent £500 on the trip to go there with hotel plus flights and not get the full experience,” he told us.
“Same here,” wrote Ali Alabaster Abul-Khatwa in a Facebook comment. “Booked far in advance and expected flawless barrels not the similar mush as in Snowdonia.”
To be fair to The Wave, as the first public facility to be powered by Wavegarden’s Cove tech, it’s understandable there would be a few regulatory kinks to iron out before things are operating at 100 percent. A spokesperson from The Wave explained as much.
“Safety will always be our number one concern and in order to open to the general public, we have to put each wave setting through a rigorous risk assessment process,” the spokesperson said in an email. “We have done this with the three waves that we will be opening within our warm-up phase – these are called Malibu 1 (M1), Malibu 2 (M2) and Malibu 3 (M3). The M3 is a really fun, open-walled wave which barrels on the inside and has lots of power like a real reef break. Some of the best surfers in the UK have been riding these waves over the last week and the response was unanimous that it was massively fun and amazing for fitness and practice.”
The plan has always been to use the artificial wave tech to its full potential, it’ll just take a few months before it fully rolls out.
“We can generate bigger waves which we have begun to test with pros and these will go through the same in-depth assessment before we are able to open them to the public,” the spokesperson said. “We are going to introduce further waves to the advanced area in the coming months that people will be able to progress to, once they have mastered the current M3 setting.”
For the latest info and to book tickets head to The Wave’s site here.
