Inside look at URBNSURF facility, Sydney’s first surf park and wave pool
Sydney’s first wave pool is set to revolutionise surfing, toppling the northern beaches as the best wave in the city. See the new plans here.
NSW
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Time poor parents, Western Sydney surfers and board riders sick of battling the city’s crowded breaks will be the biggest winners of the city’s first wave pool.
Construction on the $50 million URBNSURF facility at Sydney Olympic Park starts in July, promising to offer perfect waves to practise skills without the vagaries of ocean swells, or competition from territorial surfers at Sydney beaches. Nothing will bite or sting you either.
The Hill Rd facility was meant to be open by now but the pandemic and a cost blowout at the company’s Melbourne wave pool has seen the Sydney project slated for completion by Summer 2022-23.
“We’re putting a lagoon the size of the SCG that fires out two metre waves at 600 waves per hour,” CEO Damon Tudor said.
“The 1.8ha lagoon makes it a lot more accessible for people. There are no sharks, the currents aren’t the same, you don’t have bluebottles and you don’t have, potentially, an aggressive surf break that you’re in.”
URBNSURF is adding conference spaces for customers, baby change areas, play equipment and a 70sq m leisure pool.
They are also looking to add an outdoor gym, sauna, skate ramp, volleyball court, licensed bars on two levels and wellness building to the 3.6ha site, which is currently an underused carpark.
A pending development application to extend operating hours would allow riders to catch waves between 5am and midnight on weekends and 5am to 10pm weekdays.
The Tullamarine wave pool in Melbourne is popular with time-poor parents and has 25 per cent female participation. The company is hoping to get that to 50 per cent at both sites.
“For many parents they feel they’ve reinvigorated their surfing youth, because you come in for an hour session in what would have otherwise been either a half or a full day trip to the beach,” Mr Tudor said of the Melbourne wave pool.
“We have ladies only sessions hosted by female only staff, because getting that wetsuit on for the first time can be a little bit intimidating.”
Between 20-30 per cent of Australian surfers are female, according to governing body Surfing NSW.
Surfers can expect to get up to 12 waves per hour and it costs about $80 per session.
The water temperature is about 12C during winter and 23C during summer, however the children’s play pools will be heated.
Surfing NSW CEO Luke Madden said the facility will be a huge plus for the surfing community.
“For those people who can’t readily get to the beach it offers a way for them to connect with surfing,” he said.
“It also means when the ocean is flat, surfers have the opportunity to hone their skills.”
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Originally published as Inside look at URBNSURF facility, Sydney’s first surf park and wave pool
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