The wavepool that saved pro surfing
“Kelly's pool is a game-changer.” This has been the refrain since last December when we first caught vision of Slater's Central Valley ranch. It intensified this week after news that WSL Holdings acquired a majority share in the Kelly Slater Wave Company (KSWC).
The commentary since has been heated, yet never mind surfing in the Olympics, an inland CT event, or even the wavepool backlash, last week's sale will have a side effect not yet considered – the potential to bankroll the whole WSL.
Two years ago Swellnet ran a three part series that examined the WSL's web traffic as collated from their YouTube webcasts. We found that the traffic was far lower than viewers had been led to believe, the conclusion being that unless it grew significantly the WSL would have to alter its business model. Few commentators expect Dirk Ziff, pro surfing's benefactor, to prop up the edifice indefinitely.
The following year, 2015, the WSL changed their viewing platform to Neulion which hides concurrent users so we had no way of knowing how many people were viewing the webcasts. It's safe to assume their traffic grew, the WSL's branding was on point, the social media message was sharp, and the product was inordinately better than during the ASP days. We could also assume the pattern continued into 2016.
However, the sponsors are still keeping their distance. Last week the WSL launched a 'strike mission' to Cloudbreak, an out-of-competition trip to broadcast a huge swell across social media. The WSL garnered enormous social media reach: over a million Facebook views of Dane Gudauskas' wave, same for Sai Smiley's, plus a quarter million each for Damien Hobgood and Mark Healey's. In total they posted 20 videos, 13 of them drawing over 100,000 Facebook views.
Yet it all amounts to naught. This week the Fiji Pro starts without an event sponsor for the third year running. Likewise the upcoming Jeffrey's Bay Pro is a white label affair, as is the Women's tour-ending contest in Maui – Target having recently withdrawn their support. Despite the improved product and the exponential traffic – at least as measured on Facebook – the WSL is still struggling to find sponsors so the sport can pay for itself.
The money woes don't end there. Last year the WSL faced the prospect of industrial action from big wave surfers and their photographers. At the centre of the dispute was pay, which, according to the surfer who organised the protest, “has stayed relatively the same since 1998”. Over the years, the surfer, a past XXL winner who wished to remain anonymous, told me big wave surfers had requested an increase in prize money to no avail.
The WSL headed off the protest so we can assume the XXL Awards will see larger purses on offer this year. Still, despite Dirk Ziff's capital injection, money concerns are never too far away from surfing's peak body. Which brings us to Kelly's game-changer.
To date all the commentary has been about how Kelly's pool will transform surfing via Olympic inclusion and inland contests, however by acquiring a majority stake in the Kelly Slater Wave Company the WSL has potentially found a way to sever the umbilical cord to Dirk Ziff and operate independently.
It's not known how much the WSL paid for their share, however they've bought into a burgeoning industry. While the technicalities are yet to be worked through - wave rate, energy consumption, gate price - the commercial momentum is behind the KSWC. The technology is unquestionably rushing forward. The KSWC website is currently advertising for staff and fielding developer inquiries.
“Surf parks will create an entire new generation of aspirational surfers,” says Jess Ponting, director of the Center for Surf Research at San Diego State University. “These new surfers will not just buy for fashion but for equipment as well, and not just in the US but in Russia, China and Europe.”
The corollary to Ponting's statement is that the surf industry will also support the 'wavepool industry'. Already six artificial wave companies exist with plans on the board for pools everywhere from Sydney to Rotterdam. Wavegarden themselves have licensed their technology to 25 countries. Yet KSWC has a branding jump on everyone, they've got a working pool in the ground and Kelly's face on the packet. And if KSWC becomes the Olympic standard, which appears likely to happen, the momentum is also pushing toward the Five Ring Circus, then that's yet another reason they'll corner the artificial wave market.
When those sales come to pass it'll be WSL Holdings who benefit of course, after all they now own the technology, yet the real beneficiaries may well be the various WSL tours. The CT can go to Fiji or Jeffreys or Maui without anxiety over a lack of sponsorship, while the Big Wave Tour and the XXL Awards could pay their athletes the wages they think they're due.
There'd be a sweet irony in seeing the Big Wave Tour propped up by sales of an artificial wave. But what would be even sweeter – totally sugar-coated in fact – is the exit this would allow Kelly Slater from pro surfing. The expectation from some quarters is that pro surfing will wither without the excitement and intrigue Slater brings to the sport. However, by selling his wave to the WSL, which can in turn sell it to the world, Kelly Slater may have secured the very future of pro surfing.
Fanciful? Maybe, but then six months ago no-one thought Kelly's wave was a possibility either.
Comments
The whole thing is just making me more and more ill. The whole "WSL" thing is just unnerving.
How can you trust a "company" or entity that goes out of their way to try and stay so secretive (hiding viewer numbers) etc. And they wonder why they can't entice sponsorship of such flagship events ie Fiji, Jefferies etc.
The whole WSL entity and operatives are just ugly to me.
Well--Stu--only time will tell--2 hours a week at $40.00 an hour equals over $300.00 a month. How many people can afford that? Will it really catch on with the inland masses? Will their parents cough up the bucks so their kids can become surf bums? Do young surfer wannabes have that kind of expendable cash? Will the stoke be the same when you have to pay and pay and pay? Or will it be an amusement park type thing--a couple of times a year for the kids? Will people start to resent the priviliged so called pros who get to use this wave for free? Only time will tell. For me--I really couldn't care--I feel I have a totally rewarding and stoked surf life--got some totally fun waves yesterday with 2 guys out. "Thank God for a few 'free' waves". MSD
I couldn't agree more with your sentiment but what about other outdoor pastimes that can be artificially recreated indoors such as rock climbing. Hard Rock climbing in Melbourne seems popular although no where near as expensive. So if a landlocked city creates a wave that allows weekend warriors to get there fix between long drives to the coast it would be worthwhile for those trying to maintain skill and motivation.
Just guessing indoor rock climbing is cheaper--smaller facility also. Only time will tell.
How much money do you think they'll make out of these wave pools? They couldn't do more than 120 waves per hour, assuming twin pools and a wave per minute in each one, using both directions, and a shorter wave than the one in the prototype pool. If you charge the punters $100 per hour for 10 waves, that's 12 riders and $1200 per hour. The establishment costs (land, car park, pool construction, wave-generating infrastructure, utilities, buildings and amenities) near a decent sized customer base (eg. City) and operating costs (utilities, maintenance, operators and pool supervisors/organisers) will take long time to produce a return. And that's for punters willing to pay the price of a new surfboard every 8 visits. Take a look at the latest incarnation of Greg Webber's wave pool on his website. He claims it can do 2500 waves per hour, although there is a bit of fiddling in the tally. Ten riders on one wave counts as 10 waves; 2 separate "reefs" at each end of the pool (4 in total) each generating a left and right with a five second ride. The main waves (two at a time in each direction) last 13 to 15 seconds, much shorter than the 40-second ride in the KSWP. In additional to all those waves, the entire Webber wave pool is ringed by another pool for swimmers who float around on inflated inner tubes like that ride for parents and kids at Jamberoo. That's not to criticise Greg's pool; it's an example of how many people he thinks you need to get in there to make it commercially viable.
Wave pools everywhere subsidising the cost of the WSL? Dream on.
Bingo - it's a dream and nothing more.
Why spend $20M developing your land into a wavepool, which you'll almost certainly lose money on, when you can build apartments or townhouses, and almost certainly make money. Lots of money.
I mentioned it before previously - there'll be a few around the world, either financed by people/groups where money is no object, or by excessively weathly governments - but that's it. The business model is flawed and it won't stack up. Maybe in some countries where labour is cheap. Maybe. The cost of land, electricity, insurance, cleaning/dosing of the pool etc. would be huge.
The spectator factor will fade quickly too - just like those indoor windsurfing events - lame.
In the meantime though...it's producing great content for surfing news websites. So expect to hear more.
"How much money do you think they'll make out of these wave pools?"
Don't know for sure, but I imagine quite a bit. The one thing these all these per wave economic breakdowns miss is how the pools stack up when subsidised by government (see Wavegarden Melbourne and Sydney) or dropped into an existing fun park, such as the Wadi Adventure in Dubai (nearly 10 years old now). KSWC are intimating that the rollouts will begin soon, Kelly bounced around prices with Bloomberg, while the KSWC website is advertising for staff and fielding developer inquiries. Further, the original KSWC vid was put together by a production company. Done just for fun? Don't think so...
Fair enough if you think they won't last - maybe you're right - but I venture that KSWC will make a tankload of sales before they find out.
I like the concept of being able to go to your local wave pool for a surf but I can't see it matching surfing in the ocean. It looks great on all the footage I have seen. To turn this idea into a business is really stretching it. I think we sometimes forget how small the surfing industry is when you compare it to other sports. It pales into insignificance against football codes and tennis for example. We are lovers of a much smaller industry which will not pull crowds like a football game. To use pools for inland surfs may work for a short period, however it comes down to bums on seats for an affordable price and this will die in a very short period. To sell the concept to broadcasters I doubt would cut it either although It may work in the short term but not in the long term. Long term viability should be the focus. I do understand that the industry needs money to exist. I am usually a very positive about new concepts. As I said, I like the wave pool concept but as one of the other contributors mentioned this whole idea is about ongoing costs and constant streams of revenue to keep it afloat apart from the initial costs of establishment and then returns on investment even if you had a TV deal for a contest. I just can't see this idea to be economically viable over a long term period. I would love to be proved wrong.
Finally, I watched footage in Fiji recently. It was fantastic footage with a great ocean environment. You can't beat the vision which makes up a big factor as to why I love surfing.
the brave new world of surfing
Ratings and money bloody money. But it makes sense going where no real waves are.
Melbourne, Brisbane, Darwin,Townsville, Cairns would be awesome.
"But what would be even sweeter – totally sugar-coated in fact – is the exit this would allow Kelly Slater from pro surfing." ---Umm---Will Slater go down as a saint or sinner--a guy who opened up artificial waves to the masses--or as a dude who made surfing and the line-ups even more crowded, lame, and unbearable.....
thats assuming people tune in to watch.
the novelty might wear off very quickly.
I think we'll end up seeing a totally different style of surfing based on radical board changes. Finally surfing will be able to take the next step in board design and catch up with skating and snowboarding. Switchfoot will become a standard. No need for a leggie and no need to paddle in. Just step of the edge and drop in as the wave glides past, as though you're dropping into a half pipe.
I reckon fins free on little skate board like things will become the norm in the pool. Basically you can take out any aspect of board design that's needed for paddling and anything that's for wave size and down the line speed. Tricks in the pocket will be it. Boring to watch but might be interesting to see how any changes might be relevant for ocean surfing.
Shit there's now going to be a qualifier needed, I'm no longer a surfer, I'm an ocean surfer. Or a pool surfer. Bizarre.
there's another angle also in that there be other catergories of surfing such as longboards, boogers,fishes (Hipster) , soft top champs , air champs, so there could be a whole range of different types of surfing and craft.
could be an evening for the family to go and watch the many facets of surfing all under one roof , and be in time slot that grows an audience , not necessarily surfers!
"2 hours a week at $40.00 an hour equals over $300.00 a month. How many people can afford that?"
I'll tell you exactly who can afford that - the 8am-6pm working professionals who currently don't have enough daylight hours to get to the ocean 5 times a week. There's a shitload of people who have the money and would love to hit the pool after dark a couple of times a week. Currently these people are already paying a personal trainer $1000+ a month for a few sessions a week just to keep fit for their weekends of surfing.
To find the real economic value of these pools you need to factor in more than just the ticket price - there'll also be a hire store, retail/food stores, advertising space & licensing agreements, a beginners wave (ie VOLUME!), corporate/event hire etc. Even with a modest ticket price, I can see these pools being viable for quite a while.
Snap! (see my comment below, one minute after yours).
"2 hours a week at $40.00 an hour equals over $300.00 a month. How many people can afford that?" the same number of people that own large late model 4WDs so they can zoom north from Perth up to Gnaraloo for one swell event, or 250km down south to the Margaret River / Yallingup region just for a day trip, for the approx 6 months of the year that theres no viable surf in the Perth region.
Obviously many people who have taken an anti-wave pool position on these forums are blessed enough to have good waves close nearby for most of the year but theres a bunch of others who just pay and pay and pay.
I have a mate who works in the industry and he's frothing at the wave pool concept - even saying he wants to book the boys next surf trip to one (ie: for his 40th Birthday) ..... book the whole venue........
I think the commercial success of wave pools might surprise everyone!!!
Gotta remember that there's many more revenue streams aside from gate takings.
I wrote this comment in Stu's article WSL update: Umbrella sponsor, Pay Per View, and more, from Feb 2015:
"I have no doubt that [wave pool technology] occupies a healthy percentage of [WSL's] long term vision. It's certainly no coincidence that Terry Hardy (Kelly's manager) is both a founder of ZoSea (who now own the WSL), and also a Director of the Kelly Slater Wave Pool Company."
"A wave pool is a controlled, predictable environment (which in itself will bring down costs, because the [WSL's] existing waiting period can be scrapped) that will sit nicely inside a broad entertainment complex, where there is a huge range of additional revenue sources that the WSL will never, ever find in Tahiti, Fiji or even Bells Beach (as a starter.. where can you currently buy WSL t-shirts? hats? fun ceramic mugs? Nowhere, as far as I've seen).
AFL and Cricket don't rely on broadcast licenses alone - for example, AFL have ticket sales, consumer products, merchandise, memberships, sponsorships, commercial operations, media, football operations, game development etc (all of which is covered in their 2013 Annual Report, where they state that they "achieved record revenue of $446 million, and more than doubled its net profit in 2013".. and also brings about one interesting point: they had $3.5 million revenue alone from "AFL club-related fines").
Thanks to Paul Speaker's NFL background, I have no doubt that this is the kind of business model the WSL are pursuing. A wave pool environment eliminates a whole bunch of unknowns, and probably reduces some of the costs.
And as for whether a wave pool competition appeals to the general surf population - I don't think it matters, because they're really not targeting surfers in the long run. They're targeting everyone else."
I heard a rumour that Chinese developers are planning on pouring a raised concrete slab over the reef at Uluwatu and building a wave pool on it.
I see the business model.
But relying on non-surfers to show up at a stadium to watch is still pure speculation.
Do non-footy fans show up to watch NRL games.? No, yet NRL has one of the most lucrative broadcast licences in aus sport.
They still have to either a: get the people into the stadium to watch live or
b: get them to watch live on broadcast, to generate any real revenue. Not just once, as a novelty, but regularly.
Both of those propositions are still pure speculation at the moment.
I'll watch 80 minutes of an NRL game because it's great live sport.
Would I watch 80 minutes of a wavepool event? Or 3 hours , or 6 hours?
Probs not.
So if the WSL alienates their traditional fan base they're far more likely to end up with something like skateboarding than some kind of mainstream football code.
OK--so a yuppie entitled playground. While the poor kids from the surrounding neighborhoods are left out. I guess only time will tell. Saw some whitewater on the way home. "Thank God for a few 'free' waves....
KS is getting all the credit for this wave pool but last time I checked he had no engineering or industrial design qualifications. Does anyone know who is behind the design / creation of the KS wave wave pool?
Adam Fincham is the bloke who's done the egghead stuff behind the scenes.
"Adam Fincham, a research professor in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering with a specialty in fluid mechanics."
http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-kelly-slater-wave-pool/
Top read. There is some serious dynamics at play here. Double the size of the pool = double the wave size??? Further ability to change the bottom contours
Also would love to know breakdowns of shareholdings / ownership. Wonder if Adam was able to get in on the action for a cut.
Kelly has burned through some cash that's for sure.
Thanks Swellnet for such a good report,best comments and all are on the money. Since end of the world,Johnny Rotten's future dream of a shopping scheme went into overdrive. Zombieskegz led the charge... stickers, board covers,mags, flouro wettys,leggys.fin boxes for 2,3,4,5 fins,wax combs, tail pads more stickers and T Shirts more mags,ear glug,nose plugs and helmets with the visors and matching sunnies, add some oars for gore,selfie sticks,drones that roam and I've been taken out by 500 gadgets more.It now takes longer for metroskeg to unload T.2. for a surf session than does the local pollie's finest madame to dress for the opera.Recall doomsday, a young 'barefoot' lass lining up at '84 L.A. Olympics,commentators laughing crowd alike,'Is she for real'? She- Zola Budd blitzed the synthetic footed zombies off the track,heralded forever as last true Olympic athlete. Today's Olympics are totally dollar dependant and driven by contractual synthetic fabrication,from pool chlorine,diving boards,plastic mats to rubber running tracks and rubber shoes for that.A true natural athlete(no synthetic lab shit)'as mentioned by fellow commentators be it freehand rock climbing'- tide diver,tree climber or multi terrain bodybasher all fight hard for breathing space in todays superficial world and have nothing to sell at Olympian Expo. Where as this controlled synthetic lab kit tickles all their box $eats.Just add water for waves release the sea monkeys and right before your eyes grows your very own 'Olympic' Bird Man Rally! Hooroo! (sing...Kellys wavepools are better than a beach in your own backyard).
Great article Stu and great contributions from everyone. Certainly got the fingers going on everybody's keyboard. I'll throw one in now, which I posted a few days ago with no bites. Will this in fact see a split in the surfing world? Will there be just the pool guys vs the ocean guys with only a small amount of grey in between? This has happened in other sports such as motocross vs stadium cross, snow boarding downhill in the wild vs the Olympic version in refrigerated half pipes. I think a contest would be really boring in the tub unless they could crank up the unpredictability and size of the waves. Who know some geek could write a programme which randomises a range of wave types and sizes and spits them out. Would need to get 6+ size and grunty for the pros and the amount of energy that requires must be ridiculous. Maybe a small nuclear power station next door?
Umm--is it going to create a world of haves and have not's?--People who can afford it--and people who cannot afford it?
The so called pros who get it for free--(courtesy of Natasha Ziff)--and the others who have to pay and pay and pay. There are thousands of surfers--even in 3rd world countries who could never afford this even once--or even on a somewhat regular basis..One of the true joys of the ocean is--when you enter it--everyone's "equal"--she gives her treasures to the poor and not so poor alike. Wonder if there might not rise a sense of resentment of this freak wave......and its creator......
We already have a world of haves and have nots in surfing: The groms whose parents have the time to drive them to the beach 5x a week, and those who don't. The guys who can afford new boards every 2 months, and those that cannot. Those that can afford to live within walking distance of the beach, and those who cannot. Those who can afford petrol to drive to wherever is pumping, and those that have to walk to the same local every day. Those who have a 4x4 to access remote breaks and those who don't. Those who have a ski for when it's big, and those who paddle all day for one decent wave. Those who can go to Indo or Fiji twice a year and those who can't. All of these things effect our overall access to surfing and, in turn, our skill development - which then leads to better position in the hierarchy, more waves, and even more accessibility and entitlement.
When we enter the water, we are far from "equal". If your dad is in the local boardriders club, you'll get called into set waves as a grom. If not, you'll get faded after waiting an hour. Better surfers feel entitled to take more than their fair share of waves. And those surfers are usually only better because they had some or all of the privileges listed above when growing up. Factions of our sub-culture still herald the over-riding rules of localism, which is about as far as you can possibly get from equality - it is a system which makes the rich richer while denying the poor.
Anybody who thinks surfing is already "free" was probably privileged enough to grow up as a 2nd generation surfer whose parents lived within walking distance of a good surf beach (or is over 60 and grew up in different times). For the rest of us, who already pay modestly for access to surfing, wavepools are the great democratizer.
Ya--I actually said that....
Hey--the so called pros will still be a your local break if its firing. I just sensed from some posts--that some kids seemed bummed-- like they were just getting this whole surf thing down--cut backs--some airs--a little tube time--at their local break--and up comes some dude who has this wave. These kids are young 6, 10, 12, 15 years old-- and they know they are not really gonna be able to afford this full time or maybe even part time--and they are now stuck--having to watch these so called surf celebs stuff themselves day after day (courtesy of Dirk and Natasha)--It seems maybe like an uneven playing field now. And kids like fairness. It seems it might take some or a whole lot of the stoke out of their surf life and maybe even sour them to the whole surf scene now and especially to the WSL.....
I can't see the day I'll surf the pool, so tbh I only care if they're commercially viable if it means there will be more surfers at my local.
But at the end of an awful Spring .... ?
Looking into the future : Vimeo
I just can't imagine sitting in the barrel and seeing sponsored billboards flashing past, can't imagine they are going to leave that pier thing blank.
line it with plastic palm trees and make the water piss warm green and u are straight back in the indo womb where all disillusioned surfers belong
I've just been reminded by my 11yo gidget of the soulful stoke that comes from surfing in the ocean. Ya see, we went surfing on the weekend and she got to see, for the very first time, a couple of dolphins swim right up to and past us as we sat on our boards "out the back" waiting for a wave...
She just said to me:
"Everytime I think about it, I can't help but smile"
Stoked.
Wave pool waves might save pro surfing, but it won't, can't and never will beat the stoke of surfing in the ocean. And THAT folks is the feeling surf companies have been selling to the masses forever.
"only an ocean surfer knows the feeling"
lest we forget- if the price is right- dolphins can be added to the mix..... http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/warnings/depressedlooking-d...
Looks like "the POOL" ain't gunna be needed for the 'lypics
http://magicseaweed.com/news/olympic-surfing-will-not-take-place-in-a-wa...