To dream an impossible dream.
For six long years, Joey Lawrence has had a dream. A dream to bring world-class waves to the middle of Washington state. A dream to have surfers drive east instead of Westport. A dream that shakas would replace apples as the local signifier and days ago that dream forced itself into reality.
The Blossom alum and partner Mike Roy received final approval to begin digging Barreled Surf Park on an 80-acre site in Moxee, near… nothing. It will cost an estimated $30 million and utilize Wavegarden’s wonderfully accessible technology. The official plans include, “a 5.5-acre wave pool, 21 RV spaces, 21 campsites and 23 lodging units, with food service to include a restaurant/food truck. Other amenities include a fitness studio, skate park, dog park, fire pit and beach volleyball area, with surfboard and wetsuit rentals available.”
Lawrence took to Facebook and declared, “Today, a milestone was achieved. We’ve just been given the Hearing Examiner’s decision approving our Conditional Land Use Permit and our proposal to bring surfing to the Yakima Valley. Proudly, we are now the second @wavegarden_official (wavegarden technology) project to achieve this approval in the United States.”
Not everyone is so thrilled, though. Local residents, especially elderly ones, fear their cherished way of life is about to be shattered.
Laurie Huber has owned a home in the area for 27-years and told the local NBC affiliate, “I have dreams too, but I would make sure I wouldn’t take someone else’s dream away to accomplish that dream. [The surf park will] take everything I loved about this area away from us, our house is paid for, we’re remodeling, we planned on retiring in this house.”
She may also worries that fans of early 90s television programing will flock, along with surfers, to hear Lawrence’s iconic catch phrase “Whoa.”
Dark days.
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Eastern WA is freezing in the winter.
Let’s be honest, she’ll Airbnb her house and spend the profits on her burgeoning meth addiction
This is so far removed from the original surfing experience of, salt water, freedom, ocean sunsets, soul, escape–its pathetic.
The original surf experience was Peruvian and ostensibly about getting one’s catch to shore quickly
Bum fuck Egypt is the take away here
Chas really did a job on the place when he peed on the Pyramid.
Haaa
That’s an excellent point, sooner than later there will have to be a contest , which will attract the parasitic surf media / self advertisement types who in turn will degrade the environment further as well as spread disease and petulance .
There will have to be surf school and several poorly maintained mini busses involved and at least one environmentally destructive viewing tower built.
Every attendee will be obliged to stick a twig in the ground and there photo taken claiming they helping regenerate a ancient forest and therefore offsetting the ridiculous carbon toll they have generated because they wanted go surfing .
Surfers are the worse people, and some cat owners, also Russians aren’t so great either but not all, maybe 70% but all Republicans are fucked.
Y’all know if you want surf so much , go to the ocean?
Keep the land green and ocean blue as nature attended !
I moved into this town 20 years ago and put a 100. down on the imminent skate park. One delay after another and more fundraisers than FarmAid has yet to produce somewhere to skate that isn’t sidewalk.
So the plan was to put the park in a space of land adjacent to our train station. Was told it was a go after 18 years of talk. I didn’t like the published design of the park, but i”m also too old to be hitting cement at this point anyway after last years crash in the Ojai pool.
Neighbors came out of the wood works to complain about the park’s location. The rationals were obtuse. The park would bring a drug element across the street from an active drug trade that our Sheriff don’t seem to mind. Noise, because the train schedule is not blaring enough. Parking? Most of the kids would skate or bike and there is an enormous train parking lot that is only full 4 days a year.
Didn’t this thing already get unanimous approval for the city council last month? That place is slowly (or quickly at this point) being bought up by people from LA looking for a bargain and slower pace of life. Not much different to the south either.
Yeah, the other side of the tracks is very LA money. This was the last real beach town in so cal.
dude! so similar to my experience, I advocated for this local park while my kids were babies, thinking it’d be great: swing sets when they were small then skate when older. the park was built almost 20 years later! my kids are grown ( never into skating anyway), and my body is twisted like a 80 year old stevedore… lucky if I can go down hill in a semi straight line!
and the kicker is, the local skaters hate the park anyway because of the lackadaisical parents dropping off their little ones by the dozen with scooters for free day care, so it’s actually a little dangerous to skate ffs
you plan, god(s) laugh
she could always get more meth
Excellent advice generally for anyone
Go for the food trucks, stay for the dog park. When is the cover band lineup going to be established?
Issues only arise when food trucks and dogs combine. 1/4 crossbreed with fries anyone?
She hasn’t done her research. The pool will be drained and useless within years
Pretty hard to imagine anyone travelling there for this.
Gerry Lopez?
Some people will for the novelty. But as you said, that will last for a year or so and then its going the route of the Coors pool.
So she can sk8 the pool and swim in the sk8 park, or maybe ice sk8 the sk8 park and cook meth in the dog park. She’ll have options
The weird thing is that you can surf river waves and Columbia gorge wind swell secret spots pretty close to there. Let’s tow in with a wheat combine when the pool opens.
Seem’s like everyone wants to surf, but nobody wants to watch it!
That’s the WSL business plan!!
Too right, difficult to mainstream! Plenty of global corps pushing wrong strategies in my book…why not the WSL! Too many execs using the MBA manual as an instruction book!
Old people complaining about surfers – sounds like a true Florida resident.
Except she’s in the freezing/hot part of Washington.
The headline says 40 acre wave tank.
The 2nd paragraph says 80 acre site, and also, 5.5 acre wave pool.
Quite a difference…
A 40 acre wavepool facility fits nicely into an 80 acre site with the pool itself taking up 5.5 acres. The other 40 acres are skatepark, dog park, etc.
Look Ma….there goes the neighborhood.
This wave pool should be moved to the Hanford Reactor superfund site wasteland a few miles North East. Problem solved.
They’ve already got their first grumpy local, a true milestone for any surf spot!
But, is she a ‘fake’ grumpy local—like the ‘fake’ wave in the ‘fake’ ocean with the fake beach…
Right next to Yakima! Right now it’s …..34 degrees (F). Maybe Mason won’t need to travel to Scotland anymore to catch icy barrels on his head?
He will if he wants them to be more than knee high
I’m quite tired, and will admit that I first mistakenly read the headline as “40-acne wavepool”, thus conjuring a teenage wasteland.
You’re all WASTED!
No rest for the wasted.
Put your back into the digging
The Who Sell Out!
cue comically large deodorant props now…