Kelly Slater’s First Public Wavepool Proposed For San Diego

As conversation continues to spin around Kelly’s inland phemon, the current plan’s to bring it to the coast — particularly the wave rich, southern-est region of California: San Diego. The city’s home to interchanging Shamus, The Gaslamp District, a locally discouraging football team, 1.4 million residents, 32 million annual visitors, Blacks and potentially Kelly Slater’s first public wavepool. 

Since Mick Fanning’s run-in with the shark there hasn’t been a single thing in surfing that’s plastered media headlines quite like Mr Slater’s creation – both, in very different ways possess an irrefutable shock value.

According to The San Diego Tribune, along with three new hotels, a fish market and a cultural performance venue, Kelly’s wave is a proposed primary attraction at Seaport Village. The company holding the reins is McWhinney: “A private and fully integrated Denver-based real estate development, investment and management company that creates large-scale, mixed-use projects and develops, owns and manages income producing properties.”

#27 – set to be San Diego’s second chlorinated wave in close proximity to the coast.

An open house is being held today and tomorrow from 3-7 pm in room two of the San Diego Convention Center. Where written comments from attendees will be collected and summarized by port staff for later discussion. On July 13th: “The port board plans to devote its entire meeting to the project, when it will hear 20-minute presentations by each team and instruct the port staff how to proceed.”

If the proposal is accepted, the earliest time development would begin is 2019. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune: “The scale and cost ranges up to 2.5 million square feet and $1.4 billion of development. The port could potentially earn ten times what Seaport Village now generates in $2.7 million in annual revenue.”

Is your 2020 California mission geared towards the San Diego Bay? Can this cut down the bustling So Cal crowds? Well, at the very least, if you’re taking a surf trip to America’s finest city and get skunked – Kelly’s wave might be your next best option.