Surf Park Summit 2

The day before Surf Expo opened, the 2nd Surf Park Summit was held in the Orange County Convention Center. Two hundred and seventy people attended from 27 countries to hear a busy schedule of speakers talk on all aspects of Surf Parks from financing through to technology.

The positive atmosphere surrounding this conference was really refreshing given the turbulent times the action sports industry in general currently finds itself in.

First up was Roy Turner from Surf Expo welcoming us all to the Summit. John Luff, the conference founder, then spoke broadly about the opportunities that Surf Parks presented. Gary Ream of Woodward Camps talked about his action sports facilities that offer a combination of sports and creativity for both boys and girls and provided a model on which surf parks could be based. Fernando Aguerre explained via a Skype link about how the inclusion of Surfing in the Olympics would change the perception of surfing in the wider market for ever and expand the sport far beyond its heritage roots.

This was followed by PT Townend and Glenn Brumage talking about what the impact of this would be on the Chinese market. Remember, it only took the Chinese 8 years to get their first snowboarding medal, and the minster of Action Sports has already made it clear that surfing will also be in their sights. Jess Ponting presented some great research on attitudes to surf parks on what he called the Holy Grail Effect and the Spiritual Divide. This explained how man made surf parks offered many advantages to surfers over natural spots and how in the last couple of years the perceived negative views on parks was rapidly reducing. Ponting has founded an association of surfing academics to provide international research support. Bruce Mcfarland told us about his experiences in providing wave generating technology to 15 different locations around the world. Sean Young took us step by step through the development journey that any new surf park project would go through in order to raise funding. In particular on the cost of buying a location, Sean saw a real opportunity for purchasing failing golf courses and turning them into Surf destinations.

Then it was the turn of the man with the recent experience of building and running the newest park out there… Snowdonia’s very own Andy Ainscough. His key takeaway points where that the real market for his park was the beginner, the intermediate and the family. This was where the money was to be made from surfing and backing it up he had another nine sources of complimentary income, from accommodation to restaurants. The core surfer on the other hand bought the location legitimacy and also provided a spectator sport for other visitors. In fact many speakers mentioned that surf parks would not be profitable if they concentrated on the core market, the core surfer would need to have a private residential type of park, similar to a members golf club, to be viable.

After lunch Tony Finn, of Liquid Force fame, gave us a light hearted but heartening look at the explosion of cable parks in North America and Europe. He believes surf parks could have the same impact on the surf industry. Claude Coudry explained to us the success of his 1500 sq feet surfing lifestyle destination project inside a shopping mall in Montreal, that’s puts together a wave machine, restaurant and surf retail unit. Skip Taylor took us through how as “experience creator” at Replay resorts he is busy adding events and experiences to increase the attraction and footfall to both winter and summer destinations. His view is that tourists are now travellers and want an experience more than the comforts of home. He sees wave machines as being secondary amenities to bigger attractions but at the same time they would be the focal point of the marketing of the overall business. Tom Lochtefield took us through his experiences including the development of the Wave House franchise and the technology behind his current business Surf Loch.

Tony Perez of Ten, the publisher of consumer surfing titles, talked to us about how media could support the development of the surf park market. This was followed by Matt Ruzicka and Shane Beschen on their city wave technology and the upcoming event in Munich.

Then to wrap up what had been a very full day with over 12 speakers, three panels presented on emerging wave pool technology, filtration systems and financing. The emerging tech panel consisted of Air Wave, Artwave Surf and Waves Manufacturing. The filtration panel discussed the various ways of keeping pools clean including the UV technology used in Snowdonia. Last but not least the finance panel provided insight both into raising money and into finding and affording a location. Funding would become easier to obtain once more empirical data on surf park financial performance was available and when more commonly understood business models like restaurants were included on the project.

On a final upbeat note, their was a general believe that shopping malls now were looking to increase the experience they offered to counter the effect of internet shopping and wave parks was seen as a viable option for this given that it is the 4th most practised outdoor sport in the USA.

All in all a fascinating and inspirational day!