The New South Wales Department of Planning and Environment recently approved plans to construct a wave pool facility in Sydney’s Olympic Park, according to reports.
The $24 million proposal, submitted by Sydney-based developer URBNSURF, will leverage Wavegarden’s Cove technology and is one of three of URBNSURF’s efforts to bring the Spanish company’s newest tech to Australia. Plans are also in the works for surf parks in Melbourne and Perth.
The Sydney facility will accommodate 80 surfers at a time, and in addition to the wave pool itself will include a retail shop, café, restaurant and alfresco bar, changing rooms, a rental area, first aid quarters, lifeguard rooms, and “two-story surf academy,” according to Australian magazine Architecture and Design.
Construction on the Sydney surf park is scheduled to begin mid-2018 and will reportedly take the better part of 12 months.
Despite Sydney – like Melbourne and Perth – being in relatively close proximity to decent surf, URBNSURF explains the project’s aim is to offer an alternative to increasingly crowded and less accessible surf. “Sydney is blessed with a large number of surfing beaches, but access to those beaches and crowding in the line-up is becoming an increasing issue,” explains the company’s website. “URBNSURF Sydney will provide an authentic alternative to ocean-based surfing for Sydney residents and visitors to #surfmore safely, easily and often.”
“Bringing the Cove to Australia is the realization of four years’ work in the Australian market,” explains URBNSURF Founder and Executive Chairman Andrew Ross. “We’re excited to finally be able to share this amazing new technology with everyone, and to commence the rollout of URBNSURF in the near future. We want to make it possible for anyone to learn to surf, and to give greater opportunities for Australia’s 1.5 million surfers to simply surf more.”
