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The wave generator's shape employs elements of airplane wing design.
Photo: Wavegarden

For serious surfers, wave pools tend to suck. That’s because most use the same crude technique for producing swells—dumping vast amounts of water into the pool quickly, resulting in crumblers that lose energy as they ripple toward shore. Even at 5-foot heights, the waves are closer to the surfing equivalent of a bunny slope than a double black diamond. But now a team of surfer-engineers in Spain is dumping that approach. Their company, Wavegarden, has developed a mechanical rig that works beneath the water’s surface to produce waves that power across the whole pool. A submerged, winglike sled is dragged from one end of the lake to the other, creating a wake that builds in height and energy as the speed increases. Swellinfo.com surf forecaster Micah Sklut likes the results: “Wavegarden has created a wave with more energy behind it. The prototype showed small but hollow, heavier waves—with tubes.” Wavegarden technical director José Manuel Odriozola and his crew are now working on a bigger, 200-meter-long prototype. Keep your boards waxed—they’re in talks with buyers worldwide. Hang ten, Omaha.