Surfer-turned-developer Mick Fanning invests in $300 million wave pool resort set to open in 2027

"It was really exciting to catch 150 waves in four hours. That was out of this world. Surfers will travel anywhere to catch a wave."

The three-time world surf champ Mick Fanning, whose real estate, beer and wellness investments can be counted in the tens of millions, has thrown his name and and an undisclosed investment into a $300 mill wave pool and golf resort on Queensland’s Gold Coast, the biggest tourism development there in over forty years.

Developers are gonna turn the old Parkwood Village into the The Palm Valley Gold Coast Resort, dressing the landscape in an upgraded 18-hole golf course, a brewery, two hundred apartments and a wave pool featuring Endless Surf tech, the same tank that just opened in Munich.

The development is at the far northern end of the Gold Coast in the otherwise dreary suburb of Parkwood, back off the ocean and inland from down-at-heel Labrador, which is also the home of Peter Drouyn.

The managing director is the former golf pro Luke Altschwager.

Mick Fanning, said he was made an offer too good to refuse, as they say, by Altschwager, who bears an uncanny resemblance to the other Australian wave pool developer Andrew Ross.

“Luke is from the golfing world and knows how to do the hospitality side. He wanted some credible people on the surfing side,” Fanning told The Australian Financial Review.

Fanning had a swing at the Munich pool recently and said, “The [tech] is probably the most user-friendly and that it just doesn’t stop it, just wave after wave. It was really exciting to catch 150 waves in four hours. That was out of this world. Surfers will travel anywhere to catch a wave. We jump on boats, we chart tiny, dodgy planes and sleep in the dirt just to get a good wave.”

The pool is gonna be the first thing built, followed by the upgrade of the golf course then the brewery, followed by the apartments.

Money is being raised now for the build.

Mick Fanning joins his randy pal Paul Fisher aka DJ FISHER in the big development game reshaping the Gold Coast.

Fisher recently revealed his plans for a gorgeous nine-storey tower comprising six three bedders and a four-bed penthouse with a rooftop terrace. Two houses, including a 1950’s beach shack, will be demolished for the build. 

Click here to see Fanning and co’s website!