She's flawless! And small! But early days…
The raw perfume of another wave tank is something terribly hard to ignore.
Three days ago, a sturdy contingent of WQS-level Australian pro surfers and the all-but-retired former world champ Joel Parkinson flew to North Queensland to test the full-sized prototype of the Occy and Barton Lynch-endorsed wave pool called Surf Lakes.
Surf Lakes is a a full-sized demonstration model located midway between the Queensland towns of Yeppoon and Rockhampton and uses a giant plunger to create waves, unlike the sled-foil combo of the Slater pool and Wavegarden and the air pressure game of American Wave Machines.
How it’d go?
The waves are very small (one-to-two feet, with the plunger working at forty percent capacity), very pretty and green (Surf Lakes uses tap water) and the background to the pool is artist’s impression-perfect mountains and cattle farms. This ain’t dirty ol Lemoore or cult-crazy Waco.
However.
A mechanical breakdown means the demos are being postponed and the site has been closed until various parts are replaced.
It happens.
The various surfers at the site say the pool promises palpitations.
Want an early look?
https://www.instagram.com/p/BpZRu-1jcqu/?taken-by=beach_grit
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Why would ASL let STAB into their exclusive shoot? The Surf Lakes marketing team isn’t doing the best job either, but maybe people will come regardless?
Well, at least they nailed the ambience that the other tubs were missing. Nothing screams surf like a huge huffing, puffing piston thing.
Maybe it’s a good excuse to resurrect ‘OP’; Occy’s Piston.
Beachgrit the wave pool industry voice.
Don’t you mean vice?
Imagine all those “Cousinbrothers” around Rockhampton getting into this.
Every paying customer gets a watermelon and pip spitting bucket at the turnstile.
The banjo water show is on twice a day, at 11am and 3pm.
With all these pools, we could potentially have world champions in 20yrs with a John Deere sponsor on their board.
Fk yeah.
Inviting all serious investors.
Be apart of the first Wave Pool Boat Trip industry. 10 days going to all the best pools. Our boat can travel at 100km/h and requires no mooring fees. See photo.
I’m predicting, bigger than Fidget Spinners.
Now, where’s Martin Daly’s number…
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
I can’t help but hear the name in some sort of cartoon Texan drawl:
“Yeeeee-POOOON, y’alll!”
Occy’s face will be sore from the massive grin on his mug.
Bald is the new man-bun.
faaaaark
I just strung some random words together. Don’t worry about it.
I’ve heard it gets quite busy in Yeppoon
Sick. After the more-human-than-human elitism of Kelly pool, this Dickensian beauty looks like it’s been cobbled together from an early 20th century steel works and could be dropped it any third world dengue dam. Power to the people.
Fuck that takeoff looks hard tho. They need to design a little chip in.
gunna humble alot of surf journos nursing rum hangovers.
Chuck some sort of obtrusion just behind the ledge to get a wedge/surge/roll in. If Parko’s not making it what chance does anyone else have.
And that proposed BG trip sounds like it needs a third wheel…
Looking at the video the O’leary left may be slightly more user friendly than the Parko right for Beach Grit’s Rebellious Rum Corps ?
Steampunk Surf Pool
With the creation now of 4 mechanical beasts- should we have a naming convention for each artificial wave generator. Occy’s could be some sort of dragon, Kelly’s some sort of madmax train.
The brand surf ‘Surf Lake Doubles ltd’ is gonna be upset about all this.
Ha!
I think good looking waves are no longer a high bar, the bar now is practicality- wave frequency, number of breaks, operating and capital costs, reliability, etc. For all the well-deserved hoopla at the time, that’s the bar the Surf Ranch didn’t come close to meeting (as a tech for public wave pools.)
What I want is a crumbly close out, slightly/very wind affected, with maybe a ten-second interval. Within five minutes of my house.
You could just move to Bondi or Cronulla .Sounds exactly what you are searching for ?
So you’re living in Maroochydore?
I thought this might have been the one for me, but if someone who has taken off behind the rock at snapper 10,000 times can’t make it to the bottom of a 2 footer, there is fuck all chance for me. I am with @bleachdgit:disqus on this one.
Something closer to kellys but powered and breaking like waco about 500m long at 4 ft would do it.
Surflakes with such a short period and 5 peaks means this thing will look like snapper once the gates open, they will need some strict rules on how it works or will be a complete shit show.
Doesn’t look bad….but I’ll never be in Yeppoon. I’m only 2 or 3 hours from Lemoore and I’ll never be there either. Wake me up when there’s 20 in every state and the price goes down to that of an amusement park, cuz I’ll be dead then.
the flawless looking ones are always temperamental.
And therefore flawed ?
a stable 6 or a neurotic 9?
Both better than a Bipolar 10 !
I don’t know. its like a different girl every time.
Sadly too little magic and very often ends up tragic .
How’d it look
How it’d look
How did it look
How it did look
It actually looked pretty fucken good. I’d surf it, even at that size.
However, I no longer surf
Nice One ConnOr O’
ShOwin’ up Ol’ ParkO.
NOt blOwin’ it On the takeOff
And ruining the blOOdy VideO .
Today’s lesson for Mr Reilly was brought to him by the letter O .
( And you could of mentioned he was 2017 Rookie of the year )
One of these cannons went off in Yeppon, it put a dirty great hole in a Torana.
Funny story, when I was 18, 18 years ago, I needed a new car. Had a chance to by an SLR 5000 Torana, or a 2 year old Excel. Both were about 6k. Bought the Excel because it would be cheaper to run.
That Torry is now worth 50k+. The Excel is crushed into a cube
A là Recherche du Temps ( and Tubes and Toranas ) Perdu ? Funnily enough I was thinking of Marcel Proust then Peter Brock which lead me to think of former Sky Shaper Chris Brock and a wonderful little article in Surfers Journal about his thoughts on the importance of continuing to surf .
Remember which issue, James?
I found it at surfersjournal.com but they are doing site maintenance at this very moment and the article is sadly unavailable .( at least for the moment )
Yep, that’s what I found. I have about 12 years of back issues, so can look it up at home once I know the issue. Cheers – or tschuess 🙂
Avec tant de plaisir . No worries Mads .
That was a very nice little piece. Chris Brock sounds like a good man.
I think I missed the funny part.
That Torry would be worth a lot more than that now, but you probably would have wrapped it around a tree regardless.
I don’t like to think about it. Still haven’t forgiven my parents for talking me out of it