Wavepool king Tom Lochtefeld on his Palm Springs Surf Club Miracle!
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- Опубликовано: 1 окт 2024
- All that heat about the new Palm Springs Surf Club wavepool in that pretty desert town two hours east of Los Angeles has been entirely warranted.
The creator of the pool's tech, San Diego's Thomas J Lochtefeld, is a long-time friend of BeachGrit and its co-master Charlie Smith.
There’s no bigger name in the wavepool game than Lochtefeld, a former tax lawyer turned water park proprietor turned creator of surf dreams.
Lochtefeld got his surf chops threading caves at Big Rock in La Jolla and has spent the last forty years trying to recreate similar thrills at the punch of a button.
In 1987, he sold his share in a bunch of theme parks for two million dollars and used that cash, as well the sale of his beachfront joint at La Jolla for 950k to create a standing wave, called Flowrider, that ended up being installed in over 200 joints in thirty-five countries.
In 1999, the Swiss watch company Swatch toured a souped up version of the Flowrider called Bruticus Maximus and that caused more permanent injuries in one year than Teahupoo in the last thirty, around the world: from Florence to Munich, Vienna, Hanover, Long Beach, San Diego, Manila and Sydney, with Tony Hawke, Kelly Slater, Chris Miller and Terje Haakonsen wowing crowds with a surf, snow, skate combo of airs and tubes.
Lochtefeld’s real goal, however, was a wave that didn’t involve standing waves and finless mini-boards.
As computer tech got better, he deepened his research on the different ways of making waves: hydraulics, ploughs, boats.
Lochtefeld ended up using pneumatics, which is pretty much wind power, to birth his newest invention, called SurfLoch, which powers the Palm Springs Surf Club.
You want to ride the best wavepool ever created?
Flex that credit card and get onto their website for a booking.
@palmbeachsurfclub
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Also thanks for the shout outs for Jamie O Brien and the Skid Kids and what about Beefs TV ? Gotta love it !! The future is looking very promising.
The $200 is because most people will be one timers willing to pay whatever just to experience it once. I'm sure there will be a cheaper membership type deal for regulars. Wish the pool tech had been this advanced when I was younger. I surfed Typhoon Lagoon 30 years ago lol. It was cool one time, but pretty lame overall. (BTW it was $1000 to rent out for a few hours). These new pools are just so next level.
$200 turns surfing into snowboarding but even more expensive. It’s gonna be for 1% foreigners soon with the declining dollar. Rather be in the ocean with my friends, involved in nature, for free. Hopefully, one day these pools can be big enough and cheap enough to accommodate many without ruining it the same way snowboarding was ruined; it became for tech nurds with Google salaries; aka posers.
I’m going to pay 200 an hour , no problem . Looks like a blast !! Lifetime experience right there. I’ve only seen them on You Tube. Can’t wait . Thanks Tom !!
But how many people out?
$200 .. no way that’s way too expensive unless a novelty a few times or training , I’d rather go surf free in the ocean
Look how much Waco charges per session.
$200 a session seems about right, assuming one will get over a dozen waves that hour.
I went to highschool with this guys little brother. He showed me drawings of the waves his big brother was conceptualizing.
Nice one Chas.
Can he invent a scheduling system that doesn’t show sold out for the next few months and no availability in future?
Big surf survived 40 years and was the innovator, only succumbed due to covid and the value of land being 50 million
Was that in Tempe, AZ?
Build everywhere globally … empty out all the surf spots … I will take it up again
How many rides per session? How deep is it right where the wave starts to barrel? People are gonna get bloody in that shallow end.
lets crowdfund one
Cool stuff…closer to home and not hot AF 🥵. Still, watching that Slater train 🚂 will be indelible to wavepool history 🤙🏽😎🖤 cool nod by the homie 🏄♂️
Need a wave in Nashville 🖖😎
Yyou look like John Waters
Is this the place that almost killed BJ
People complaining about the price. People pay that much to go snowboarding for a day. If it’s too expensive, work harder and stop surfing all day 😂. It’s always packed in the lineup because no one works anymore.
If this guy hadn't been such a trash talker, I probably wouldn't have written what I am about to write here: The flowrider model all over again, it's a tourist novelty, and on that basis, great, fantastic. Based on what I see in their promo videos it's not fun enough where you would want to do it on a regular basis. The brash trash talking of Slater's pool was very obviously a defensive move because Slater's pool is the real deal. 4 foot face, maybe 5 ft if you squint, 1 second tube maybe 1.5 seconds if you squint, and the tube is super tiny, more of a cover-up. He says his goal was a financially viable product, not to make a better wave than Slater. He claimed he can shape his wave, and I agree, he probably can, but he wisely never said it is actually a better wave for real surfing. There's many videos on youtube of Slater emphatically stating he took so long to do his wave because wanted to avoid a crap wave just to make something financially viable.
Should only be $100.00 an hour not 200.00
It's $150 an hour unless they upped it.
As a former Pro Skateboarder for SIMs. I would never pay that much to go surfing perfect waves. How many can afford $200.00 and he to surf really ? And how come there l somewhere else then Florida who has suffered for years for a perfect wave. Kelly should know that. Why Cali and Texas. Put one in Florida.
@16:57 👃
Pipe for an hour by yourself ? ……
…10,000. At least. More like 50,000.
Watched a few vids of PSSC. I'm going to book a session soon - take my money 😂
i met a guy that said he was showcasing flow rider at a convention in Daytona Beach we were surfing say in the 80's i wonder if that was him. no sharks or jelly fish great concept. great interview. keep the dream alive
What is the water depth at the bottom of the wave? What is the height of the Wave?
Smooth operator 🔱
Better yet. All Counties in Florida should have one just like the money they put in Basketball courts and softball fields and soccer
Honestly I can't believe there aren't several in Florida already. That market is surf hungry.
It’s because the water table is too high.
@@cjgamer2140 there is one planned in central Florida
LOVE your shirt!!!
Yeah Crowd fund would be awesome
Somewhere near the middle of the interview (timestamp 12:02) did he admit that he would “pay off” city council members in order to get a wave pool built in an area where the people don’t want it built?
I wonder if there will be an investigation on how this wave pool was built in Palm Springs?
What a Barrel of fun. 😂😂😂😂
Society is fuckdd when half the world doesn’t have fresh water but in America we have 5 different wave generation technologies so kooks can surf in the middle of the desert. Hoo Rah
There is a huge aquifer under Palm Springs. Many water districts store water in it. All the ponds in between the wind turbines are recharge ponds for the aquifer.
Free market baby 🤙🏽😎🖤
12 second ride. You could get on a plane to Oahu for 200 bucks and get a 120 second ride through Waikiki
Rather surf a 2 second barrel than ride a mushy longboard wave for over a minute. $200 for a plane ticket, what about food? Hotel/Airbnb? Surfboards? Transportation? Just a few days you’re lucky to pay only $2k. What about the crowds? Packed lineups? Crazy meth heads? Waikiki overrated, overpopulated, overpriced, and fake.
Yes
Lol where you flying from? Maui? 1 way? 😂
That wave is trash compared to slaters wave pool, even the wave pool in Gladstone QLD Australia shits all over that Palm Springs one
Palma springs is Las Vegas little sibling casino town. That might help you be ok with the fact that no one cares 😂
Smooth operator 🔱
Yeah he's kinda full of it no doubt.
Great interview. I believe Munich is with Myrtha which is PVC, not liner. Check out Praia da Grama for liner example. Agreed on liner's weak performance over time. :)
Damn, 200 bucs an hour to surf the wave pool in Palm Springs. Go to the ocean and surf all day for free. Beware, HIV might be floating in the water.
Uh, wut? 🙄
It’s cured, you don’t have to be scared to be 🏳️🌈 anymore