"The site is a 24 ha parcel of land off Steve Irwin Way near the junction with the Bruce Highway."
That would put it in the beerwah state forest??????
https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/Glenview+QLD+4553/@-26.782288,153…
What an absolute waste of coal, space, concrete, and time.......
Waiting for climate change advocates to demand it be run on green power..... (sound of crickets......)
How many watts for each wave?

is this a gee up or what? Why isn't it being built in the Clive Palmer Resort, u could ride a wave then go jump on for a ride on the Titanic 2.

This is good news, the Sunny coast needs at least one half decent consistent wave :P

Jeez "500 waves an hour + 1.6 metre barrels". If I lived near by I would be very excited. I've recently been on a wilderness surf trip and the waves were epic. Due to lack of recent exposure to quality waves, combined with getting older, I was a real fringe dweller but getting more confident with every surf over two weeks. Even finding a bit of form on the very last wave of the trip? I'd LOVE to do a few weeks of training in a wave pool in the lead-up to my next wilderness trip???

Finding form on the last wave of the trip sounds bittersweet.

(sound of crickets)............. Blind boy??? Stu???? Anyone??? (more crickets, followed by the sounds of bulldozers lol)

This one has been discussed pretty frequently over the last few years SD.

I'll throw in my usual question. What is the wave speed? This is the critical factor in creating a wave worth surfing.

500 waves per hour, not possible.

At last waves for the sunny coast. Wont be here to see it but a pretty shrewd choice of location, thousands of frustrated surfers and easy access to the highway, expect it to be rammed. Think it could be in the same location as the planned motocross park at mooloolah sheepdog.

.....and one more, salt or fresh?

one wave every 7 secs?

... this 'Wavepark Pty Ltd'? Name does not seem familiar from the previous announcement:

https://www.swellnet.com/news/surfpolitik/2014/02/16/queensland-get-firs…

I found this:

https://www.bestjobsau.com/bt-empd-waterplay.htm

and from that, using the name "Arthur Downing", got this:

https://ae.linkedin.com/pub/arthur-downing/13/40/996

So, is the MOU still on foot with David Baird?

Who are the people behind this proposed water park?

This seems to be the company but as far as I can see they have never attempted anything as complex as this. Maybe the CEO bought a mal over summer!

https://www.waterplay.com/au/

The costing of this project is way off, 90 million will not build this project, wave pool, 120 room hotel, waterpark, holiday village....closer to 150 mill.

After reading surfing life interview better add another 10 mill for the software engineering.

Two thousand sixteen. More vapourware.

weren't we supposed to be seeing perfect barrels by now?

what the hell is happening with the slater wavepools?

Will the pool allow fibreglass boards or are foam type boards used. BYO board? How many people allowed at once? Enter at your own risk like the ocean or if ya cop a board in the head at the park who is liable for medical. You know like a waterside you got to wait until it's clear. I can see people standing on the side watching waves go unridden until the pool is clear.

Well IF its a wave every 7 seconds its going to be a quick turn over,dont know what happens if someone falls off.

Like other industries, the surf industry has made token gestures to become more environmentally sustainable. It is a feel good gesture and like others, we are not able to sacrifice quality of life for environmental custodianship. Like me, you probably have Fibreglass and resin surfboards and other surf accessories that are not as environmentally sustainable as other alternatives.. But SD, I realised they/we are not really serious about this issue when they built the Tugun Desal Plant. In a spot that gets heaps of sun and wind, not one solar panel or small wind turbine was used. So I cannot see a commercial enterprise investing in smart sustainable energy as they view it as a cost, not an investment, like the mad monk and his merry men.
Humanity, heaps of knowledge, very little wisdom-wisdom being applied knowledge.

SD, you maths is way out and the interchanging of kW and kWh not correct. 90kW is a potential measurement not an actual, kind of like your car. the kWh is how much it burned over time.

Looking quickly at the stats, if it peaks at 90kW output, assume the running state is constant (at 7.2 between waves probably not far from true) that means 90khW per hour for say 8 hours.

Your house pulls downs about 2kWh per hour roughly so It about 50 houses worth which is bugger all, the site where this web page is coming from draws down somewhere between 4000-12000 per hour to give you some scale.

Depending on power source rough order of magnitude for carbon 1000kWh = about 1 tonne of carbon.

So to answer you question how much well if they operated 21 days a month at 8 hours a day on average probably about 181440kWH or about 181tonnes you house is about 18, so all in all compared to office blocks, data centres and industrial use facilities it is bugger all and to be honest at 90kW they would be able to cost effectively use solar.

So if it's an energy the thing you are worried about I would spend more time lobbying for the removal of aluminum smelters, they measure not in the megawatt hours but in the gigawatt hours.

https://www.tai.org.au/documents/dp_fulltext/DP44.pdf

I appreciate the concern about this wave pool being energy efficient. It is admirable and such an enterprise should be. Being an eco-leader and shining the light on the right path is what is required.

Alas, is it too late? I live in China and haven't seen the sun in a month ... just some hazy orb up there ... somewhere. I not only wait for typhoons to whip up something even remotely rideable along the heavily littered beaches but for the high winds to blow the pollution somewhere else so the sun appears. This pollution is from MASSIVE coal use.

Maybe I can convince someone here to build a Webber Wave Pool under a hazy sun and nestled in the shadows of the industrial plants (there's no shortage of $). What's that about "apocalyptic scenarios"? I remember seeing comics to this effect in surfing magazines over the years. Finally, "the dream" can be realized. Huzzah! Surrender. Embrace your capitalist overlords and the generosity they bestow upon you. It's time to believe in the better future they are giving us!

Thanks pale-rider. Sheepdog the point is that 90kW is the rate energy is being used. My understanding of the technology is that the wave is generated continuously by a bow shaped structure so as that pushes the wave it is using energy at the rate of 90kW. If that continued non-stop for an hour they would have used a total of 90kWh.

Southey do you think Webber is correct with his kilowattage ?

If it is a 90kW motor powering the wave it sounds right?

Now when I go to Bribie to visit the folks I can go catch a barra in the pond at Bli Bli and ride an artificial wave at C'dra.

who needs reality.

Cliff - ( in the voice of Homer simpson) - "mmmmm, heavy metals. ghrhghrlrghrhgrrr".... :P

Blind boy - SN: "What sort of energy will it require?"

GW: Well it's about 20kw for a 1 metre wave, 90 for a 1.5m wave, and just over 200 for a 2 metre wave. When the wave size doubles the power needed to make that wave goes up by 11 and a bit...

From article above - "The wave rate is 500 waves per hour. However, the larger pool can house a 'v' shaped reef at each end with 500 waves/hour breaking at half the height.

The drive system can create different size waves during the same session."

Hmmmmm..... BB..... Something doesn't quite add up..... But anyway, let's just say that there are 4 waves per hour just like the webber example here - https://www.swellnet.com/news/surfpolitik/2014/02/16/queensland-get-firs…

We'll do with 1 x 1 m waves and 2 x 1.5m waves, and 1 x 2m wave.... A total of 400kwh...
1kg of coal = 8kwh........ 400kwh/8kwh = 50kg of coal per hour.... Now night surfing will be on the cards, so a 14 hour trading day isn't out of the question ( 7am to 9pm)
50kg x 14 = 700kg per day = 4900kg per week..... 2 weeks off per year for cleaning etc... 50 weeks x 4900 = 245000kg.....

245000 kilos of coal... Two hundred and forty five thousand kilos of coal.... Just for 4 waves... Not including filtration systems... lighting.... ticketing, computers etc etc..

This is again confusing kw with kwh 90kw constant output for 1 hour is 90kwh the fact that webber uses the kw reference means that it is an output measure not kwh measurement

Kw amd kwh are not interchangeable for your math to be correct he would have provided a 450kw as the figure

sorry Udo ... I was typing a detailed response . And my computer battery went flat . ;_(
Either that or it was a sign that I went too indepth and would of drowned you all in figures . ;))

keepin it short , its hard to ascertain if like Fitzy said that he's provided the name plate peak/instantaneous kw rating of the one or multiple motor/s needed to create one wave or pass of the hull .
Lets assume that we are still looking at the similar linear pool / hull designs he initialy discussed in these walls .
I would presume that we are looking at only one motor was used for both hull directions and two waves per pass . Not sure of the details of whether the two waves create two at the deep ends of the Pool where said V shaped artificial reef would create two split peaks or one where the two waves doubled up and produced one . ( this could happen if the ends of the pool were designed correctedly to focus the two waves into a singular wedge .
Anyway . From memory lets say that there is 25 % down time or pause for the resulting waves energy to dissapate at either end of the pool . Then it could be as low as 70kWh , per operational hours .
Of course there would be ancillary loads . Or perhaps his electrical engineering team has quantified all that into the 90 kw figure , be peak / instant or smoothed average over time consumption . Lets not forget that the motors would also most likely ramp up and down , so we are not looking at constant loads .
Lastly don't compare single phase ( housing loads to commercial three phase loads ) .
3 x 1kW single phase loads don't draw the same as 1 x 3kw three phase motor .
I tried to explain this concisely as I could in the lost post , but lets just not go there .
Regardless , its going to be far more efficient than a boat hull providing its own thrust producing waves of half the size . !!!!!
PS . Storms could be categorised in Multitudes of TerraWatt level , but lets not forget that the energy actually passed to the ocean is magnitudes less than whats in the system .
So all that extra Co2 could be seen as a return path to create more instability in the atmosphere , and more of the real waves .... China's pullin its weight in that category ay Clif !
I'll do some digging , and clarify .

Build your own Solar farm alongside the project and you will win over the locals. If you want to be proactive on the issue of solar farms and local power please join us. https://www.facebook.com/pages/ROMA-QLD-Baseload-Solar-Plant-110MW/6529…

SPAM .

Hmmm...close enough to issues raised earlier in the comments thread to stay.

Gentlemen - some answers from Greg

https://www.surfinglife.com.au/news/sl-news/12003-welcome-to-the-future

If surfing didn't feel somewhat hedonistic already, one visit to this new world atrocity will certainly make sure it does.

At a wave every seven seconds they can just use wave power to power the whole thing. Next.

Fucking hell that ASL "journalism" was about the lamest, most unintentionally hilarious thing ever published on the internets.

Gotta say though, if they ever found a way of harnessing the hype from Greg Webber they could power a million of these donkey pools.

Hear Hear Stephen.

I cannot wait to give it a thrash! hope it's not going to be another narrowneck

Shit Greg could sell oil to the arabs and probably will one day,give the man credit hes a big thinker.In some ways i think this is a great idea and in others sorta scarey that surfing could become a crowded nightmare,from morning of the earth to Greg webbers dream,interesting times.

500 waves an hour, book me in for a condo, there's fuck all waves on the sunny anyway

Personally, and I know I'm not alone, I find Greg's vision a chilling dystopian version of surfing's future.

The great sell-out. The final capitulation to mass commerce. Where we join clubs, wear wrist bands and ride "pro surfer" waves, lining up with masses all under the glare of fluoro lighting, landscaped surrounds and concrete.
Fake/.
Not only fake and expensive but people are falling over themselves to embrace this.
It's kind of surprising how quickly and easily surfers are willing to sell out their actual lifestyle to a bunch of slick talking hucksters and snake oil salesmen for a few fake waves.

Or, if this wavepool can deliver what's promised, maybe surfers are just excited at having the opportunity to ride good waves at any time?

Riding a head-high, barrelling wave is pretty fun no matter where it is- Indo, Iceland or Bli Bli.

I don't think it's the end of the world just yet.

hahahah, you might be right Zen.

Now what pro surfing wave will you be choosing and will you be honest in your reporting to the poolside attendant about your ability?

24 hour live streaming.

Oh, and at 10,000 waves per day, 500 per hour (which as you'll note, the esteemed journo's at ASL have made a point to clarify by way of footnote in that article) ... we get some simple maths again:

10,000 divided by 500 = 20 hours

So, this thing is going to run for 20 hours a day?

freeride76 wrote:

Fucking hell that ASL "journalism" ...

mmm, yes, feels like one of those 'advertorial' pieces you get from the local APN paper. Wonder if Greg or the developer had to sign up for a 3 or 6 month ad package to get it?

Anyway, looking at some numbers in that info ...

"Say you’ve got 500 waves an hour in the main channel** (which will then create about 10,000 waves per day in the main channel) of one particular design, and that pro surfer gets 10% of the profits – we’re talking two dollars per ride and they’re looking at some serious income (say two dollars applied to 10% of 10,000 waves, that equals about $2000 per day and over $700,000 per year from one pool)."

So, I'm reading that, as the pro surfer who designed the wave gets the $2 ... which is 10%, so that would make each ride cost $20 for joe surfie to pay? $20 per ride feels about right for what it would cost to run this thing ...

Then, we get this in there too:

" ... you’ll have kids riding up to 300 waves per day, practicing any manoeuvre you could want – and these kids will get good, really fast ..."

So, if a ride costs $20, and my calculator skills are up to the task, that's $20 x 300 = $6,000 for little future world title contender to surf his 300 waves for the day. WTF?

Let's say, the $20 is wrong, and it's actually $2 per ride (i.e. I've misread the info above and it's actually $2 for the ride total cost to average joe surfer) ... so, that's still $2 x 300 = $600 for the day of surfing for johnny be a star. ???

Young johnny the ripper is going to need a good sponsor to help pay for each days 'training', and with that, I guess said sponsor will need to charge average joe surfer more for their products. Look out folks, the cost of a new pair of boardies will be $500 soon!

Looks like all those numbers are out Wingnut. See below from Webber Facebook page:

That isn't the only set of numbers that looks hinky...
Check out a bit more of the information in the Sunshine Coast planning and development website.
https://pdonline.sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au/MasterView/Modules/Application…

From Urban Economics’s analysis of the benefits of the proposed development, it has been
projected that Sunshine Park would provide the following:
 A $90 million construction project for the Sunshine Coast;
 Employment during the construction phase of approximately 430 positions;
 Direct and indirect employment benefits for the Sunshine Coast equating to some 520 fulltime
equivalent positions;
 Value-added economic benefit to the Sunshine Coast economy during the construction
phase of approximately $35-40 million;
 Employment of approximately 250 positions during the operational phase;
 Direct and indirect value-added economic benefit of approximately $11.8 million in 2017
due to the operations of Sunshine Park;
 Flow-on employment benefits during the operational phase in the wider community
equating to some 440 full-time equivalent positions;
 Additional visitations, both overnight visits and day-trips, to the Sunshine Coast.

"Wrist Band On The Run"

righto enough of all this Maths ..... fast forward to his new patent .... I'm getting impatient .... did no-one else read that part of the interview ????

K.S. did and is at the patent office right now.

$20 a wave? 10,000 waves day? In your dreams! If the viability of the project hinges on hordes of surfers paying $20 a wave day and night then it is likely to fail and end up like the one in Miyazaki. Shut down. Permanently.

Hang on, hold the phone.

Webber is upset at Mimi after one of the most gushing pieces of advertorial ever printed even by ASL standards.

WEbber you made yourself look like the kook. Poor Mimi was only trying to keep your hype machine running. As Hunter S Thompson would have said: One of the greedheads in a generation of swine.

Wave pool = chump magnet.
Less chumps in ocean is a good thing.
Downside of chump magnet means when actual ocean has nice waves , chumps will be in frenzy. So glad this aint getting built any where near me.

Funny how the true essence of surfing is forgotten when money can be seen to be made out of it.

The energy required to generate those big wakes may not require as much energy in terms of energy input, if they use a combination of powerful permanent magnets and electromagnets, as if the entire system was a giant washing machine type motor with powerful permanent magnets on the rims, and an electromagnet in the moving ends, or the other way around. Adding a lot of weight on the outer edges of the moving ends would also leverage the force of inertia and allow the machine to run on idle for short period of times without coming to a full stop instantly.
HOwever it's unlikely any of these scenarios will happen since they won't be using a circular structure.. That means the moving ends will move on rails, probably like a train with an electric motor, or worse a chain pulling the moving ends thanks to an electric motor. Lots of energy will be lost in the mechanics. In the future, they could transform the entire wave pool into a thermal solar generator, with the heat tower on the island in the center.. What a better way to promote solar thermal than having a surf pool running for free in the center!!

I was told the other day that council have approved the application and given it the go-ahead at Baffle Creek. This is about all I could find.

https://www.gladstoneobserver.com.au/news/baffle-ck-chosen-as-surf-site/…

jon jon, very clever, when the earthlings discover how to use electromagnetic energy wisely/constructively- they will solve lots of their current problems. like your idea about solar, but if your ides taken to capacity, whole thing could be powered free permanetely by use of your very smart awareness of the true clean green energy source. using saltwater would of course maintaing conductivity.

Surf lakes a QLD company claim some new wave making technology...3000 waves per hour ......2mtr tubes to gentle beginner waves , story in the QLD Sunday Mail.

"The energy required to generate those big wakes may not require as much energy in terms of energy input", be nice if the world worked like this but as described in the first law of thermodynamics it doesn't. The energy in each of those waves takes as much or more to generate them.

Sure it may be fun and possibly even ok to tune certain surfing skills but IMO riding these waves is not surfing.

Whenever someone asks me to teach them how to surf I tell them no, but I will take them to the beach and they can teach themselves surfing. The hardest part about learning to surf is paddling out.

Then you have to learn to read the ocean, the line up, the weather and on it goes. This is the true skill of surfing and the vast variability is what makes scoring a sick wave or even better a whole Sesh of sick waves such a treasure.

Building a pool to do it all for you.... Really? Is it that appealing?

Have fun queuing up on terra firma waiting for some crap synthetic wave.

I will wait for waves in the ocean where I might at least see some marine life.

has anyone heard any updates about this project or any other bits and pieces Greg has going at the moment? keen to see if he can get this thing scaled up and surfable.

Qldurr rewards pioneer swellnet wavewhackers with their very own wave diviner .

For crew wishing to continue dry surfing Sunshine Park Wave Pool [Take Next Exit >]
https://www.swellnet.com/comment/600315

All other Sunny Coast Wave Pool Ventures via [Scenic Route]

Hot tub Wax I - "Lost Wave Pool Temple of Adventura" (Legend or just a myth!)
Last sighting was deep in the heart of Sunny Coast Jungle...
2004 /05 /07/09 ($90m) Natural style Wave Lagoon was said to have legs.
https://www.parkz.com.au/article/2007/04/30/115-90_million_water_park_d…

Hot Tub Wax II - "What ever happened to Dr Webber & his experimental wave slab."
swellnet recalls the Original North Goldie Kelly Slater Wave Pool.
https://www.swellnet.com/news/surfpolitik/2014/02/16/queensland-get-fir…

Dr Webber then Surf Safaris from Goldie to Sunny (Here) then back to Goldie.

Hot Tub Wax III - North Goldie Tunnel Vision
https://www.swellnet.com/comment/559165
https://www.swellnet.com/news/swellnet-dispatch/2017/08/22/webber-wave-…
https://www.swellnet.com/news/swellnet-dispatch/2017/11/30/webber-wave-…

Hot Tub Wax IV- Webber surfs tide out the Albert River & back in up the Logan River.
https://www.swellnet.com/news/swellnet-dispatch/2018/05/09/greg-webber-…
2018 World was beating a path to his door...steamrolling his Tunnel Vision.
https://www.swellnet.com/news/swellnet-dispatch/2018/05/25/webber-wave-…

Hot Tub Wax V - June/2019 = \V/ ...The New Wave
https://www.swellnet.com/news/swellnet-dispatch/2019/06/06/more-mind-gr…

Hot Tub Wax VI - Sept/2019 WSL Coolum Ranch Wave Pool
https://www.swellnet.com/news/swellnet-dispatch/2019/09/27/sunshine-coa…
Oct/2019 WSL Coolum Ranch Wave Pool (Meeting)
https://www.swellnet.com/news/swellnet-dispatch/2019/10/03/notes-the-co…

Hot Tub Wax VII - Oct/2019 Surf Lakes sell Wave Pool Licence to Sunshine Coast
https://www.surf-lakes.com.au/uncategorized/watch-former-world-surfing-…

4 years on & back to flounder in the original swellnet Sunshine Park Wave Pool.

Nov/2019 [NEWS] Sunshine Park Wave Pool has resubmitted Wave Pool plans. Huh!
https://www.zinc96.com.au/news/local-news/104924-update-on-actventure-s…
Note designs still feature Webber Linear Loop Wave Pool + another + flow wave
https://www.actventure.com.au/

https://www.sanadcapital.com.au/news-events