WhiteWater’s Endless Surf Pool Catches a Wave

Once a niche sport along beaches, surfing has gone mainstream, and had the wave of COVID-19 not canceled the 2020 Olympic Games this month in Tokyo, surfing would have made its first appearance as an Olympic sport. Surfing requires access to decent waves, which is why the sport has traditionally been limited to coastal areas. But this is about to change based on an innovative new product named Endless Surf from WhiteWater. According to the company, Endless Surf is not a traditional wave pool found at water parks, rather a specialized pool with a newly developed wave system that delivers consistent waves to surfers every time with minimal waiting.

Endless Surf makes it possible for professional surfers and amateurs to learn and enjoy the sport anywhere. This means that surfing is no longer confined to seacoasts, nor dependent on the moods of Mother Nature. Surfing can be perfected and taught anywhere that an Endless Surf pool can be installed.

“Imagine if you told people that they could only go swimming if they lived on the coast—well, that is currently the situation with surfing,” says Paul Chutter, chief business development officer at WhiteWater. “With Endless Surf, we see the ability to make surfing as accessible as swimming anywhere in the world.”

Chutter says 23 million people are self-proclaimed surfers, with the sport growing as a multigenerational activity. 

“Surf parks will open up the sport to the general population, just as indoor ice rinks opened up hockey,” Chutter says. “With the ocean, a surfer can end up spending hours waiting for a surfable wave, with some days getting totally skunked,” he adds. WhiteWater says Endless Surf can produce a wave every six seconds, with wave conditions being reliable and consistent every time.åç

How Endless Surf Works

WhiteWater’s Endless Surf builds upon the company’s tried-and-true pneumatic wave generation to deliver surfable swells up to 7 feet in height. 

“Unlike the hydraulic wave-making system that uses pistons to push water into waves, the Endless Surf system pushes air into a series of chambers to create the surf,” says Chutter. The chambers are located at one side of the Endless Surf pool along a long wall, with the number of chambers ranging from 18 to 48, depending on the pool’s size.

The chambers’ air injection sequence is controlled by proprietary software, a development of the programming already used to create different wave types in existing wave pools designed by WhiteWater. This new programing specifies the height, power, and time between waves and gives the surf operator the ability to control different wave types and shapes in separate areas of the pool. This can help pool operators manage crowd capacity. 

A Major Market Opportunity

WhiteWater believes the market potential of Endless Surf is so huge, the company is not pitching the new product exclusively to water parks and theme parks. Operators in the attractions industry are certainly welcome to buy the product when it hits the market later this year, but WhiteWater is looking to diversify by promoting Endless Surf to entrepreneurs in general. 

WhiteWater sees Endless Surf as more than just a specialized wave pool, rather as an entertainment destination. For example, “the venues will, for the first time, allow spectators to watch surfers close up,” says Chutter. 

He envisions the largest Endless Surf pools could host televised live competitions, now that barrelling waves can be produced on demand. The pools can also be designed with viewing, food and beverage, and specialty retail to maximize spending and length of stay.

All told, Endless Surf appears poised to propel surfing from a niche sport and into the mass market. 

“We believe that Endless Surf will act like jet fuel for the mainstream popularity of this sport,” Chutter says. “That’s how big a deal we think this is.”