Surfing in Wales becomes global news. The worlds very first commercial wave garden has officially opened Wales. This is huge news in the surfing world!
There have been swimming pools made with "wave machines" before but they have all been pretty awful on the whole, but this is supposed to be the real deal – a wave that is as close to a proper ocean wave as is possible to make.
Now, that's exciting!!!
In a picturesque valley in the heart of Snowdownia they have built the worlds first Wavegarden open to the public. It's been several years and over 10 million pounds in the making and it is hoped that it will provide a venue for thousands of surfers from beginner to expert to be able to come and hone their skills in a safe and consistent location. It is also being considered by many as a perfect venue to host major surfing events due to quality waves being available at the flick of a switch surf in the ocean is very unreliable at the best of times!). It can produce up to a 2 metre high wave every 90 seconds which runs off down a man made pool about the size of 4 football pitches. This creates a rideable surfing wave of around 150 metres.
Well, I'm writing this having just been to the Wavegarden for session so here goes with my take on the experience and whether it lives up to the hype or ended up all being a storm in the proverbial teacup. So, after a 3.5 hr drive up north we arrived in a splendidly lush green valley that nestles in amongst the Snowdonia mountain range and there sitting at one end is our destination – a man made pool of water with a pontoon running through the middle of it. A split second after seeing the pool, our eyes are drawn to the perfect looking wave peeling down each side of that pontoon and excitement is hitting fever pitch instantly. This is a properly good looking, head high wave with a couple of guys surfing their way along it!! This is a great first impression and we hurriedly park up and head in to the main building which overlooks the pool to report for duty!
The staff were super helpful and directed us to surf building where we could leave our wetsuits and boards while we had a look about before our session started. Now this was a little weird, whenever you turn up at a surf break and see pumping waves you frantically get changed and dive straight in. However, our session was booked for 2pm and it was only mid morning so we had to wait. This did give us time though to go and have a good look at the wave and figure out exactly what we were in store for.