Gold Coast Mayor and Surfing Australia boss open to Kelly Slater’s wavepool
GOLD Coast surfers take heart: The city may still get one of Kelly Slater’s awesome waves pools even though one’s to be built in the US ahead of us.
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GOLD Coast, you have not missed out on “surfing’s Disneyland”.
Kelly Slater’s internationally lauded wave pool has been proposed as part of a multi-million dollar development in San Diego.
But Andrew Stark, Surfing Australia’s CEO, said the development in the US would not stop a similar development on the Coast.
US developers McWhinney and DJM Capital Partners announced plans for the first public wavepool to be up and running in San Diego by 2020.
Mr Stark said he’s wanted the technology to be brought to Australia after watching footage of Coast surfers Josh Kerr and Steph Gilmore tear up the prototype of the artificial wave earlier this year.
“It would be great to have a Kelly Slater wave pool in Australia, that’s where the future of surfing is,” Mr Stark said.
“The proof is in the pudding, when Steph Gilmore surfed it she looked like she was right at home in a Greenmount barrel.”
But the Glitter Strip will have to fight capital cities for perfect waves.
The Gold Coast could have been home to the first of Slater’s pools but in 2012 the Pimpama development that included the wavepool folded after the developer went under.
Mr Stark said other Australian cities could jump the queue ahead of the Gold Coast.
“The Gold Coast already has perfect waves,” he said.
“I think the wavepool could be more viable in Brisbane, Western Sydney or Melbourne where surfers have to drive a while to get good waves.”
Yesterday, Mayor Tom Tate told the Gold Coast Bulletin he welcomed a development that included a pool because it would fit in with the city’s reputation for surf and attractions.
Cr Tate also said neither Slater nor the World Surf League, which acquired a majority stake in the Kelly Slater Wave Company in May, have approached council about any development.
Slater, an 11-time world champion, still has close ties to the Coast, home to waves very similar to his artificial wave, with a $2.15 million luxurious Palm Beach apartment.
He also owns part of Currumbin-based Firewire Surfboards.
When the Bulletin approached the World Surf League yesterday spokesman Dave Prodan said nothing had been announced by the organisation about developments since May.
“We anticipate KSWC to announce next steps in the near future,” he said.
