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Barreled?
Barreled?

Wavegarden: “A mushy $18-million fail!”

A loud conversation in a quiet restaurant re. wave pool technologies!

I went to lunch today and was minding my own business but two men across from me were not and forced me to listen as soon as it became apparent they were speaking about wave pool technologies. One of them, I believe, was designing one. The other, I believe, was an engineer.

And this is what the one I believed to be an engineer said as I furiously typed his words:

The owner of Wavegarden spent 18 million dollars and was told he would get 6 foot high barreling wave and he got (air quotes) a “failure” 5 foot and mushy.” It barrels less than 5% of the time. He finally came to terms with it. Didn’t really hurt his business model.

So.

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They didn’t do the right simulation. The owner should have gone to a third party to validate. Once we have a design…thank you Wavegarden, thank you Wave Loch, now we want to have this validated by a third party. Higher level. This will work. Wave generation mechanism in that format? Depending on the wave size and peel angle 15 to 17 seconds. And the way to go longer is just this switch. So…

…There’s a conversion of wave energy. Convergence of two waves that ends up being the biggest section. Deeper to shallower. Wave fizzles out then reforms. Doing that on purpose. The goal being chest to head high wave…

Make it better go wider, wider pool make it better more room. Beginners are always going to be riding whitewater….

And then I got my bill and left. But is any of that interesting? Elucidating in some way? I don’t know. I failed geometry.

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18 Comments
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small fins

thats cute

Tom House

I’m just thankful I live in a place where nobody around me is talking about wave pools at lunch.

Bampster

Take another giant toke off a fattie and you really won’t give rats az if it’s mushy or not!
You can drop the entry admission a bit an attract a lot more dweebs and groms whose parents are most likely paying for the entertainment of their larvae!

Preston

Um, is Rory locked away in a Nicaraguan prison or something?

bitter guy

“it was consensual, dammit!”

A$AP Honky

dunno where you have lunch mate but where i’m from smoko is all bout the Herald Sun quiz master and farmers union 500ml

Mariano Landa

That’s living!

Tom

From what I have seen isn’t Kelly’s pulling “sled” pretty similar to the wavegarden tech? Looks as much.
The difference is then going to be perhaps the size of the pool – width and length, but even more important the bottom topography.
To me wavegarden seems to be too deep next to their platform, so you are continually surfing into deep water all the time – its seems soft.
Whereas Kelly’s appears far shallower and maybe shallower towards his sled so it barrels.
Maybe a simplistic description but seems as much when defining the two techs

bitter guy

they’re all using a sled down the middle of some sort of pool, takes whatever amount of energy to pull it, but it can’t move much water if its not deep where the sled runs. otherwise you’re right, its the bottom contour that makes the shape. problem is, a wave that size needs to be in less than 2 feet of water to throw, and that’s dangerous for mr weekend Lemoore rippers.

Scott J Anderson

Got to test the Austin Wavegarden a couple weeks back. Not open yet. It’s about waist deep on the “bank.” You can simply stand and wait for the wave. After the wave passes through, it sucks out pretty hard to below you knees almost dry. This one is the largest one yet at the lagoon itself being 14 acres. I haven’t surfed Kelly’s so can’t compare, but its about head high, 700 yds, there is a barrel but yes it’s on the softer side.

Jocks

Hasn’t everyone from Wavegarden thrown themselves off the ledge yet?

Maybe their targeting the non-surfing market now mmm

bitter guy

don’t know why they would, they’ve got the same tech, just no superstar endorsement.

Nick Carroll

Sounds like some pretty serious lunchtime wanking going on there

Black Rubber

Ummm, lunchtime wanks. So good.

Charlie Conway

“Make it better go wider, wider pool make it better more room.”

I’m terrible at geometry as well. Maybe thats why this makes absolutely no sense to me.

Chas Smith

I was drinking sake and typing! Nothing made any sense!

Audit In Progress

What did you have for lunch? A nice yellowfin sahsimi, perhaps?

throwing disqus

id start by asking for the proof…


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