Watch: Wavegarden Just Reinvented Its Demo Center  - Stab Mag

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Watch: Wavegarden Just Reinvented Its Demo Center 

Thereby enabling 7-second barrels and a variety of moon shots.

news // Nov 25, 2024
Words by Stab
Reading Time: 3 minutes

If you’ve been following surfing for the past decade and change, you’ve seen Wavegarden’s demo center plenty of times. 

It’s conveniently located in the Basque Country — about an hour’s drive from Hossegor, which attracts surfing’s most recognizable names every year thanks to a WSL Championship Tour event regularly cylindrical waves and widely available loaves of bread. 

Care to take a stroll down memory lane? 

Now, before you start a petition to get Dane back on the QS (not a bad idea), you’ll want to watch that first edit embedded above and see what that cute little wave from 2013 looks like now.

What changed? Well, a decade of constant innovation prob helped. And, most recently, an engineering unlock changed what’s possible in the tub. 

Wavegarden uses an electromechanical system to push water around using large paddles. When those paddles push water with the right amount of force in the right pattern, a wave is born. 

Wavegarden already has the most commercially viable product on the market, with eight surf parks currently in operation and more than 12 new ones currently under construction. But the wave pool game moves fast, so they’re constantly exploring new ways to create better and/or more efficient waves. New engineering equations made the WG crew want to test new movement patterns. And, since they’ve got the demo center to play with, why not give it a crack?

Due diligence with Noah Beschen.

Turns out they were onto something. They’re now able to create: 

-A seven-second barrel. 
-14-second waves turn waves.
-Or a fucking moon ramp. 

They also altered the bathymetry and the shoreline and added a bit more optical charm around the pool. Another update? Instead of only being able to send waves as sets, they can fire single waves every 15-30 seconds. And they can do it 24/7. It’s such an upgrade that they’re giving the joint a new name: The Wavegarden Lab. 

When the Quiksilver Festival was in town, virtually every surfer in the comp wanted a piece of the Lab. Many were able to score a session — even a certain 11x World Champ who also happens to have his own wave pool company. The verdict? Everybody loved it. “When you get such a good air section, you don’t even think about what you’re doing; you just go for it,” said Noah Beschen.

However, a peak moment came when Victor Bernando was in Hossegor for William Aliotti’s Twin Fin festival. WG had programmed five different air waves — each a bit punchier than the one prior. And Victor went ballistic. After seeing the footage of Victor, Kai Odriozola, the son of WG founder Josema Odriozola, stuck his first-ever flip. Like the tech, Kai’s also come a long way since 2013 (did you notice his clip in that edit)?

The pool is only 90m x 45 m (roughly 300 ft x 150 ft). That’s not much for a wave pool. And, as its whole purpose is R&D for people with larger brains and/or more surfing ability than the rest of us, it won’t be open to the public. However, it should be popping up worldwide in Wavegarden pools to come.

So, anyone keen to build one of these 3x the size?

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