Oil money hot for Queensland wave tank!
Earlier today, the company Surf Lakes released a presser reporting that following “the success of full-scale prototype testing” licensee enquiries have been “flooding in from around the globe en-masse.”
There are six projects on the boil, says Surf Lakes, despite the breakdown of machinery during the initial testing. Two in the USA (a site in southern California, which is going to be a country-club style joint and Arizona, which is going to be a commercial operation), Sao Paulo in Brazil, somewhere just out of Perth, London and Spain.
All companies are doing their due diligence, says Surf Lakes, with the two American pools “ready to go” and another site “not far off.” Construction will begin in 2019, doors open 2020.
What was interesting when I spoke to Surf Lakes’ media prez Wayne Dart was his offhand remark, “There’s a lot of money in the world, let’s put it that way. We’ve had conversations with billionaires who are ready to drop as many million dollars as they need to into their thing, to create a private theme park almost. That’s from Europe to the US to the Middle East, where one billionaire wants to put it in the ocean where the waves are flat using reclaimed land. Guys that want to have it for themselves and their mates. Which is a pretty cool thing.”
A Surf Lake license costs $A500,000, which buys you exclusive rights spanning an area covering a million people. You want something for, say, Sydney with its five million people? Gonna cost $2.5 million if you want to shut the door on other Surf Lake biz’s.
Build cost? Surf Lakes says the ball-park figure is $20 million. That’ll buy you the giant plunger and a concrete lake. Land, cute cabanas and yoga teepees, whatever, is up to you to find and buy.
And a warranty?
Readers will remember the giant plunger buckled during its great reveal while operating at only fifty percent capacity. Surf Lakes says the failure was a manufacturing fault, say a new part is being built and that the Yeppoon prototype will be operational by the end of January 2019.
And, yes, a warranty card comes with your $20 million pool.
“There’s a variety of warranties, it’s a pretty big document,” says Dart.
As for the promised “eight-foot” waves, Dart says, from a surfer’s perspective it’ll be “a solid four foot.”
“The promise is have Occy standing tall in a barrel,” he says. “That’s what we promised at the launch and that’s what we have to deliver.”
