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BREAKING: Barcelona To Receive Artificial Wave Pool
Stokepedia
We’ve often joked about Stoke Travel’s surfing feature being in man-made pools, but it looks like it might be soon becoming a reality. According to a report in La Vanguardia, Barcelona is set to become one of the few cities with an economically viable artificial wave, following Surf Snowdonia in Wales and Austin, Texas’ NLand Surf Park.
Officially making Barcelona the best city in the world
The Barcelona wave park will be 20 kilometers up the road in Montgat, and is still subject to government approval, but that hasn’t prevented us from being overwhelmed with anticipatory joy. You see, here at Stoke Travel we’re a little bit tragic for surf — it’s how we started the business with our Surfari road trips, and remains one of our healthier vices — and we absolutely love being based in Barcelona, because it’s a cosmopolitan, world-class city with sun and the sea and nightlife and food… It just lacks consistent waves due to its position on the Mediterranean, a glorified lake (that said we sometimes do get waves, and when we do we make the most of it).
Yep, the only thing that Barcelona lacks is access to consistent waves, and while we won’t be convincing mother nature to turn the tap on more often, artificial wave technology has come in leaps and bounds in recent years and is now a viable alternative to a temperamental sea. Surf Snowdonia held a contest a couple of years back that was heralded as a success, and most of us have seen the mechanical perfection that Kelly Slater’s wavepool has on offer.
The Barcelona proposal uses the latest technology available from Wavegarden, the same Basque company that created the waves for Snowdonia and NLand, but vastly improved, offering more consistency, bigger waves, and more economical for the surfers, with reports saying that the Barcelona artificial wave will be able to serve over 100 surfers per hour, for an hourly cost estimated to be between €20-35.
There’s never been a better time to be involved in the artificial wave business, with the competition between Kelly Slater’s pool and the Wavegarden offerings, at a time when professional surfing is seeing more viewers than ever, in the lead up to the sport’s admission to the Olympics, at the 2020 Tokyo games. If Tokyo is a success surfing can be a mainstay on the Olympic roster, thanks to artificial wave technology bringing the surf experience to landlocked communities, cities and countries.
Even if the Barcelona wave pool doesn’t go ahead, we’re betting that it’s only a matter of time before wave pools are everywhere, and you can rest assured that Stoke Travel will be offering surf and party packages, either here in Barcelona, or to wherever the parks may be.
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