While the Kelly Slater Wave Company and Wavegarden and its affiliates have dominated the wave pool news cycle as of late, the city of Vancouver is quietly considering a surf park project for its downtown area.CitySurf, the brain child of REVIVER Sport+Entertainment, a sport experience design firm, is a proposed project that aims to construct a wave pool in the heart of downtown.
“Vancouver is an ocean city with an active outdoor water-oriented lifestyle, but due to geography it lacks open ocean surf,” says REVIVER CEO, Philip Davis, on the project’s website. “CitySurf changes all that. We’re proposing to create a world-class city amenity, in an underutilized waterway, while tackling a recognized environmental issue in a city that promotes itself as one of the greenest on the planet.”
Unlike Kelly’s wave pool or Wavegarden technology, CitySurf relies on an existing waterway – in this case the north-easternmost part of False Creek that wraps around downtown Vancouver.
False Creek’s water quality inhibits would be swimmers. CitySurf might change that. Photo: CitySurf
According to Vancouver Coastal Health, False Creek’s water quality is not suitable for swimming. But the CitySurf project could change that.
“The wave pool is enclosed by a floating perimeter structure, which filters water directly from False Creek through a porous membrane and then geo-thermally warms it before recirculating the filtered water in a continuous cycle,” says Davis. “The membrane system would actively generate an improvement in False Creek water quality, highlighting the City of Vancouver mandate to show leadership in environmental stewardship and responsibility.”
Along with a pay-to-use wave suitable for surfing, the project would create a public beach, all enclosed by the floating perimeter structure.
WaveParks Canada, The Canadian Surfing Association, and Surfing Canada have all endorsed the proposal, recognizing it as an opportunity to bolster Canadian surf culture.
In light of surfing’s recent inclusion in the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, the Canadian Olympic Committee has also expressed that it sees value in CitySurf, “as a future Canadian athlete training resource that aligns with the Own The Podium program and the Olympic endeavor.”
“Hey dudes, just checked the waves from the science center. Firing.” Photo: CitySurf
