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You ain't never seen a dang thing like it! | Photo: @surfinglife

From the milk-a-story-dry-department: Occy’s wave pool from the bird!

Come and get a little of that boom boom!

Of all the crimes I might be accused of, letting a story run its natural course is not one of them.

Last week, the Occy and Barton-Lynch endorsed wave pool called Surf Lakes opened for testing, and which we duly reported with a lazy phone call to the company’s media director.

“The thing is mind-blowing. Everything about it,” the former Tracks editor Wayne Dart said.  “The technology and just the sheer beauty of the backdrop and surrounds. It’s surreal. You look at the footage and it looks like an artist’s impression. You’ve got trees and mountains in the background and this crystal clear green wave breaking down the line.”

He added, “We’re analysing all the numbers, making sure we can get it to full size and not break it, essentially. But, this afternoon, there’ll be waves that are overhead. From an engineering perspective, all the numbers are matching. We’re confident it will handle full-tilt.”

Last night, the company released its first official vision, a carefully curated, and very short, clip of its pool before it broke down and the site was closed.

And which we reported, and spat all over social. 

Today, further footage of the tank, this time from Surfing Life magazine, one of the few remaining print titles in this special interest niche still in existence, who’d negotiated exclusive rights to the story.

And, this, my favourite, of the Western Australian surfer Felicity Palmateer. The North Queensland sunset is juxtaposed expertly with machinery so dystopian one expects there to be a large clock somewhere striking thirteen.

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53 Comments
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Leashed_beast

Can anyone explain why everyone wears a leash in the wave pools?

Lorlac

I’m strictly an Aint That Swell guy

Craven Morehead

Wave pools suck they are all two foot waves pffffffft

Neal Kearney

Steam Punk ankle biters

longtom

thanks, thats a pretty heavy limitation on the surf lakes method.

longtom

I probs won’t listen to that, any chance of a summary Twillsy?

Abscessed Llama

Sound of a hull crashing down. Repeat..

Tom

Oh and I think webber will release his day after Medina wins title – these guys pulled trigger too early

Tom

Looks epic – the only problem may be the fact that mechanics between the “dunny plunger” and venting structure lie underwater – you would not want to drain lake every time an issue occurs. The potential for multiple arms and waves tho is immense. Good on em

Chazz Michael Michaels

Surf Lakes is my favourite.

Nick Carroll

It took Chas Smith to dream of a hallucinogenic future wasteland wave pool aesthetic, but it took GOOD OL’ Aussie ingenuity to actually build it!

In your FACE, rich Americans!

Superworm

In a not-too-distant dystopian future, when man’s most precious resource — waves — have been depleted and the world plunged into Facebook, Instagram and gender chaos, the last vestiges of the law in Australia attempt to restrain a vicious inland surfer gang. Chas, an officer with the Beach Grit Patrol, launches a personal vendetta against the gang when his partner (Derek) and Longtom are hunted down and murdered, leaving him with nothing but the instincts for survival and retribution. https://uploads.disquscdn.c…

longtom

North Queensland?

Men have been lynched for less north of the Tweed Dell.

It’s Central Qld. Heart and soul of it.

StarJamma

Queensland seems vast to me. Like a few cities and towns, then it just peters off into the jungle.

longtom

it is vast, but it’s the most decentralised Australian state.

most Australians live in cities…..QLD has the highest percentage living in smaller regional centres.

StarJamma

Hell, I’ve only been to Perth/Freemantle and Darwin (on a military cruise). I feel like those places are so atypical that I’m not sure I got a good feel for Australia. Certainly not surfing wise, never made it to Margaret River area and you can’t surf Darwin.

The Bitchy Crab

You go military cruising?

StarJamma
Brutus

is there a big banjo club in Qld?

Lemon Next to the Pie

Mate, the further you go down one of the local roads towards the lake, the louder the banjos get. And that is less than 2km inland from the beach on the Sunshine Coast.

The Bitchy Crab

Lynch me. I got nothing left.

davidcarson

u only get one chance to blow people away with your world premier.
miss.
shoulda waited till its actually working, +with size.
+release footage the day after medina wins the title.

Nick Carroll

“Blow people away” excellent work Dave!
Yeppoon is not known merely for its excellent taste in Rum.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/…

Jim Fu

Well blow me…Marcia.
Yeppoon could also be well known for high humidity, Ross River virus, midgies, mosquitos, stone fish, box jellyfish & a crocodile or three.
Also like to point out to the latte sipping Bondi surfing journo that Yeppoon is hundreds of kilometres south of North Queensland

Lorlac

It was a blown opportunity and sloppy work by whoever was running that side of things.

madmaxmedia

Immortal Joe should be sitting at the top of the plunger, doling out waves to the masses.

Otto

How many former editors live in Beach Grit’s petty cash drawer?

James Bickerton

Seems like they have hit the bullseye with this Dart 🎯 ?

PacificNorthPest

The wave bends away from the surfer too much. Just like when that happens in the ocean, turns are over-labored and look weak.

velobwoy

They’ve got work on the bathymetry to make em bowl.

PacificNorthPest

Yep. I wonder if a square plunger would also make a difference ….

Superworm

According to my bro science there is at least three laws in play- the inverse square law, diffraction and absorption.

The inverse square law concerns the circular wave. Diffraction (the banks) and absorption (mainly the concrete bottom) also reduce wave energy.

The greater the pool radius- effectively the distance of the wave peak from the plunger + the length of the ‘bank’, the weaker the wave.

The inverse square law
A plane wave of a single frequency in theory will propagate forever with no change or loss. This is not the case with a circular or spherical wave, however. One of the most important properties of this type of wave is a decrease in intensity as the wave propagates. The mathematical explanation of this principle, which derives as much from geometry as from physics, is known as the inverse square law.

As a circular wave front (such as that created by dropping a stone onto a water surface) expands, its energy is distributed over an increasingly larger circumference. The intensity, or energy per unit of length along the circumference of the circle, will therefore decrease in an inverse relationship with the growing radius of the circle, or distance from the source of the wave. In the same way, as a spherical wave front expands, its energy is distributed over a larger and larger surface area. Because the surface area of a sphere is proportional to the square of its radius, the intensity of the wave is inversely proportional to the square of the radius. This geometric relation between the growing radius of a wave and its decreasing intensity is what gives rise to the inverse square law.

The decrease in intensity of a spherical wave as it propagates outward can also be expressed in decibels. Each factor of two in distance from the source leads to a decrease in intensity by a factor of four. For example, a factor of four decrease in a wave’s intensity is equivalent to a decrease of six decibels, so that a spherical wave attenuates at a rate of six decibels for each factor of two increase in distance from the source.

*https://www.britannica.com/…

Chazz Michael Michaels

TDLR: Waves are different. Physics.

Superworm

🏄

longtom

that really interesting
….I wondered why the plunger was so close to the actual breaking wave.

That explains it.

Pretty heavy rule of physics to be fighting against.

Superworm

I was surprised in the clip how tight the whole setup is. Kind of intense to have a 5ft wave (coming soon?) appear 3 metres in front of the average Joe and have to take off. I know the reason, but seeing it is bizarre. Looking fwd to your boots on ground report

NEGATRON

I just deleted your “rankings list” was way too awesome to just be a post… I’ll forward to Derek, looks like they’re running abit thin on the ground with Chas away story wise so good timing!

Dogsnuts

And then I felt the love wash over me. Up with beachgrit! Long live beachgrit!

channelbottom

I find the aesthetics of this set up far more visually appealing than the train. As someone said: steam-punk.

S’kinda rad.

Nick Dee

The technology, with the stream thingo, looks like from the 18th century. Apart from that; it reckon its rad, also. I watched the video many times. One pump of stream, two waves, two lefts, two rights, four surfers. Multiply it by four or five 16 surfers to 20 surfers per pump. Its cool.

Seamus

Really!!? Its so fucking ugly

StarJamma

It’s so ugly yet hypnotically simple. Kelly’s train and plow isn’t much more aesthetic. Come to think of it, both devices seem rather steampunk-ish.

Real Miki Dora

Not impressed. All of this buzz for a tiny little wave barely long enough to do 3 decent turns.
And we don’t know anything about where the energy comes from, does anyone give a shit about the planet here on BeachGrit? FFS

Phat-wan kerr

power comes from electricity generated from locally mined coal. its a real farm to table kind of experience.

Chief Hot stuff

Nothing is more natural and organic than coal.
Its the power of dead rainforests.
Dunno why people don’t like it

Phat-wan kerr

one of the big mining companies should be paying you an absolute fortune to head up their PR unit. no more turning off lights for me.

Superworm

Vegan and Gluten Free too

StarJamma

Probably built over an Aboriginal grave site as well. Should have called the place Dream time!

Phat-wan kerr

you should rip into em about occy and barton flying up for the big test. if they cared at all about the planet they would have travelled in a bus powered by the dreams of children.

channelbottom

You made me just think of the most amazing / stupid charity fundraiser:

Long distance crowd surfing, on an actual surfboard.

Thousands of people lined up in groups to pass along overhead some pro-surfer on his/her board to raise money for a worthy cause.

Like maybe buying out my time from work so I get back in the water during school hours.

You read it here first. So if anyone steals my idea, I’ll get Joel to write a bitchy comment on Instagram! 🙁

Dooma

Do you mean pre-world title Parkinson or always Tudor?

channelbottom

Oh Tudor! Fer shur dude!!!

Chief Hot stuff

Planet don’t give a shit about humans.
The good life ain’t sposed to last forever


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