Bristol’s The Wave closed until May 1: “We will overcome this challenge together!”

The Wuhan Wheeze strikes at the heart of British surfing.

Four weeks after announcing it was going to introduce a $200-an-hour three-foot setting for “highly experienced and proficient surfers” and two months after introducing mandatory skill-testing to smoke out the kooks, Bristol’s The Wave has shut its doors until May 1 to keep the Wuhan Wheeze at bay.

(Lest we forget those other Chinese classics, H1N1, Bird Flu and SARS.)

The company’s CEO Craig Stoddart released a prepared statement,

In part,

“Based on the latest Government guidance regarding the Coronavirus outbreak we have taken the difficult decision to temporarily close The Wave from end of play on Thursday 19th March to 1st May. The health and wellbeing of our staff and customers is of the utmost importance to us. 

“The closure affects all areas of the site and if people have a surf booked during this period then they’ll be contacted by email with information on next steps. This is a rapidly evolving situation and we will be keeping everyone updated on developments via our website, newsletters and social media pages.

“These are uncertain and testing times for everyone, and we will overcome this challenge, together.”

It’s been a difficult birth for the British pool, the first of the commercial Wavegarden Cove’s to open to the public, from underwhelming waves to a licensing system to a $200-an-hour setting that, paradoxically, was open to anyone with the cash thereby causing much anguish with the pool’s patrons.

£95 an hour🤣 surf the Canary Islands for less.

That’s £95 for the day right? Not for an hour

Meanwhile, in Melbourne, Urbnsurf continues to take bookings and is mostly sold out, although there are a couple of seats for the nine pm session tomoz night.

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