Australia's first ever surf pool will open in Tullamarine, near Melbourne. The wave park will open to the public in 2017.
URBNSurf Melbourne will be built near the Essendon Football Club and the Melbourne Airport. It will occupy a seven-hectare area. Forty-four beginners, eight intermediate, and 16 advanced surfers will be able to be in the surf pool at any given time.
Perth-based company Wave Park Group (WPG) will invest $18.5 million in an artificial wave arena twice the size of the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The 320-meter surf pool will feature the Wavegarden technology.
"The beauty of the Wavegarden technology is that it can accommodate in separate zones the needs of all surfers - from the smallest groms, and those starting out, through to the high-performance training requirements of elite surfing athletes," explained Andrew Ross, chairman at WPG.
URBNSurf Melbourne will allow wave riders to surf at night. The man-made wave pool will have a north-south orientation so that one side of the pool gets offshore winds. The ride length will be up to 150 meters, and the maximum average duration of a wave is of 18 seconds.
"Melbourne's 200,000 or so surfers will be able to enjoy longer and better quality rides than can usually be found at many of Victoria's most popular breaks, all within a 25-minute drive of the Melbourne CBD."
The surfing lagoon will pump waves ranging between 0.6 (two feet) and 1.9 meters (six feet), and it will have a surf academy, café, running track, surf shop, fitness programs, climbing wall, beach cabanas, bouldering course, skate ramps, parkour trail and other amenities.
URBNSurf Melbourne is expected to create up to 45 jobs, and it will generate over $260 million during its lifetime. Construction works will begin in late 2016.
