RealSurf Surfers' Forum

I've just checked out the Surfpark site and the first thing I saw was the model wave. So I used the dropdown menus and found what looks like to me a Shark Island or Teahupoo potential breakneck.

If you watch the video you see the water dredge out before the swell arrives (a la tsunami) then the wave peels through focussed (focii?) by the walls that are angled closer together to maintain the waves height.

Check out the mass of water behind the crest? It has a massive back . If you wiped out, sorry, when you wipe out you would be taken with the mass through into the shallows or where ever the water is heading . Up the beach?

It looks awesome but something about it makes my neck cringe. Why?

I've ridden the Flowrider in Telemark Sommarland and been to Schlitterbahn Flowrider (slippery road) in Norway.

The technology and enthusiasm is all there but when you ride these ones you are effectively riding on about 4" - 5" of flow and then 2?" of foam rubber? that covers solid concrete form.

In reality the wipeouts are deadly.
maybe since then they have improved the bottom config so that you wipeout into deepe water I don't know.

The wipeout I had that jarred my confidence sent me over the falls on about a 5' right breaking wall at the Schlitterbahn.

My head hit and I felt an electric shock like when you hit your funny bone.

Ouch! Thats what happens to people that dive into the shorey and become para or quadraplegics.

You can walk into the back of the tube or to the side of it and just step into a wave even walk in from above and drop in.

great stuff but nothing like the real thing.

The Wave pools do look more realistic. paddling, fins on boards, deeper water etc.

I went to the Fox Studios Flowrider demos put on by Luke Egan and Craig Finniss and was gob smacked to see how well the portable version worked.

The wipeouts were horrendous but they seemed to land in a deep water area that channelled into a laundry tub area where you recoverd yourself (or a lovely young nubile in a wetsuit pulled you up by your leggie!)

I took some awesome video of Luke Egan in the tube for minutes on end and saw snowboarders and skaters in the boarders element.

The advantage is for all boarders landlocked or seweed shocked to be able to surf in an environment that is common to all.

The surf adventurers are always going to get the pure experience by heading off to G Land, Pacific Islands or Up the coast. I've seen lots of debate about it .

What are the economics of these things ? Do they make money? Do they end up empty and a skateboarders playarea when the water is emptied out?

I don't think any of us want to spend a lot of money on surfing all day at one of these places when it's there for us for free at most coastal areas.

A landlocked kid is not going to have money to surf every arvo after school or even the Dawn Patrol at a wave Pool.

Sydney has afew huge swimming pool complexes that have water park themes like water slides and swell/wave pools that operate intermittently.

Ryde, Olympic park and Cook and Phillip park in the city come to mind.

They have regular clientele. I don't think the wave pools function all the time though? Only during specific time periods.

P.S. To those in the crew that don't know Laurie McGuinness is a legendary surf adventurer/ photographer/journalist from the early days of SW mag , hailing from the Dee Why area, and I think
has some experience with PC (Peter Crawford) in exploring the possibilities of an artificial reef off Freswater Beach/point?

Laurie would have plenty of big surf DY stories and history that he could recount if we ask nicely?

Thanks for the kind words flatrocker but they're a bit exaggerated. There are a lot of people out there who have done a lot more travelling to more exotic places than me.
The Freshwater reef was PC's baby. To tell the truth I hadn't seen much of him for quite a few years until he started pushing the idea, so it was nice to catch up even if, in the end, the process became a classic example of how not to do it. I remember at the public meeting at Freshwater Surf Club, the President of Freshwater Boardriders stood up and opposed the idea because it might make their beachbreaks more crowded! If you haven't got 100% support from the local surfing community you might as well forget any project of this kind.

It's still a site with great potential though. Most of the wave is already there, the swell focuses into a peak which starts to break left and then fills up and runs into the rocks.....but we couldn't run the risk of over crowding those classic Freshie beachbreaks now could we?

filthbarrel wrote: NC, what about an article on the www.surfpark.com guys. I only ask cause I think you would have the contacts to get a free trip there.

Even I would buy a surf mag (well, I would borrow one) if I could read an analysis of a surfpark's potential.

Well Filth I may just force you into reading one of those cursed magazines. I have to go to Florida soon on an unrelated mission -- if I get time, I'll go there totally incognito (it works better that way, kind of like a restaurant reviewer) and see if it kick starts me into an article. Somebody's gotta check out this madness.

The Freshwater point reef would be great if it was connected all the way to South Curl Curl pool kind of like the Superbank.

Heaven help us if Freshie did get more crowded.
On the wave pool, it would be kinda cool to have one on your property if you had a lazy couple of billion lying around. Invite your mates back after the beach for a few beers and a wave of your choice.

flatrocker we were looking at the left. The right off that peak is actually surfable as it is but it's very sketchy and runs into so much back and sidewash from the rocks that there's no real value in trying to put a reef in along that section. Next time you're up there in a clean swell, park above the pool at Freshwater and have a look at the peak and the way the swell swings around and lines up for the left.

Onya NC -and if you could advise on the matter -either here or in the ASL - that would be damned fine. I'm excited in a Big Kev kind of way.

Watch out for the sharks in Florida - they seem to be pretty active the last couple of weeks. And there may well be a few sharks round the Orlando shopping centre -but probably easier to handle.

As for a wave pool in Sydney - Kerry Packer or one of the surfing squillionaires could get one up and going . Fourth theme park for the Goldy?

I can see the Rip Curl surf park - easily marketed too -"Forget the Search -It's All Here in Your Backyard". And in winter you would need a Rip Curl wetty that you could, I am just guessing, buy at the theme park.

But really -all this could work. You go from the office to the theme park on the way home and get 20 barrels for $50. Then you go home to the artificial vagina. It's all good mate.

Stick one at the Big Banana as a stop and revive place on tips to and from Sydney to Brisbane.

Plenty of parking.....................