Two Wavegarden Cove’s at opposite ends of the Earth and a whole gamut of experience in-between. The same tech, the same ideas and unexpected headaches as standard. It’s hard being first, it’s tricky moulding surfing, with all its levels of experience, into one wave pool. Without Melbourne the Wave at Bristol would have had an easier ride. But with the Aussies showing off the maxed out setting with heaps of pros during the testing phase, rather than the everyday punter setting, it created a storm in a clear blue tea cup in the West Country. The Melbourne pool would also have have benefitted from Bristol’s early experiences and modelling feedback to the engineers through the computers as the first full sized Cove in operation.
Social media leaves nowhere to hide these days. So every call, each decision, can blow up in unexpected ways as the pricing for the new advanced sessions in Bristol, that the public have been clamouring for, has proved. The response to £95 an hour for the spicy version was met with a very loud ‘NOPE!’ from the public. As seen below. And the post below that a wise response to ‘go back to the drawing board’.
This is all new. Running these very expensive installations is no easy thing. Especially when your founding figurehead is on medical leave (get well soon Nick). Mistakes will happen. Figuring out how to run the pools to keep all the people happy all the time is impossible. If we’ve learnt nothing in recent times being kind to others online is the main thing. That and washing your hands, and having a cupboard full of bog roll and tinned goods.
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PRESS RELEASE
The Wavegarden Commissioning Sessions at URBNSURF
URBNSURF Melbourne is the first Wavegarden Cove in the Southern Hemisphere and, in many ways, is the epitome of what Wavegarden’s founders have been working towards for many years. Line upon line of waves. Section upon perfect section. Rights, lefts, barrels, open faces – all unfurling with seamless ease. An awe-inspiring sight, even to those who have no concept of what perfect surf may look like.
In early January the gates of URBNSURF Melbourne flung open to the public, providing the long-awaited opportunity for Australian surfers to finally sample Wavegarden’s man-made waves. Two months prior, behind closed doors, a large number of wave testing sessions took place that very few people knew about, let alone had the opportunity to see. Wavegarden engineers refer to it as the “wet commissioning” phase. As the water level of the full size lagoon, measuring 160 x 160m (5 x larger than the Demo Center in Spain), reached its prescribed level, the fruit of years of hard labour and thousands of grueling mathematical calculations could finally be put to the test. The machine came to life, software codes were fine-tuned and the first ‘Wave Menu’ for URBNSURF was created.
For several weeks, Wavegarden and URBNSURF operations staff surfed wave after wave after wave, literally all day long. Feedback was relayed via waterproof walkie talkies in real time to office-bound programmers, who meticulously recorded data and adjusted the operating parameters. The complexity of the system that lies behind the waves cannot be underestimated – there’s an intricate, convoluted network of fibers and electrical panels acting as the brain, moving each piece of machinery with precision.
Every few days, a new wave type was logged into the system. Turn waves; barrel waves; waves that pitched this way, or that way; waves that peeled slower, or faster. Every wave was created with a specific surfer profile and skill level in mind.
With the initial full wave menu prepared, a handful of outsiders were invited to support further testing and tweaking. Julian Wilson and Ryan Callinan were among the first elite pro’s to join the freshwater line-up. Whilst visiting the Spanish demo center some years before, both Julian and Ryan had dreamed of the possibilities of a full scale Wavegarden Cove and the potential competitive advantage that could be gained from training at such a venue. Now they had their chance to try it for themselves.
Adam Robertson joined Otis Carey, Winter Spencer and a range of others, all curious to test the full scale facility. Jetting in from Tasmania, Dion Agius and Chippa Wilson touched down only to take-off moments later on the newly created air section. Victorian locals Angie Vendy and Nat Dieda told us that they had to throw sickies for the opportunity to ride the Waikiki, Malibu and turn waves, noticeably improving throughout the course of the day until finally exhaustion set in.
URBNSURF Melbourne is the 2nd commercial Wavegarden Cove in the world. For Wavegarden’s engineers – with 5 new facilities scheduled to open in the next 12-18 months – the wet commissioning sessions are now nothing more than a distant memory. Since the start of the year URBNSURF Melbourne has been fully booked – day and night – with people travelling from all over Australia and the world to see what the Wavegarden Cove has to offer, with reports of some pro’s reserving up to 5 sessions a day.
As always, a huge thank you goes out to the surfers for their invaluable support… Mitch Crews, Reef Heazlewood, Isabella Nichols, Ozzie Wright, Imogen Caldwell, Chippa Wilson, Julian Wilson, Xavier Huxtable, Ryan Callinan, Kai Otton, Dion Agius, Nat Dieda, Angie Vendy, Eneko Merino, Julen Vega and the URBNSURF team.
