Surfdome - 240 perfect waves per hour!
Posted at 10:53am on 19th May, 2006That must be enough to satisfy even the most hardcore barrel junkies! If you had that many waves in an hour you'd only have to surf for one hour a year!
The exciting prospect is that as the wave can can be tailored and reproduced exactly each time - aerial and barrel competitions can be fairly judged on the same wave. Imagine a nice mellow take off, your feet are in just the right position, the wave starts to wall up and you go top to bottom - winding up your speed. It then fattens up slightly, you drop to the bottom of the wave, eye up the lip, squat, drive straight up the face at a small wedge that acts as a perfect take off ramp, and go for your first ever air! Ahh you messed up - no worries have another go with exactly the same wave! Sounds good - we'll have to wait and see.
Surfdome are the company behind the project to bring the first surfing wave pool to the UK. They now have a number of backers and planners on board, and are proposing that it is built in Stratford East London as part of the 2012 Olympic development. This would put it in an ideal position to be selected as one of the two non medal events showcased at every Olympics.
This pool is expected to produce serious waves, maxing out at 8ft barrels which will run for 200ft or 60m. Although have no fear it doesn't just generate board breaking monsters, using Versa Reef technology the shape of the pool floor can be changed at the touch of a button to produce a full variety of waves, from mellow Malibu type waves, to a steep walls for power cut backs. Over the last six years Dr Kerry Black and Dr Shaw Mead at ASR have surveyed many of the best breaks in the world, building a database of quality reef shapes that they can replicate in the pool. The Versa Reef is constructed using water filled bags, which are inflated or deflated to change the shape of the pool floor.
The waves for the pool are generated using Ground swell technology which has been designed by Aquatic Development Group, this is a turbo charged version of their well establish WaveTek system. It uses a combination of pneumatic drives and vacuum pumps to draw the water into a reservoir then force it out with compressed air into the pool to make the wave. A wave can be produced every ten seconds.
The final piece in the puzzle is the Wedge pool shape. Most wave pools that have been built up untill this point have not been suitable for surfing as they have produced a wave that ripples out across a 'fan-shaped' lagoon, delivering at maximum a 2-3 ft high gentle wall of white water. The power of the wave is dissipated directly after it is generated. A wedge shaped pool keeps the power of the wave focused so that the same wave height and quality is maintained for the length of the pool. Theoretically the wedge shape actually increases the size of the wave from the generator by up to 40% so that a generated 6 foot wave can actually produce an 8ft surfing wave.
The floor and the sides of the pool have padding to minimise any potential accidents, and the end of the pool has a large grate the soaks up the power and white water from the wave before returning it to the pump reservoirs.
Surfers have often pondered how to recreate ocean waves in a pool and a few strange ideas have been explored over the years. The technology and qualifications of the people behind Surfdome make it look promising. Construction of has already started of Ron Jons surf park in Florida which uses the same technology as the dome and should be completed by then end of 2007. If these pools perform as predicted, surfing will have a completely fresh indoor canvas on which to express itself.