Waves hit Hāwea
Hāwea is now home to a set of consistent waves thanks to some Kiwi ingenuity. YourWave is a unique artificial surf wave and the brain child of product designer Ross McCarthy. It’s suitable for surfers of all abilities – beginners can learn to pop-up, while experts can carve steeper breaking waves.
The dream of creating a custom standing wave came to Ross after he finished a master’s degree in industrial product design. In the past, wave pools have been created with minimal water and using hard surfaces, which could cause injury – YourWave is instead inflatable.
“It all came when we saw competitors making similar waves, I suppose,” says Ross. “They were using hard surfaces and when you’re surfing on three inches of water – ours is deeper than that at about 300mils – it could be quite unsafe. Our idea was, why don’t you take a bouncy castle idea and chuck a wave over it? Then making it a lot softer and a lot more user-friendly, because people were getting quite seriously hurt on other machines, so that’s where the idea started.”
From there, Ross and the team started building prototypes and found that they could adjust the air pressure in the inflatable sails and start chopping and changing the wave. As a result, it “all worked out a lot better.” The first prototype was created in a warehouse in Dunedin, where Ross was based for 18 years. Eventually, investors came on board and allowed them to build the unit that is now in Hāwea.
The artificial wave isn’t open to the public just yet, but that will change very soon as the team await some final sign-offs. In the meantime, Ross and his mates have been enjoying the one-of-a-kind experience all to themselves.
“I have a lot of friends who are surfers and they’ve been surfing it, and yeah, they’re really enjoying it. Some of them even say that they probably prefer to come out here and surf this, rather than travel the distance to go surf real waves. It’s been a pretty good reception.”
Simulating a real-wave experience, those who have had the opportunity to ride the wave have said it feels exactly like surfing. It’s a great way to hone your skills, giving users the ability to pop up and surf time and time again, something that could take weeks or more to master in the natural environment.
Once YourWave is open to all it will be available for private hire or for people to book online and head in on the weekends. You can bring your own board or they can supply you one – they’re in the process of testing out which boards are most suited to their wave – fibreglass boards aren’t recommended.
With the first one done and dusted, the primary business now is to sell the wave pools themselves. The internationally-patented product has a competitive edge by way of its ability to adjust the waves. The height, angle and face shape of the wave to cater to individual needs.
Bookings for YourWave will be open to the public soon. You can find out more information at yourwave.surf.
