State of the Surf Park Industry – Q1 2022

By: Alex Murphy

2022 is off to a racing start for surf parks around the world. Surf Park Central continues to keep a finger on the pulse of industry news, including the status of construction projects underway and many more new developments being approved and pushed forward on multiple continents including the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States.

With a variety of wave technologies being adopted, the new locations, and new masterplanning experiments continue to push the industry forward, opening the door for surfing access to a broader, more diverse, and inland demographic.

Here’s a roundup of some of the most advanced surf park projects anywhere in the world, as of February 8th, 2022.

DSRT Surf Resort

World’s First Fully Integrated Inland Surfing Resort Gets Green Light

DSRT Surf Resort in California’s Coachella Valley is officially moving forward with its plans after the City of Palm Desert gave its final approval. The project uses Wavegarden Cove technology for its 5.5-acre surf lagoon, but there’s a lot more to this project including a luxury hotel and nearly 100 residential villas. This is all in addition to the already massive Desert Willow golf courses that will also include restaurants and bars, hot tubs, and even a pump track. With sustainability in mind, DSRT plans to use a “Surf to Turf” program which includes converting parts of the golf course into drought-tolerant landscaping. On top of that, the desert resort will be partially powered by the addition of solar panels that will take advantage of the Palm Desert sun.

URNBSURF Sydney

URBNSurf Sydney Celebrates Construction

The follow-up project to Australia’s URBNSURF Melbourne is now underway in Sydney. While this park will be slightly smaller than the original location, URBNSURF expects the park to be just as exciting as their other location with even more amenities focused on the needs they’ve seen from visitors in Melbourne. The park is centrally located in Sydney’s Olympic Park neighborhood, making it at most only an hour’s drive from anywhere in the Sydney metro area – allowing the park to serve millions of people. URBNSURF Sydney will also feature a leisure pool, surf park, yoga studio and more. Similar to the original location, Wavegarden Cove will power the surf in the park which is due to begin operation in early 2023.

Surf Lakes Yeppoon

Development Approval From Livingstone Shire Council for Yeppoon Site

The first surf park to use Surf Lakes technology is now closer to reality. Local leaders in Livingstone Shire, Australia, a popular beach and surf destination on the Capricorn Coast in Queensland, are greenlighting the development that will allow the site to be open to the public. The park will also feature a skate park and on-site cabins and camping options, with a renewable energy facility. Surf Lakes has already been operating in the area as the company’s research and development facility, and only some of the best in the world have had the opportunity to try out the waves there.

The Wave Plans Major Expansion in the UK and Ireland

The Wave and Wavegarden Sign Major UK and Ireland Partnership

The organization behind The Wave, a British surf park company, has signed a partnership deal with Wavegarden to bring at least half of a dozen new parks to the United Kingdom and Ireland. The Wave uses Wavegarden’s technology at their Bristol location and it will soon supply the waves at the company’s new London park. The exclusive partnership brings at least six parks to the British Isles with both Wavegarden and the Wave working on other possible locations throughout Europe. No official word yet on where the next location will be.