Wave pools have been around for years now, and from what I hear, some are kinda fun. But the people at Wavegarden have taken things to a whole new level. According to their website, their computer controlled wave making system can be used in both natural and artificial bodies of water. In the video below you can see their test facility wave located in the Basque country. Basically it looks like a large-ish farm reservoir in a pretty, rural setting. The wave they generate – although only about waist high – is of exceptional quality. According to the blurb on their site, there is no in principle reason why it couldn’t be scaled up into something very interesting.
Here’s a little snippet from their website:
Wavegarden is a man-made wave that creates ideal conditions for surfing, as well as a broadly appealing range of other wave sports such as body boarding, kayaking, and stand up paddling. Early testing and professional feedback show Wavegarden to be the closest thing to an ocean break.
With Wavegarden you can create a surf spot anywhere in the world and surf it anytime you like. Our technology can create a beach with gentle waves for non-surfers or a challenging wave for surfers of all levels.
The patented Wavegarden technology can be applied to a variety of existing bodies of water: from lakes and lagoons, to reservoirs and large ponds.
In each case, perfect waves of all sizes, shapes and speeds are consistently generated in a safe, natural environment using much less energy than any other wave generator in history.
A Wavegarden wave can be programmed to adapt to any type of wave to suit various client needs, as per each customised design (recommended size 1.6m):
From their technical descriptions, it seems that the water body needs to have a very uniform bottom and water level and from the pictures it looks like this is lined with some kind of heavy plastic. They reckon it is a very low energy system, so one wonders how the propagate the waves. Apparently they are able to precisely control the shape of a wave too, so I’m curious if maybe it involves some sort of inflatable membrane that can be made to abruptly bulge up underwater… anyway, however they do it, this is the first human generated wave that I’ve thought looked like it might actually be pretty fun to surf!
Here’s one of Wavegarden’s videos (click here for more)
[vimeo]ttp://vimeo.com/17640462[/vimeo]
