And a new wave setting, The Beast, very difficult, but ever so thrilling…
You want to surf in Australia’s first surf tank, in the world’s biggest version of the Wavegarden Cove built on almost five acres of land a couple of clicks from Melbourne airport?
All the details, at least the ones that matter, how much it’s going to cost, what’s on the wave menu etc, have just been released.
First, a one-hour session is going to cost seventy-nine dollars, and that’s if you’re quick hitting the bookings when they open a little closer to opening day. ‘Cause it’s going to book out fast. Try getting into Waco even two years after it was built. It ain’t easy.
If you want to be one of the first in the pool in December and ride it every week and you’re a season pass kinda person, there’s Foundation Memberships for $A3500 or 2400 American dollars. This includes the pre-opening surf, four sessions a month and a few other bits and pieces. Sounds like a ton of cash, and it is, a little hot for your old pal DR, but four sessions a month will eat up $3600 over the course of a year.
A gold-pass will cost $A3100 and you get the four surfs a month but not the pre-opening sesh and a few minor perks like a “test pilot” tee, a wristband and a tour of the joint.
The wave menu is looking pretty dialled, a few readers calling in to talk up The Beast, described by the company’s media guy Rupert Partridge as “an intense, slabbing, sidewinding barrel that also offers sections for turns and airs.”
A wave a very well-known surfer, and patron of BeachGrit, couldn’t get to his feet when it was being test in the Basque Country a year or so ago.
A little later this morning, Julian Wilson, Sally Fitzgibbons and missing-in-action double world champ Tyler Wright will light up the tank.
More soon etc
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I can see it now, Blade Runner 2027. Replicants who learned to surf in surf tanks are now loose in the wild. They look like surfers, surf like surfers. Question is, can they duckdive, drink beer or jump off the rocks?
Burn it with fire!
Update on the balloon wave just came through..
https://www.tracksmag.com.a…
Looks super fun but I reckon I’d struggle to get my lanky frame in those tight little pipes, when is someone gonna build one that is bigger than 2 foot?
That’s probably next in this tax everything state. You’ll need a fuckin wristband or an app on phone that says you paid. The state and national parks have day use fees already.
Anyone who has paid to surf one of these pools knows they never dish out those sorta waves to Joe Public
So true – didn’t see any of barrels at Waco similar to the ones advertised
So I’m fortunate to have a family of 4 surfers So x 1hr /week x 4 x 80 is $320 x 50 weeks=16k For 50 hours surfing
This years Indo trip averaged 4 hrs(conservative) / day over 17 out of 21 days = 8k for 272 hours surfing
Hope they do family pass’s otherwise the kids are going to be bummed when they find out I didn’t go to Melbourne for work.
An annual sticker/placard that gains you entrance into beach parking lot. Cities make a pretty dime selling beach passes. Every year I buy the CA State Beach pass that lets me into any State Beach. It’s only a couple hundred bucks but fuck if the crooks in Sacramento found out how much surfers were willing to pay to go surfing, they may screw us over big time.
$25 in a holiday weekend at Torrey Pines, $15 on a regular one. Fuck the cunts mismanaging our money in Sacto!
How irrelevant is every other pool now??? That lip is sick!!
But the best thing is they all keep having a “race to the moon” on the tech, and eventually the sessions get cheaper as they all compete with each other for our dollars
Im all for it!! Come on Webber
Ya had me till “Come on Webber”…
ha ha yep but his v-reef tech looks awesome – another pool tech means cheaper prices
And their mates https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Free VB for all https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
I don’t know, what will the long term effects of these wave tanks have on a surfer’s pschye? Will they still look at the Ocean the same–or has the magic been drained out.
Will they still go on a Dawn patrol or just say screw it–sleep in, and pay for a tank. Will they fall asleep thinking about tomorrow’s possible surf– or fall asleep dreaming about the tank. I’m serious, I think something important may be (has been) lost–with the advent of tanks–time will tell………..
There’s surfers, surfers and surfers, possibly also surfers and surfers too, perhaps surfers, surfers and surfers maybe.
With many different ideas of what this surfing thing is all about.
But we should all know that the truth is not to be found in pools…
(no matter how enticing this one looks haha)
You’ll be all alone in the lineup
What’s the prob?
Think so? I doubt it, maybe, time will tell though. How many will be able to afford a weekly fix of a couple of hours each week all year long. Will newbies from the tank come to the local breaks? I guess we’ll have to see how it all plays out………
Plenty will be able to afford the weekly fix. Melbourne surfers already need to pay that for a tank of petrol and an overpriced meal in Torquay every weekend, and won’t even get a barrel for their efforts. Not to mention all the surfers who’ve moved to the city for their career and now have money to spend but no time to go surfing. $80 a week for guaranteed waves? Sign me up!
If I hadn’t just put a deposit on a block of land I’d be damn tempted to move to the family to Melbourne for a few years until the kids are all in school and I’m actually able to get up for a surf before work because I haven’t spent the whole night settling a baby. Better work prospects there for me too. But, I’ve gotten a little sidetracked. The pool looks fun, cost looks reasonable; magic days in the ocean will always be much better but those are few and far between these days.
Like I said, this is a new frontier, I thinks it’s gonna take awhile to see how it all plays out. Maybe it will work out for some people, for me, I’m not interested. Maybe in 6 months or a year we’ll have some real feedback. Hahaha, I’m still stoked to have the real thing…….
Just think of it as chair lifts on a mountain.
Imagine a dystopian future where only the elite can afford to surf in the clean waters of the local surf pool, while the poor languish in the filthy oceans having to ugh – duck dive and stuff.
Surfing in the ocean will become the new privilege. Much like back country skiing.
I sure hope these exorbitant wave pool season ticket prices don’t give local municipality’s any sneaky ideas about raising annual beach pass prices.
I’m suddenly gonna visit my long lost Melbourne relatives.
Missed you guys! Is Tullamarine around here?
Turbonegro says “Tuggamarine”. Much better.
Omg I need to take the day of and go and lie down, I’m too stimulated. The stab clip is nuts.
WHEN CAN I GO
The write was okay….until….”the waves that you would draw on your pencil case as a kid…..” Fucking hell.
God I wish surfing could learn some new words.
What about “when it was being test”?
The kind with the ruler edge
That is 30mins from where I’m sitting. Just got an email last night saying I’m not gonna be one of the first 20 test pilots- unless they spelt my name wrong that is. Fingers crossed.
Looks like a few kooks mixed in on the list of names they sent through.
Let me know how the kooks go. Asking for a friend
You’re asking for me.
What, like
Parti peet.
Yes just 2 letters difference.
How can you tell a kook by their name?
A few of the names read like total VAL. It’s not a gift, just perception.
Like Finster Faldounalot or Ira Lochnees? Maybe Rudolpho Schwartzemtakeoff?
Skaught SkanDenNegro?
All of those and more: Tina Wokebeach, Tuffguy Surfnow, Footy Finslashburn, Steve Midlifehobbychange, E Wetsuitismyarmour Lo, Dork Amicoolnow and more and more.
Stevie M!
There’s even Couplesurf Doubledate + 1 which is pretty much the worst kook experience you can come across. They hang together in a pack on the shoulder and when they drop on you they casually state “sorry man I thought was my mate behind me”.
Oh I saw the list you could tell straight up.
Hope your not talking about Bikramjeet, he rips
If Denis Conway has ever hucked a fin I’ll eat my hat,
Keep writing good articles and we’re all going to have to chip in and send ya!
Glad to see somewhat of an air section in the latest clip. Not quite Wacos death ramp but looks fun regardless
I reckon Occy Barton and co have done their dough.
You’d hope they weren’t foolish enough to put any personal funds into that Dickensian pile of steampowered doughnut plunging dung
Oh I dunno
Maybe they just lent their names for cred?
most likely
Word is they have put some cash in. A while back before it was ‘operational’ there was a bit of an effort to generate more cash. About the time they came on board. Might have been promotional, but I reckon they invested.
Seemed promising at the time I guess.
Looks clunky now
Only ever seemed promising to those of a Phineas Fogg bent though really
Victorian era surf tech, hmmmm
I think the Steam Punk vibe adds to the whole
PpffPppfffffftttttttzzzzz
Pppfffffftttttttzzzzzzzzz
If they could somehow turn it into an Australian burning man type thing, I see a future.
Mugs
How much is 100 shares handwritten on half a sheet of two ply toilet paper from Webber worth?
Bout two joints minus the dope
The wosl (and Kelly) must be spewing…
(rubs hand together and laughs with glee)
Why? I don’t think anyone’s really clicked on this: the more wave pools, the more wave pools. If pools become normalised, the KSWC is in a better position.
50,000 will never be normal
Even in pesos!
Accessibility through price because of a more efficient machine, plain and simple really
(And rich guys really hate it when they see someone else’s similar endeavours being lauded whilst theirs are mocked)
If they can’t get hold of the competing technology via licensing then they are going to be left with a pool that takes 8 minutes between waves.