"We want to thank all our wonderful community for the outpouring of love and support over the last days."
Bitter tears turned to shouts of joy in Bristol, England, this morning, after it was announced that the shuttered-without-warning surf tub The Wave was set to re-open. The town of near 500,000 souls perched on the pendulum’s bottom west was once most famous as a slave trading hub and, more recently, the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta wherein hundreds of hot air balloons take a mid-August flight until The Wave opened its gates in 2019.
The facility, which utilizes Wavegarden’s patented technology, was instantly popular with Bristolians who were forced to drive nearly four hours to Penzance to surf.
The Wave delivered on its promise of creating 1000 waves per hour and a whole local community began to establish itself. Then, all of a sudden and overnight, the whole business closed.
According to the BBC:
Majority owners (of The Wave) Sullivan Street Partners claimed the closure followed problems surrounding the bankruptcy of a director of another funding partner, JAR Wave. The BBC has approached the firm for comment.
A statement from the majority owners said: “The Wave Group team apologises unreservedly for any upset caused and is doing its best to ensure the situation can be remedied.”
Hope was mostly lost. The local surf community crying onto large plates filled with aged cheddar cheese, Cornish yarg and stargazy pie.
But then, just as swift as it was sealed, The Wave sprung back to life. The BBC now reporting:
The Wave, on the northern edge of Bristol, shut with immediate effect on Thursday and was placed into technical insolvency. It was announced on Friday evening that the site had been sold to another company, with the hope of reopening on Saturday – though this failed to happen. On Monday evening it was confirmed on social media that surfers would be allowed to return on Tuesday.
A The Wave spokesperson added, “We are so excited to let you all know that we will be reopening our doors. We want to thank all our wonderful community for the outpouring of love and support over the last days.”
In a real cherry on top of the clotted cream, the pre-scheduled English Para Surfing Open competition will be held without disruption.
Huzzah.
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Maybe if one of these wavepreneurs would think of the common good and instead of patenting stuff let it out for the world to share then maybe everyone could have a wave, like everyone can have an extension lead with four sockets at the end. Imagines.
Happy Canada day to Erin Brooks. Now go win an event, eh?
Ooooh er missus
Show us ya Bristols
Shipshape and Bristol fashion
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Hello Sailor (NZ band from the late 1970’s)
Where’s Papa Wheelie?
Damn, I was betting on a private equity shake-down with the whole thing being sold off for housing, solar panels and a few wind farms! Lets hope Jordy wins WCT or I’m broke! gofundme#maldivianboatripformentalhealth
We all believe in jordy.
…..to come second.
History will be ridden.
for an hourly fee.
History is priceless.
Better yet, Chas, send JP Currie to do an expose on it and he can instead write some narcissistic psychobabblesnark about running the River Chew Circular and how he’s contemplating a new job because 16 year olds would rather stare at their phones than suffer through his efforts of creating the next version of Trainspotting. Totally fits the surf adjacent ethos of this site.
Don’t forget the on-the-rocks relationship.
Everything but professional surfing and insights into it.
Air down there seems a little stale. You should get out more.
I’ve been to the Bristol pool. It was mediocre.
Edinburgh, by contrast, is excellent.
Love Edinburgh. One of Europe’s underrated cities.
Not sure it’s underrated, mate. It’s the nation’s capital.
Mutually exclusive categories. Lot of shitty capitals out there. USA riddled with many at the state level, for example.
I’m in…Delaware!…….
Xox
Yes, but comparing US state capitals to UK capitals is an awful comparison.
Lots of people who could name all four UK capitals couldn’t even name half of the US states, nevermind their capitals.
Spent a year living in Leith. Skating down Leith Walk drunk at 3am post Bongo Club revelries.
Ah…Bongo Club…
Scotland is a nation?
A damn proud one! (If still annexed to cunts)
Cunts is right. All of them should be in prison for the sins of their fathers. Trump should get onto it.
What’s Glasgow like? Pretty?
Was referring to the Edinburgh wavepool, specifically. But also a much prettier olde-worldly city than Glasgow. The latter more gritty, post-industrial, but stylish with it. High quality scenes for music and recreational drugs. People are a hoot.
Chazzy just needs to do a RL Stevenson and get himself to the tropics.
Sunshine and Bluewater solves many problems.
Don’t it just. I’ve always seen living in Bali a little too…colonial…sipping cocktails while the natives, whose only crime was to be born in the Third Word, scuttle about, filing your nails, cleaning your house, making your fine dinners, but after a recent trip…man…hundred gees for a crib, twenty bucks for the most lavish breakfast you’ve ever seen…I might be in.
Misery just becomes more palatable and even ridiculous when you are warm and the living is cheap.
All our old misery guts euro pals have discovered that.
I bet its a great place to go if you want to feel good about your surfing.
Particularly if you were to time it with the para contest.
That’s a great photo of Bexy.
I wish!!