It’s not as if Sydney is exactly…short… of good waves. You can throw yourself into world-class reefs 20 minutes after pushing your trolley through the arrivals gate. But surfing is still a hassle, right? Know how you roll up to a beach on Saturday morning, the peak is crowded and everyone’s rolls their eyes when you paddle out to join the pack? Wouldn’t it be nice to throw a fifty at a cashier, get your wrist-band, and slay a guaranteed dozen waves? Maybe it won’t be as idyllic as all the videos and artists impressions make out. But maybe it will.

Just in: Wavegarden for Sydney!

By Derek Rielly

8 years ago

Tank surfing comes to Australia's biggest city!

It’s Wavegarden season! Do you remember, last August, when Wave Park Group’s Andrew Ross told me that ten Wavegarden tanks would be built across Australia over the next years.

Ten of ’em? Really?

These tanks are big-ticket machines that soak up serious real estate. Dress ’em up with cafes and climbing jungles and whatever other “lifestyle opportunities” and you’re fifteen, maybe 20-plus mill in the hole.

Whomever runs Wavegarden’s sales office is doing a helluva job. After all, there’s still only one commercial tank operating, the bedevilled Surf Snowdonia in North Wales.

But, if press releases from Wave Garden Group are to be believed, Melbourne surfers will have their first pool late next year on the site of the old Melbourne Airport Club.

And, just announced, Sydney gets its pool the year after.

Let’s examine last night’s press release.

“Surf’s up! Australia’s second surf park in as many weeks – URBNSURF Sydney – has been announced for Sydney Olympic Park. Perth based Wave Park Group today confirmed that it has been nominated as the preferred proponent over a 3.2ha site located at Sydney Olympic Park. With the expectation that surfing will be confirmed as an Olympic medal sport for the 2020 Tokyo Games, the location is a perfect fit for the future of the sport.

“The estimated $26.5 million development is to be located adjacent to the existing Monster BMX Track and Monster Mountain X developments, adding significantly to this existing public action sports precinct. The recently announced $1bn Parramatta Light Rail Project is likely to have a station adjacent to the facility, which will mean URBNSURF Sydney will be accessible to over two million Sydney residents in under 30 minutes.

“With a north-south lagoon orientation, URBNSURF Sydney has been designed to suit prevailing wind conditions and LED lagoon lighting means there will be surfing night and day. The facility will also feature sustainable design, renewable energy and water saving systems, in keeping with Sydney Olympic Park’s strong environmental sustainability ethos.”

Of course, the proliferation of wave technology and actual wave tanks, does increase the likelihood of surfing being included in the 2020 Olympic Games. Equal playing fields, inland countries not disadvantaged etc.

And that’s…exciting, right?

Launch film for Sydney Wavegarden from BeachGrit on Vimeo.

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Cori "sinks into love" with wife Maria.

Movie: It ain’t easy being a surf queer!

By Rory Parker

8 years ago

I love that Cori Shumacher won't keep her mouth shut…

Fucking honesty, tastes so damn sweet.

The truth is too often hurtful and ugly and mean. Takes a lot to face it, admit it. Deal with shit you’d rather avoid.

We’re all so wrapped in our delusions it’s damn hard to see clearly. All you can really do is make an effort. Try to pick apart your flaws, become a better person. Own your mistakes. Don’t keep your mouth shut when people’d rather not hear what you’re saying.

Not a lot of dissidents in the surf world. Even fewer with a voice that’s heard.

I love that Cori Shumacher won’t keep her mouth shut. Love that people are starting to listen.

Watch her bio movie Waves of Disruption here.

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Parker: More Dumb Shark Facts!

By Rory Parker

8 years ago

Why do anti-shark magnets work, for instance!

A minor shark attack in Bali has the internets abuzz! An American received a wicked chomp on the arm, underwent surgery.

Luckily for the unnamed fellow, it looks as though damage is minimal. Deep lacerations, severe bruising, but little to indicate debilitating injury.

In order to steal some clicks, and help you protect yourself, here are some excellent, but little known, shark facts.

The buggeragong shark, an endemic species native to New South Wales, has a pair of vestigial arms. Their presence leads to top scientists to believe that all sharks share a land dwelling common ancestor.

New research shows that sharks are attracted to mammalian feces, in addition to blood and urine. Previously thought to be due to the prevalence of voiding one’s bowels in life or death situations, a current study indicates that over 80% of shark attacks on humans are caused by poor wiping technique.

In addition to causing a balance enhancing placebo effect in idiots, magnets function as the best shark deterrent currently available. Not because they disrupt sharks’ ability to detect electromagnetic fields, but because dorks are not a part of a shark’s natural diet.

Contrary to popular belief sharks do in fact suffer from cancer, albeit at far lower rates than other species. Ongoing investigations into the reason for the lower rates leads researchers to believe its due to the fact that they smoke hella weed, bro.

In the summer of 1916, New Jersey experienced an epidemic of shark attacks that left four people dead and one severely injured. Two of the fatal attacks occurred in the Matawan Creek, a fresh water stream located miles inland. All five attacks were attributed to a the same hellacious beast with an overpowering thirst for human flesh, willing to do whatever it took in order to slake its rapacious appetites. That shark’s name? Hillary Clinton.

Hammerhead sharks spend the majority of their lives in large schools. Mainly because they’re a bunch of try-hard assholes.

The Great White shark, long thought to be the most powerful of living shark species, is currently in a state of worldwide decline. Leading experts believe it to be caused by reverse racism, as well as political correctness run amok.

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In a recent interview with Vanity Fair magazine, the comedian-actor Amy Schumer says, "Forty-one stitches, three layers. I skegged myself. My whole fin went into my leg, and I had to yank it out. I was by myself." | Photo: @Vanity Fair

Surfing (Nearly) Kills Amy Schumer!

By Derek Rielly

8 years ago

"Fat and blood coming out!" says dazzling comedian.

Amy Schumer is a comedian and actor with a bent for filthy sex, ass and death gags. She ain’t afraid to drive people nuts with a little non-PC humour either.

“I used to date Latino guys,” she says in an older stand-up routine. “Now I prefer consensual.”

Anyway, Ms Schumer is the cover gal on the new issue of Vanity Fair along with a profile “Amy Schumer Is Rich, Famous, and in Love: Can She Keep Her Edge?”.

The real juice, however, comes from the outtakes from the interview with Bruce Handy.

Did you know, for example, Schumer surfed as a teen? And once got so “skegged” she had to yank a fin out of her leg?

Let’s read!

Schumer: I was a surfer, too. I have a pretty bad scar on my leg from surfing. Forty-one stitches, three layers. I skegged myself. My whole fin went into my leg, and I had to yank it out. I was by myself.

Handy: How far out in the water were you?

Far. And I had to pick up my board, swim in. It was just about to be winter and no one was on the beach. But I found like one guy with this other guy. I was like, “I need you to hold my leg.” I was delegating. And he held my leg closed with his bare hands—just fat and blood coming out. I wish I knew who that guy was, because he saved my life, for sure. He had blue toenail polish and nail polish; he had long stringy hair. And I remember him being beautiful. Anyway, he held my leg closed.

An angel.

Yeah. Did he exist? [Laughs]

How scared were you?

I was terrified. I was supposed to go into Manhattan that day with my dad. He was going to come meet me after I surfed for a while. A crowd formed around me and I could see my dad looking for me on the beach. I was like, “That’s my dad. But don’t get him. He’s going to freak out. He’s real sensitive. He’s going to cry.” But they got him. And he just looked at my leg, and he went [makes a sucking sound]. Kind of like sucked his teeth in? And the tide was coming in. So he was like, “Put her on the board! Carry her in more!” And people kept putting towels and towels on me. I was like, “I’m not cold—there’s a hole in my leg.” I was making jokes. It took maybe 15 minutes for the ambulance to get there.

That was my first thought. That’s why I got right out of there. But my thoughts while I was coming out—I remember them. I thought, Well, I’m going to die. I can’t believe I’m going to die like this. Then I’m like, Oh, no [I’m not going to die]—but I’m going to lose my leg. And now I’m going to have to go and be a speaker at high schools and, like, motivate people. I was so annoyed about my life. I was just like, Ucchh. And then it was fine.

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Here's another one of those artist's impressions of the yet-to-be-built wavepool that gets me…right there… in the upper waters of my nervous system. Oowee, imagine this! Kooks surf the little reforms while you shred out the back. How's that rebound by the goofy on the right!

Wait! Here’s another wavepool design!

By Derek Rielly

8 years ago

The company that gave us Flowrider is back in the game! With Surf Pool™!

Tomorrow, at exactly two pm, the location of Australia’s next Wavegarden tank will be announced. First stop, Tullamarine, next stop…can you guess? Maybe the waveless and bankrupt, post-mining boom city of Perth?

Anyway, it’s gonna be raining wavepools soon. Some will be fierce and squashed and cramped. Others will be remarkable facsimiles of their ocean equivalent. Most will fall a little in-between.

As reported three days ago, there’s no shortage of wave pool companies schlepping their wares to investors, either.

Do you go Wavegarden? American Wave Machines? The unseen Webber and Slater pools?

One design that’s been flying under the radar so far, is the WaveLoch Surf Pool. Remember those Flowriders that were so damn fun to ride, even if they didn’t exactly resemble surfing (finless boards, stationary wave)? They were the work of the Tom Lochtefeld. Tom’s been in the game since the eighties, opening that first Flowrider in Texas in 1991. He knows the central problem to wavepools. They cost too much to build, and way too much to run.

What makes their Surf Pool different to the others, says Wave Loch, is its ability to… make money. Let’s examine the spin.

“Forget the troubled, inefficient wave machines of the past. SurfLoch SurfPool’s™ innovative design offers: consistent, quality waves with unprecedented frequency in the smallest physical footprint, and with the greatest energy efficiency. While the few surfing wave pools in existence have struggled to make ends meet, well over 10 years led to the development and refinement of the proprietary SurfLoch SurfPool™ technology, making what was once infeasible, now financially viable and ready to deploy.”

A development in the English city of Bristol chose WaveLoch over Wavegarden because of its ability to deliver more waves and, supposedly, without the bugs that have bedevilled Surf Snowdonia, Wavegarden’s first commercial tank.

(Here’s the PR vid for The Wave Bristol’s crowdfunding campaign.)

Me? I ain’t convinced about Surf Pool yet.

I like the spin, I like the idea. Cheaper and more reliable means cheaper entry fees and the more likely it is to happen.

But, watch the video below.

Is that… all?

The little mechanical shark is a nice touch, however.

Meanwhile, if you’re ready for a wallop and suck session at a pool, and you’re swinging in Florida, it’s hard to go wrong with three hours (100 waves) at the Typhoon Lagoon. Twelve hundred bucks. Bring your pals. Click here to book.

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Eat beach grit spam!