If you frequent the shop on a regular basis you may have at one time or another stumbled into a conversation with Steve and I about wave pools. Like wave starved zombies the lure of an endless waves draws us into weekly discussion about the intricate details that could make or break a potential wave pool. As it stands now there has never been a successful wave pool that has even come close to mirroring an ocean wave. Many have tried, all have failed.
You may be saying to yourself what about the photos and videos of that wave pool in Japan. Well they're kinda close but for the most part it's smoke and mirrors. The waves are soft, they are only produced every minute, and the chop created by more than one or two surfers in the water is uncontrollable.... Our conversations usually go something like this;
Steve: It won't work
Bryan: Why
Steve: Because......
Bryan: But what if they did this.....
Steve: Nope. Because......
Bryan: Ok. But what if they did this...
And on and on and on.
Basically to sum it up Steve doesn't think it's possible, I think it might be and I try and think of ways to change Steve's opinion but it has yet to work. The Wave Ring video on youtube really set us off for a while, then the Kelly Slater came along with The Wave Company, and now we've got Webber Wave Pools really spinning things up.
If I haven't lost you yet stay with me because we've got some controversy coming... The Webber Wave Pool produces two waves per hull that continually break around a central island. There really is no minimum or maximum pool size with wave height increasing with pool diameter. As a guide, the 50meter diameter pool can make one meter waves, the 100 meter pool 2 meter waves. Seeing that 2 meter waves are the maximum needed for the general public, then larger pools that produce 2m waves will merely have more waves per pool due to the increased size. Sound similar to the Kelly Slater Wave Co? Wondering why you haven't seen any real video from their model?
According to Webber they've been working on their pool since 2004 and have held a US patent since 2005. Since applying for a patent in 2008 Kelly Slater and his business partner, Adam Fincham, have twice been rejected because their wave pool infringes upon Greg Webber's design. In both of their attempts - first in 2008 then again this year - the response from examiners at the US Patent Office has been identical: the design submitted by the Kelly Slater Wave Company is "unpatentable over Webber." It is too similar to Greg Webber's design for a patent to be granted. Read the full write up HERE if you want more!!!
So what do think will it work? Will it be affordable? Or should we all just move to Indo? Or maybe buy a shrimp boat??? Find the conversation HERE and put your 2 cents in.
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