If you’ve been reading the North County Surf blog over the years (and I know all 8 of you have been), then you most likely have seen my obsession with wave pools . Nothing will replace the ocean of course, but the allure of being able to surf most anywhere has been appealing for obvious reasons. Have to spend 4 days in Sacramento with the in-laws for Thanksgiving? Wouldn’t a quick surf session ease the pain? How about a business trip to Phoenix? All those fluorescent lights in the tradeshow starting to melt your brain? A quick surf session can relax your tensions. Or the wifey-poo wants to vacation in a big city but you’ve got boardshorts and barrels on your mind? Squeezing in a surf between art galleries will do the trick. As we all know, surfing is addicting and one of the great joys in life. Everybody from Newport to Nantucket wants that California lifestyle. The Association of Volleyball Professionals tried to sell that dream back in the 80’s with tournaments in Colorado, Illinois, New Jersey, Arizona, and Massachusetts as well as your typical California, Florida, and Hawaii locales. But the lack of vision (and funds) relegated the beach lifestyle to just the beach. Stand up paddle boarding has literally taken a stand the past decade- and helped prop up the surf industry in the process- but it’s still missing that spark for anyone outside of surfing.
What could bring surf culture to middle America and beyond as well as stoke out the avid surfer? If you guessed wave pools, then you see the big picture. Now just plunking down a wave pool in the middle of nowhere isn’t like building a Field of Dreams. It costs a lot to run something that large. Just ask the Surf Ranch in Lemoore. What you need is a built-in large population to keep feeding money into the machine as well as a reason to stay at the pool and keep feeding it more money. That’s why making it a real destination is so important. If you can get the surfers to spend money on their session, lodging, restaurants, the surf shop at the resort, etc., then it works. And in the case of a wave pool in Southern California, the resort(s) has access to almost 25 million people that can drive there. Factor in people wanting to fly in from around the country- and world- and you’ve got a winner. Ski resorts can pull it off, why not a surf resort? The downside of a ski resort of course is you need to plan carefully when you go- may or not be snow- may or may not be crowded. With a surf resort, you set a pool time (like a tee time in golf), and you’re GUARANTEED to get UNCROWDED waves.
If you know me personally, I’ve probably mentioned this scenario to you a thousand times: Let’s say lately that the air temps have been cold, sky is overcast, waves are crowded, NW wind won’t stop, water temps are frigid (even with a 4/3, booties, gloves, and a hood), you haven’t seen a wave over waist high in weeks (pretty much sums up our current winter), AND it’s walled. Long story short, you’re dying to surf at least some chest high uncrowded waves in boardshorts. So I give you a ring at work on Friday and say “Grab the kids after school, pick up the wife, we’re headed to Palm Springs for the weekend to get some waves…”. 2 hours later, you’re eating steak at Mastro’s on Friday night and you have a 9 AM pool time Saturday morning. Saturday rolls around, the wife is sitting in a cabana with drink service, you and the kids are getting a barrels and turns in the wave pool with trunks on, and your buddies are heckling you from poolside cabana. That afternoon you hit a few balls on the range and top it off with a nice dinner at the resort. And for Sunday? Get another quick session in while the wife hits the spa (and if she surfs, you’re one lucky guy). Next thing you know, you’re back at home in San Diego by 4pm on Sunday and refreshed for the work week. All the while, your bros that DIDN’T make the trip got 2’ foggy windy freezing Beacons with 50 of their not so best friends. And one of them got stung by a stingray.
So where I am headed with this story?! WAAAAAAY back in 2014, I ran a story about wave pools popping up all around the world- specifically a Quiksilver themed resort in Palm Desert. That has since given way to the Thermal Beach Club (which will incorporate the DSRT Surf Resort and includes Josh Kerr, the Hobgood brothers, and Shane Beschen as ambassadors). Forbes Magazine did an in-depth article recently on the development and wave pool:
Consider it the new California Gold Rush as developers are planning to forever change the massive dry desert land of Southern California. With numerous developments being created in the area, a new luxurious private residential development and surf park are planned to break ground with a 21-acre man-made lagoon in the Coachella Valley located 25 miles southeast of Palm Springs, California.
The Riverside County planning commission recently approved plans for Thermal Beach Club to be developed on Kohl Ranch, a 2,200-acre property in the area of Thermal in the Coachella Valley.
The Kohl department store family owns Kohl Ranch, the land where the surf club is being developed. Plans for the Thermal Beach Club property include 326 units on 210 resident lots, bungalows, villas and estates; a 16,000-square foot recreational center with a spa and exercise room; an 8,000-square foot pool and bar; a 4,500-square foot clubhouse restaurant with bar, retail shop, and kitchen.
Designed as a high-end luxury community with five star resort amenities, the highlight of the Thermal Beach Club will be the surf lagoon, which will include wave-making technology to simulate ocean waves.
The area is currently home to the Thermal Club, a club and resort where wealthy race car owners buy memberships and build mansions around a private racing track.
The new Thermal Beach Club project is being developed by WhiteStar Development LLC and will tap into existing water rights. The development will incorporate American Wave Machines PerfectSwell technology, which is also used at the 2-acre BSR Surf Resort in Texas. AWM is a major wave pool, surf venue, and wave technology brand and produces some of the most unique surf experiences in the world, including Montreal and Waco, Texas.
According to AWM, “The PerfectSwell Phased Array Control System controls air pressure firing patterns and sequences to create unlimited wave types. It can easily generate ten large waves per minute — or a wave every six seconds. The waves generated by the PerfectSwell system measure an average of three to eight feet in height, with ride lengths limited only by pool size.” Surfing legend Kelly Slater’s famed Surf Ranch uses a different system, SurfStream, which is an endless standing wave made by continuously pumping water.
The company documents that the vacant land allocated for the project includes sufficient water rights to provide for the 20-acre lagoon and the future option of adding 70 acres of additional Watersport lagoons. Once complete, there will be 326 units on 210 resident lots, a 16,000 square-foot recreational center with spa, and a 4,500 square foot clubhouse restaurant with bar and shops, including the addition of water features and wave pool.
In the middle of all of this, is the former Wet ‘n’ Wild water park in Palm Springs. I’ve spent many a summer there watching my kids go nuts on the water slides, Flowrider, and so-called wave pool- which is a kid friendly 1’ close out. Kalani Robb and Cheyne Magnusson (formerly of BSR/Waco wave pool fame) are part of a group that’s throwing $50 million dollars at the former water park to turn it into the Palm Springs Surf Club.
The brilliance on their part is that the infrastructure is already there with the water park and pseudo wave pool- they just need to tweak a few things; like using American Wave Machines technology for the pool (i.e. BSR/Waco). Based on various reports, the open date should be later this year. There won’t be a resort on site, but if you feel like ballin’, the Ritz Carlton Rancho Mirage is down the street.
And if 2 wave pools weren’t enough, a report came out recently from the LA Times that the desert area will be getting a THIRD wave pool by 2022. Here’s the full story:
A luxury resort proposed for the Coachella Valley is set to serve surfers instead of golfers with a wave-making machine that could stir up water for professional surfing competitions or kids playing on foam boards.
The big waves are to roll at Coral Mountain, a proposed development that would combine a hotel and housing on 400 acres in La Quinta that have already been approved for a golf-centered community.
But with more than 100 golf courses already serving the region, the builders hope to instead stand out with a $200-million complex built around a surfing basin created by Kelly Slater Wave Co. The Solana Beach engineering firm founded by surfing legend Kelly Slater says it will provide the largest, rideable open-barrel, human-made waves in the world.
By substituting surfing and other adventure sports such as rock climbing for golf, developers Meriwether Cos. and Big Sky Wave Developments intend to create a new kind of neighborhood for the Palm Springs area, which has seen a demographic shift in recent years toward younger visitors and residents.
As evidence of the change, consider the thousands drawn by the annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and the proliferation of hip hotels meant to appeal to millennials.
Coral Mountain would be a master-planned “wave-based community,” the first of its kind, developer Garrett Simon of Meriwether Cos. said, with a 150-room hotel and as many as 600 homes, mostly single-family residences priced between $1 million and $5 million. There would be a private club and multiple dining venues.
In addition to the 18-million-gallon surf basin, the features might include a network of ponds that hotel guests and residents could navigate on stand-up slow-moving paddle boards or decidedly faster electric hydrofoil boards that lift riders out of the water.
For enthusiasts of land-based adventure sports, there would be snaking skateboarding runs, bike pump tracks and trails for mountain bikes and perhaps electric motorcycles.
Despite its aquatic focus, Coral Mountain would use a fraction of the amount of water required by a golf course, Simon said. Golf courses use as much as 1 million gallons a day to stay green, he said, while Coral Mountain would give up about 18 million gallons a year in evaporation.
The developers’ pivot from golf to more active sports also reflects the declining fortunes of the golf industry.
Hundreds of U.S. golf courses have closed in recent years as the numbers of golfers and rounds played have fallen, according to industry reports. An oversupply of courses, which were often built to sell nearby homes, has contributed to the golf industry’s challenges.
The Coral Mountain site was to be the second phase of the adjacent Andalusia Country Club, which opened in 2006, Simon said.
But, as the Desert Sun reported, the golf venue struggled with home sales and country club membership after the recession that started in 2008. Meriwether Cos. acquired the property last May.
Because the site has already been approved for development, Simon hopes his company can secure city approval to start construction on Coral Mountain by early next year and open for business in mid-2022.
It would be one of a handful of surf parks planned for the Coachella Valley including the addition of a surfing basin to the former Wet ‘n Wild water park in Palm Springs as part of a major renovation. The shuttered attraction is expected to reopen this year as Palm Springs Surf Club.
Another proposed surf resort and residential complex, the Thermal Beach Club, has drawn opposition from local activists in the unincorporated eastern part of Coachella Valley, concerned its luxury would be a jarring contrast with the impoverished community. They say Thermal needs affordable housing more than it needs glamour.
La Quinta, in contrast, is a resort city that thrives on tourism. “We haven’t received any feedback or concerns regarding affordable housing” from city leaders, Simon said. “Employment is important to us and we are aware of the need for affordable housing in certain areas.”
Coral Mountain would be the first of a group of inland surfing venues in the West employing wave technology developed by Kelly Slater Wave Co., said Michael B. Schwab of Big Sky Wave Developments, an investor who was impressed by Slater’s existing prototype in the agricultural San Joaquin Valley.
Slater’s Surf Ranch has turned tiny Lemoore into a “surf mecca,” Schwab said, in part because machine-made waves can speed the learning process of a difficult sport. It did for him.
“I knew that if I had a repeatable, perfect wave I could get better,” he said. And what he learned “transferred into real-world surfing.”
Schwab hopes that Coral Mountain can entice expert surfers but also introduce novices daunted by the prospect of trying to catch waves they can ride in the ocean.
About 25 people could surf at a time, with five or so riding the main wave and 10 surfers on each of the two end bays of the basin, where the waves would be smaller.
With surfing and other active sports, Coral Mountain “will be for people who want to get out of their comfort zone,” Schwab said.
Now if you’re thinking 3 wave pools in the Palm Springs area is overkill, just remember it’s also home to 100 golf courses that somehow have survived the past 70 years. If 100 courses can make it, 3 pools can make it. Can’t wait.
