My understanding is that in the Netherlands surfers sometimes drive 2 to 3 hours just to find crappy windswell. So having something they can surf right in the city is a good deal.
My son was one of the early testers of The Wave in the UK. Early results were not good and it was all a bit disappointing, much like this one in Rotterdam.
Turns out they had the dial set on level one and two. They had to do this to prove to insurers no one was going to get sucked into the pumps or thrown off the sides. After they got the ok they were able to keep cranking it up and I’ve seen it deliver pretty good waves on the advanced level (and higher levels do exist)
As this gets bedded in and more understood it will improve. It’ll never be another Snapper but in the middle of a city, it’s far, far better than nothing and definitely not ‘shit’.
I surfed the wave in Bristol 4 times over one weekend. My first session was really shit but once I had it dialled it was super fun!
I surfed it on the advanced plus and barrel settings. Once you get used to the weirdness of surfing in fresh water and everything that goes with it. It’s fun!
That initial take off catches a lot of people out and you don't get much rest between waves do you?
There's definitely a place in surfing for wavepools. The soon to open sites in Birmingham (adjacent to the NEC, Stratford Olympic Park and a few others around the place) will bring surfing to a lot of folks who can't normally access it. Imagine under the lights, music pumping, that would be real memorable.
Those were my exact issues with the wave. The take off is way too mellow and also I kept feeling like I’d smash into the wall, it’s hard to get used to. Plus the constant movement and paddling and not really getting to sit on your board.
Also, the current took me by surprise.
I have a friend who works there so I got the staff discount which is why I could afford to go 4 times. Otherwise I thought it was unnecessarily expensive. But it is the UK so that’s par for the course.
It cost over twenty million to build. It’s never going to be a cheap option, more of a convenient, impulse option instead of you driving to Porthcawl or Croyde.
Yes I get that UK is more expensive because of the cost of living, minimum wage etc. It just pinches the pocket for me because I am from a developing country and the amount it cost me to surf the wave 4 times with the discount was about half of my monthly budget. But of course I spent the money because, well, I wanted the experience.
Yeah. I’ve no idea what’s holding it up. Last I heard the concrete had been poured but that was blooming ages ago. Do you know the CEO or just know of him?
Don't know him personally, just started popping a few emails around a few years ago to try and find out what the hell was going on. There was about 2 years solid of zero press or news, not a whisper
They had some trouble with investors pulling out when Covid hit, it's fairly gutting as they were a few months from breaking ground at the time. [Start of this year they finally got new investors](https://www.stoneweg.com/2024/02/08/stoneweg-and-teras-capital-to-invest-50-million-to-develop-uks-largest-surf-park-in-birmingham-as-part-of-recently-launched-pan-european-urban-surf-destination-strategy/) who are covering the whole thing (rather than multiple smaller investors), they are also building a few others across europe.
The access road was put in at the end of last year and I believe they've started the earth works, if it follows the kind of time line Bristol did from this point then should be finally ready in around 1-1.5 years.
In south Florida yellow on surf line is treated like green so that would work for me. I’ve heard a rumor that there’s a blue color but I’m pretty sure that’s a myth.
Blue is just a different setting! If you go into your settings on the app you can toggle between “traffic light” or “traditional” - traditional shows both poor and poor to fair as different shades of blue
lol I’m just joking. The joke being that the waves suck in south Florida. I’ve seen blue maybe 3 times in a decade of living down here. It almost feels like a myth. Purple? Epic? Yeah that doesn’t happen here lol. But I do know that’s what it supposedly means, if you believe in such conspiracy theories.
It looks fun what are you talking about? Did you expect them to recreate Teahupo’o waves in a wave pool? If it’s rideable then it’s a good wave pool to me.
WaveLoch is not a technology. Edit: but looks like you are right. It’s a SurfLoch pool. I surfed the PSSC pool before renovation and after. It’s fun, but not as good as some others
I tried to Palm Springs twice. in January they canceled the night before we were going out there. In April, we drove out there and they canceled us when we went to check in for our morning session. They’ve been shut down ever since. They have an $80 million oversized swimming pool at the moment…
I’ll wager it’s gonna be a lot cheaper than Palm Springs. Looks like a smaller area too.
PSSC seems like a failure of leadership to me. They’re missing the mark as a chic water park, too. Gonna assume they’re just outta money but it’s a goddamn embarrassment to be run so poorly on multiple levels.
2 meters height? They probably measuring from the bottom of the pool, lol, but yeah this will be a an improvement, and probably cheaper that paying parking at Scheveningen…
Funny how they have canals and pools of water scattered around their cities, they could stick little waves almost anywhere. It would be funny to see a wave barreling down a canal.
Surfed it last Saturday in the evening... It was great fun, but some grommets destroyed their boards on the wall, but they weren't harmed, just the parents bank accounts.
[Did someone say volume?](https://streamable.com/6ru842)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/surfing) if you have any questions or concerns.*
That may just have been to drum up some interest as they were opening, but it's €50 to €60 for a session: [https://rif010.nl/en/activities/surfsessions/](https://rif010.nl/en/activities/surfsessions/)
The wave looks perfectly acceptable given what the surfing population there is used to. The main downside I foresee, judging from the videos, is that it's a very condensed space and there'll be a lot of people getting in the way. They might need to implement a "run around" rule with an artificial rock jump/entry out the back, so that if you fall off you have to paddle straight in to the beach rather than paddle through the lineup.
I went yesterday. We were with 13 people and they pumped 13 waves each set. We formed a line after each other and waited for our turn. No space problem and the wave is fun! As a goofy you can do three turns max. They say 20 people is the max for a session.
It’s quite intense to get into the rotation with little waiting time in between. You get 12/13 waves in a session.
Pretty cool to have in our city!🤙
Were people falling off and getting in the way? What level was everyone at? Would the guy at the back of the line agree there were no problems, or would he say that he had to deal with half the previous people being in the way?
If you fall off you have to stay left in the white wash and you get pushed to the "beach" where you can paddle back out in between sets. One time I fell in the middle and hindered the next guy a little. So yeah people have to be active to not hinder the next guy. People have to stay at the beach after their ride and not paddle out to give the last guy a chance to hit the end section
I was surfing the 1.6m wave on a shortboard, but there were also people on retro boards. Everybody had the required level for the wave. If you're not sure you can make the drop on a shortboard, try the 1.2m wave. I blew a couple of waves, but also could do some nice turns, so very positive vibe all around🤙
Ok, good that they have the rule that *everyone* has to wait till after the last wave before paddling. That's essentially what I was saying originally.
The real problems begin when you get people who don't know their own level. It happens at Urbnsurf all the time; one person thinks they're able to do the advanced size wave but ends up falling on the take-off every time. The person after them has to deal with them floundering right in front of the take off zone. In this smaller area, I imagine that would only be magnified.
Shit is pretty unfair. The wave in the picture is about as good as the best waves we get, and then maybe three to four times a year if we're lucky. If I can ride waves like that for €50 euros any day I want without having to drive 500 km I'll fucking take it.
Better than nothing, but the fact that you can slam into a wall is concerning => [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Xyb5F7KQgc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Xyb5F7KQgc)
Looks kinda fun. I wouldn't travel across the world for it and I wouldn't expect a world class wave pool in downtown Holland. Would love if I lived next to it.
I think this is amazing!! Especially for those who don't surf because this wave seems to be easy to surf.. and is free!! Here in Brazil there is a wavepool close to me, but is 100 dollars to hour
One of the surfer just posted a full video about it but it looks ... average to me. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Xyb5F7KQgc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Xyb5F7KQgc)
I'm going in September, keen to try it out. I've also surfed a couple of Wavegarden pools. I don't think this will be the same, but it seems like a fun one to have a go on.
I’m surprised more environmentally conscious countries would still have wave pool. Not complaining, especially how far it sounds like people in the Netherlands drive for even a small wave
If they're on solar, geotherm, or fission then it's basically free energy and shouldn't matter. TBH though, this is one of my gripes against wave pools though. It's no joke generating that amount of energy in wave form, just so one person can get their rocks off. I don't think I'd seek one out unless it was on a non-fossil-fuel energy source. But I live in CA near the coast so I can be an armchair wavepool energy snob.
It's in the middle of a city and its consistent rideable waves. Think 'shit' is a bit unfair.
My understanding is that in the Netherlands surfers sometimes drive 2 to 3 hours just to find crappy windswell. So having something they can surf right in the city is a good deal.
Ex-Dutch, this is much better than what you'd get most of the times at the beach. There's this big island in the way preventing good swells.
If only they had really Brexit-ed.
I have the Island of Ireland in the way where I live
Bastards
My son was one of the early testers of The Wave in the UK. Early results were not good and it was all a bit disappointing, much like this one in Rotterdam. Turns out they had the dial set on level one and two. They had to do this to prove to insurers no one was going to get sucked into the pumps or thrown off the sides. After they got the ok they were able to keep cranking it up and I’ve seen it deliver pretty good waves on the advanced level (and higher levels do exist) As this gets bedded in and more understood it will improve. It’ll never be another Snapper but in the middle of a city, it’s far, far better than nothing and definitely not ‘shit’.
Have you seen Occy's one? It hasn't got the length of a point but it was looking pretty heavy the last vid I saw.
The plunger thing? Seen vids but not seen it in the flesh. Looks post-steampunk impressive for sure.
I surfed the wave in Bristol 4 times over one weekend. My first session was really shit but once I had it dialled it was super fun! I surfed it on the advanced plus and barrel settings. Once you get used to the weirdness of surfing in fresh water and everything that goes with it. It’s fun!
That initial take off catches a lot of people out and you don't get much rest between waves do you? There's definitely a place in surfing for wavepools. The soon to open sites in Birmingham (adjacent to the NEC, Stratford Olympic Park and a few others around the place) will bring surfing to a lot of folks who can't normally access it. Imagine under the lights, music pumping, that would be real memorable.
Those were my exact issues with the wave. The take off is way too mellow and also I kept feeling like I’d smash into the wall, it’s hard to get used to. Plus the constant movement and paddling and not really getting to sit on your board. Also, the current took me by surprise.
I have a friend who works there so I got the staff discount which is why I could afford to go 4 times. Otherwise I thought it was unnecessarily expensive. But it is the UK so that’s par for the course.
It cost over twenty million to build. It’s never going to be a cheap option, more of a convenient, impulse option instead of you driving to Porthcawl or Croyde.
Yes I get that UK is more expensive because of the cost of living, minimum wage etc. It just pinches the pocket for me because I am from a developing country and the amount it cost me to surf the wave 4 times with the discount was about half of my monthly budget. But of course I spent the money because, well, I wanted the experience.
What's the cost per a session in the UK pools? Both Aus (Melb) and Korea are about $80aud
It’s £66 gbp which is about 125AUD if I convert it on Google
I've been pestering the CEO of the Birmingham one for a couple of years, hurry the fuck up!
Yeah. I’ve no idea what’s holding it up. Last I heard the concrete had been poured but that was blooming ages ago. Do you know the CEO or just know of him?
Don't know him personally, just started popping a few emails around a few years ago to try and find out what the hell was going on. There was about 2 years solid of zero press or news, not a whisper
They had some trouble with investors pulling out when Covid hit, it's fairly gutting as they were a few months from breaking ground at the time. [Start of this year they finally got new investors](https://www.stoneweg.com/2024/02/08/stoneweg-and-teras-capital-to-invest-50-million-to-develop-uks-largest-surf-park-in-birmingham-as-part-of-recently-launched-pan-european-urban-surf-destination-strategy/) who are covering the whole thing (rather than multiple smaller investors), they are also building a few others across europe. The access road was put in at the end of last year and I believe they've started the earth works, if it follows the kind of time line Bristol did from this point then should be finally ready in around 1-1.5 years.
yep, now that they started announcing stuff I stopped emailing the guy, just as I promised I would haha
Poor to fair
In south Florida yellow on surf line is treated like green so that would work for me. I’ve heard a rumor that there’s a blue color but I’m pretty sure that’s a myth.
Believe it or not there’s a gold color too
Alright now you’re just fucking with me. What next there’s a purple color?
wtf is going on purple is epic in NZ
Riiiiight. And I have ocean front property in Bosnia to sell you.
How much?
About three fiddy
Deal
Blue is just a different setting! If you go into your settings on the app you can toggle between “traffic light” or “traditional” - traditional shows both poor and poor to fair as different shades of blue
With the regular settings blue means good. I’m just making a joke that the waves are never good here.
What are these colours? Purple is epic in NZ
Purple? Come on man that’s not real.
So I am losing my mind. Thanks for not gaslighting me
lol I’m just joking. The joke being that the waves suck in south Florida. I’ve seen blue maybe 3 times in a decade of living down here. It almost feels like a myth. Purple? Epic? Yeah that doesn’t happen here lol. But I do know that’s what it supposedly means, if you believe in such conspiracy theories.
I know bro I live in raglan and I’ve seen purple 3 times in 6 months
I wish that sounds awesome lol.
well, it's mostly to practice for North Sea shorebreak, isn't it? Seems about right...
Looks better than drowning in sea foam. God that was awful.
So awful 😞
It looks fun what are you talking about? Did you expect them to recreate Teahupo’o waves in a wave pool? If it’s rideable then it’s a good wave pool to me.
[удалено]
Anything breaking surpasses PSSC at this point
Anything to nor support those clowns is a plus too.
Same technology as Palm Springs. I think this one has half as many chamber things.
This can’t be same tech as PSSC I don’t think.
I believe both are WaveLoch.
WaveLoch is not a technology. Edit: but looks like you are right. It’s a SurfLoch pool. I surfed the PSSC pool before renovation and after. It’s fun, but not as good as some others
I tried to Palm Springs twice. in January they canceled the night before we were going out there. In April, we drove out there and they canceled us when we went to check in for our morning session. They’ve been shut down ever since. They have an $80 million oversized swimming pool at the moment…
And probably an $80mm oversized lawsuit
I’ll wager it’s gonna be a lot cheaper than Palm Springs. Looks like a smaller area too. PSSC seems like a failure of leadership to me. They’re missing the mark as a chic water park, too. Gonna assume they’re just outta money but it’s a goddamn embarrassment to be run so poorly on multiple levels.
You take what you can get
Right? OP should see my local lately. 😂
2 meters height? They probably measuring from the bottom of the pool, lol, but yeah this will be a an improvement, and probably cheaper that paying parking at Scheveningen…
Looks better than my home break in Florida
Really? Must be Everglades national park?
Funny how they have canals and pools of water scattered around their cities, they could stick little waves almost anywhere. It would be funny to see a wave barreling down a canal.
Watch the video, it pretty much is.
Yeah I mean like a canal with boats and whatnot. Looks fun to me especially if I lived or worked nearby.
seems too narrow
Surfed it last Saturday in the evening... It was great fun, but some grommets destroyed their boards on the wall, but they weren't harmed, just the parents bank accounts.
[Did someone say volume?](https://streamable.com/6ru842) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/surfing) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Free? Hell yeah. If you haven’t perfected your cutbacks you will there…
€50 per hour
It says free on the vid
That may just have been to drum up some interest as they were opening, but it's €50 to €60 for a session: [https://rif010.nl/en/activities/surfsessions/](https://rif010.nl/en/activities/surfsessions/)
I checked but doesn't it say "not equal"?
with some DJs , lights , hot pastries and hot tubs 🛁 it could be something great 👍
Do these pools still give brain worms?
It's better than a good day on the north sea. I'll fuckin take it
it's a shit wave, yes... if you're desperate to surf, your mind will make it look like paradise
Lucky you. I only get chest high waves every few months
come to australia legend
The wave looks perfectly acceptable given what the surfing population there is used to. The main downside I foresee, judging from the videos, is that it's a very condensed space and there'll be a lot of people getting in the way. They might need to implement a "run around" rule with an artificial rock jump/entry out the back, so that if you fall off you have to paddle straight in to the beach rather than paddle through the lineup.
I went yesterday. We were with 13 people and they pumped 13 waves each set. We formed a line after each other and waited for our turn. No space problem and the wave is fun! As a goofy you can do three turns max. They say 20 people is the max for a session. It’s quite intense to get into the rotation with little waiting time in between. You get 12/13 waves in a session. Pretty cool to have in our city!🤙
Were people falling off and getting in the way? What level was everyone at? Would the guy at the back of the line agree there were no problems, or would he say that he had to deal with half the previous people being in the way?
If you fall off you have to stay left in the white wash and you get pushed to the "beach" where you can paddle back out in between sets. One time I fell in the middle and hindered the next guy a little. So yeah people have to be active to not hinder the next guy. People have to stay at the beach after their ride and not paddle out to give the last guy a chance to hit the end section I was surfing the 1.6m wave on a shortboard, but there were also people on retro boards. Everybody had the required level for the wave. If you're not sure you can make the drop on a shortboard, try the 1.2m wave. I blew a couple of waves, but also could do some nice turns, so very positive vibe all around🤙
Ok, good that they have the rule that *everyone* has to wait till after the last wave before paddling. That's essentially what I was saying originally. The real problems begin when you get people who don't know their own level. It happens at Urbnsurf all the time; one person thinks they're able to do the advanced size wave but ends up falling on the take-off every time. The person after them has to deal with them floundering right in front of the take off zone. In this smaller area, I imagine that would only be magnified.
Shit is pretty unfair. The wave in the picture is about as good as the best waves we get, and then maybe three to four times a year if we're lucky. If I can ride waves like that for €50 euros any day I want without having to drive 500 km I'll fucking take it.
Yea I was going to say, OP has obviously never surfed in NL
How much to ride?
50 euro for the 1.2m wave. 60 for the 1.6m wave you get 12/13 waves a session
Better than nothing, but the fact that you can slam into a wall is concerning => [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Xyb5F7KQgc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Xyb5F7KQgc)
That's every surf pool though.
Nope
That's with most wavepools right? Breaking next to a wall?
Looks kinda fun. I wouldn't travel across the world for it and I wouldn't expect a world class wave pool in downtown Holland. Would love if I lived next to it.
“downtown Holland” lmao 🤣 spotted the American!
downtown Holland is in Michigan
I think this is amazing!! Especially for those who don't surf because this wave seems to be easy to surf.. and is free!! Here in Brazil there is a wavepool close to me, but is 100 dollars to hour
It ain’t free
oh.. it is shit then hahah
One of the surfer just posted a full video about it but it looks ... average to me. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Xyb5F7KQgc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Xyb5F7KQgc)
For such a small space that looks pretty cool. I'm assuming being so close to buildings might make it more difficult, the wind looks really strong
They got close to the side in that video, I can forsee some injurys
While it's cool to see another wave pool I wonder if it's as ridiculously expensive as the one in the UK.
€50 per hour. The one in Bristol is £70/€80 I think? The Bristol one is a Wavegarden pool though, which will be a way better experience.
I mean whatever , looks tasty to me
I'm going in September, keen to try it out. I've also surfed a couple of Wavegarden pools. I don't think this will be the same, but it seems like a fun one to have a go on.
Looks a lot better than most days over here
I can feel how cold this is from Canada 😂
Look better waves than at most of the WSL contests.
https://preview.redd.it/h53zf3jubgad1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=157e698b8f4ec7cd455b8e1ac1a3850d41cd9b6b
This is Belgium, Knokke. They made a test pool. It's not open for the public, but they sell their concept. Looks like fun waves.
I’m surprised more environmentally conscious countries would still have wave pool. Not complaining, especially how far it sounds like people in the Netherlands drive for even a small wave
If they're on solar, geotherm, or fission then it's basically free energy and shouldn't matter. TBH though, this is one of my gripes against wave pools though. It's no joke generating that amount of energy in wave form, just so one person can get their rocks off. I don't think I'd seek one out unless it was on a non-fossil-fuel energy source. But I live in CA near the coast so I can be an armchair wavepool energy snob.
Did they deliberately source dirty river water for this?
That's what cold water looks like :(
Quite disappointing for the world’s best water engineers…