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A group of British investors announced plans for the construction of a 35 million-pound wave pool in Bournemouth, England.
The structure named “The Lagoon” is expected to produce 2,400 waves per hour and attract 500,000 surfers and visitors each year.
“It has been a dream of mine for years. I’ve always wanted to teach my kids to surf in a safe and controlled environment. Now, my dream is closer to becoming a reality,” explained Matt Radford, founder of The Lagoon.
So far, the developers secured a Surf Lakes license. In the upcoming months, Radford and his team will evaluate whether the upgrades being made in the Australian wave-generating technology are worth the investment.
According to the team behind The Lagoon, the Bournemouth surf park will occupy a 15-acre site, and will open by 2022.
The project will also include an adventure trail, a 700 square meter climbing area, indoor skydiving, an assault course, indoor caving, high ropes, scuba diving, archery, and an escape room.
Radford and his team also confirmed the construction of a 145-bedroom hotel, woodland lodges, luxury treehouses, “hobbit huts” and glamping pods for the visitors.
The Lagoon will create around 100 working places in an area with a large surfing community.
Bournemouth is no stranger to man’s meddling with waves. In 2009, the infamous Boscombe Surf Reef was sunk off its shore. The Boscombe Surf Reef was an artificial reef made up of 55 giant sandbags. The $4 million project was expected to enhance the town’s waves in hopes to create a British surfing hub that would restore the local tourism economy–which peaked in the Victorian era (1837-1901). The plan failed. At its best, the Boscombe Surf Reef produced a fickle 2-foot wave that was practically unsurfable. The hotels remained vacant.
Boscombe Surf Reef was eventually damaged by a boat propellor, declared “unsafe” in 2011 and left to ruin 750 feet out to sea. A section of it washed ashore in 2017. British paper, The Times, called the bizarre fiasco “The $4 Million Wipeout” and officially declared Bournemouth’s surf dream dead.
Hopefully, the Lagoon Project will resurrect Bournemouth’s surf dream and have a much happier ending this time around, at least for those willing to pay for waves.
Watch a short documentary about the Boscombe Surf Reef below.