The environmental paradox as explained by the man powering the waves at Palm Springs Surf Club…
There’s no bigger name in the wavepool game than San Diego’s Thomas J Lochtefeld, a former tax lawyer turned water park proprietor turned creator of surf dreams.
Lochtefeld got his surf chops threading caves at Big Rock in La Jolla, San Diego, and has spent the last thirty-five years trying to recreate similar thrills at the punch of a button.
In 1987, he sold his share in a bunch of theme parks for two million dollars and used that cash, as well the sale of his beachfront joint at La Jolla for 950k to create a standing wave, called Flowrider, that ended up being installed in over 200 joints in thirty-five countries.
In 1999, the Swiss watch company Swatch toured a souped up version of the Flowrider called Bruticus Maximus and that caused more permanent injuries in one year than Teahupoo in the last thirty, around the world: from Florence to Munich, Vienna, Hanover, Long Beach, San Diego, Manila and Sydney, with Tony Hawke, Kelly Slater, Chris Miller and Terje Haakonsen wowing crowds with a surf, snow, skate combo of airs and tubes.
Lochtefeld’s real goal, however, was a wave that didn’t involve standing waves and finless mini-boards.
As computer tech got better, he deepened his research on the different ways of making waves: hydraulics, ploughs, boats.
Lochtefeld ended up using pneumatics, which is pretty much wind power, to birth his newest invention, called WaveLoch, and being used, right now, as the tech behind the Palm Springs Surf Club, currently in the proof-of-concept phase and only half the size of his proposed build.
“It’s going to be an A-frame so you can backdoor it,” says Lochtefeld.
Lochtefeld ain’t afraid to call a spade a spade, as they used to say, and is a born entertainer.
You’ll dig this one.
Note: The surfer with the fabulous capacity for booze in between sessions on Bruticus Maximus and that Lochtefeld couldn’t remember during the interview was Matt Hoy and the ovum, egg story he references can be read by clicking here.
(Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcast, Stitcher, TuneIn + Alexa, iHeartRadio, Overcast, Pocket Cast, Castro, Castbox, Podcast Addict, Podchaser, Deezer and Listen Notes.)
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best dirty water yet in my humble thanks fellas
greatest shark survivor interview.
no probs with the surfing cuz.
So Laird goofs around and innovates standup paddling which is now an industry worth hundreds of millions, keeps a lot of shapers in business and brings a very fun form of physical fitness to people around the world.
What other surfer has done anything of that magnitude and global reach?
And Kelly uses his clout and money and connections and imua to finally finally crack the equation of artificla waves?
All piddly, self-rightoues soul arguments aside, that thing is a goddamn miracle of modern science and a pretty significant achievement.
Did Kelly and Laird have to do anything like that?
No, they didn’t.
But they did. And good on ’em.
thats very old, outdated thinking.
But carry on cliche if it helps you get through the night.
yeah, I got the Laird creamer here. It’s nice.
I do love the superfoods creamer though.
Uncomfortably true. Only Lochtefeld gets out of that comparison with self-esteem intact.
He will listen later!
worst, most vanilla cliched quote ever.
And about the twentieth time you’ve used it.
No fresh material?
You and Negs love Ben
Admit it.
have I ever tried to make it a secret?
No, he’s the only one you’ll reply.
what? I reply to you every time Bexy.
I luv you.
just don’t repo my car if I miss a payment.
No skin in that game anymore.
But I keep the license handy for the coming financial apocalypse.
Are you saying the first hit of meth shouldn’t be celebrated by getting some ink?
Open to interpretation.
For a writer you ain’t got much faith in the craft.
Words’ll change the world far more than wave pools and superfoods creamers ever will.
copy that.
you ever read any Viktor Frankl?
Chas is a very smart, productive guy. Published author, very disciplined.
So is Derek. Celebrated author. Incredibly creative.
You should recalibrate your opinion based on reality and not because your heroes get a little kick in the nuts.
So does he actually know Flo Rida?
You’re back Ben. Like a dog that comes back to lick its own vomit, in this instance (as always) a sickly sweet concoction of hero worship which you somehow find irresistible. It’s nauseating, but compelling in a very weird way.
Get any go outs lately?
Good call on the identity of CaliUberGoober.
I come from a generation where the only tattoo’s I saw outside of tv shows with Bikers were grim reminders of WW2.
Old Jewish women would have serial numbers on their forearms, chilling.
Old guys would have their unit, brigade, ensignia on their arms because they would surely never survive the beach invasion.
Of course, those people hated our hair and the fact that we were surfing and not working and shit really is cyclical.
Let’s be honest… after you saw Kelly do the duck dive to take off you were so enamoured you didn’t want to disappoint him wth a unattractive skin souvenir.
What movie was that in Nega? No one has done that since…. to my knowledge.
Oh no. I only know from Ben “nostalgia” Marcus saying it 67 times here in the comments.
Kelly and Laird, you crack me up Ben.
Yes, two shining examples of how to be talented, brave, progressive, industrious and prosperous, and not some whiny, tattooed wanker who strives for nothing, achieves nothing, furthers nothing.
Did you let Kelly tattoo you with the local Chiefs tribal kit on that fateful Surfer trip to Samoa in 1874?
You luv him
So what I got from that is Kelly’s tub is in fact a wake pool for wake riding, not a wave pool.
Derek looks like Pepe le Pew.
What is that red-tipped toy Lochty has in the background I wonder?
We ponder, at length, in conversation.