Miracle in Yeppoon: Surf Lakes creates world’s first artificial “eight-foot” wave; uses bodyboarder for perspective!

Giant plunger reaches "theoretical safe maximum"…

Two weeks ago, it was reported, here, that the Australian company Surf Lakes was set to achieve what no other wavepool on earth had done or even come close to – create an eight-foot man-made wave.

The Occy and Barton Lynch-endorsed Surf Lakes is a a full-sized demonstration wavepool located midway between the towns of Yeppoon and Rockhampton in Central Queensland and uses a giant plunger to create waves, unlike the sled-foil combo of the Slater pool and the air pressure game of American Wave Machines.

It was a bullish claim, an impossible dream you would think, and BeachGrit readers were, naturally, sceptical.

A few samples.

From Matt Warshaw, Am I the only one who read “bullish numbers” as “bullshit numbers”?

From Channelbottom,

When I told my wife “I’m sure Yepoon feels much bigger than it looks.” She slapped me.

I can’t get no respect…

From Snowbored,

8 foot Hawaiian?

Or 8 foot Lenmorian?

But, just a few hours ago, the company revealed photographs of what they call eight-foot waves, the “theoretical safe maximum for the prototype.”

To prove the matter beyond any reasonable doubt, a champion bodyboarder, riding prone, was used in the photographs for perspective.

Let’s pick over the two images provided.

Now,

Let’s be frank.

I see a pretty good four-foot wave.

And I am neither Hawaiian nor bullish with numbers.

Am I wrong?