How Does Your Wavegarden Grow? Damn nicely! -

This one is just… nuckin’ futz! The good folks who brought us the surf industry’s first viable surfing pool, Orlando’s Typhoon Lagoon, and were roundly chided about it’s overall quality in comparison to an ocean produced wave, should now be roundly praised for their inaugural effort. Anybody still snickering at that first baby step in Orlando, at the nexus of landlocked central Florida, needs to now genuflect towards this Disney Property and give praise and thanks to the “Endless Wave” crew for their vision, sheer determination and pursuit of finally getting it right in Brasil. And we mean getting it really, really right. In the short span of 25 years since “The Mouse” opened Typhoon Lagoon to the public, the wave pool industry has heated up considerably. I was there for TL’s grand opening. In fact I was invited to a test run with abunch of frothing Floridian top dogs at the time including Matt Kechele, Todd Holland, 4 x world champ Freida Zamba and yes, The Champ himself then in his late teens and still a couple of decades away from GOAT-dom. That day was magic. I got to surf the wave, photograph it then spend the rest of the day just hanging out body surfing it and enjoying all the cool, waterpark style attractions built into and around it around it. Fast forward that quarter century later and now this, Wave Garden 5.0 Brasil. Who knew in early 1989 Typhoon Lagoon would change the surfing world even deeply influencing the guy who would change modern surfing and wave pools in his own way, Robert Kelly Slater who is right in the thick of the pool building pack in our own surfing race to the moon. Well, we have landed on the moon and now it looks like we’re trying to get to heaven, surf heaven, and it is very possibly coming to a town near you. If you need further proof check out the two Lilliputian, thick lipped slabs starting at 45 seconds into this video and wonder how this might look scaled up six feet bigger breaking over concrete and sand 25 more years now. If not sooner. Nuckin’ futz, right? – Mez –

xxxxx