Since footage of the Surf Lakes wave pool at Yeppoon (just outside Rockhampton) was leaked a couple of weeks ago we’ve heard it compared to everything from a giant toilet plunger to something out of the 1995, post-apocalyptic film ‘Water World’, featuring Kevin Costner and Dennis Hopper.
This clip, showcasing the first trial of the Yeppoon wave pool, goes for a much more warm and fuzzy kind of feel than Waterworld. Instead of Kevin and Dennis engaged in a duel over a dystopian world, we get an ebullient Occy and son, Jay, frolicking in two foot artificial A-frames, with smiling cameos by Parko, Connor O’leary, and Laura Enever.
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So, obviously it’s a clip funded by the Surf Lakes team with paid surfers encouraged to put a positive spin on the latest incarnation of the wave pool, but what can be gleaned from this little marketing segment?
At first glance the wave seems like a two-turn runner or a tight tube at best – comparable to a clean day at a beachie with a really good shorey bank. It looks fun and mostly user friendly, but doesn’t inspire the same dizzying response as the first vision of Kelly’s roping Lemoore miracle.
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<p><a href=”https://vimeo.com/149396475″>Kelly's Wave</a> from <a href=”https://vimeo.com/kswaveco”>Kelly Slater Wave Co</a> on <a href=”https://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p>
Although we don’t quite see evidence of the promised 40 waves a minute that the Surf Lakes PR suggested it was capable of, it is apparent that the little split-peaks can handle a bigger crowd than Kelly’s one-wave pool.
Parko’s meatier nugget (which looks border-line surfable) offers a little more hope as to the true potential of the Surf Lakes pond, but average Joe would probably like to see more of a roll-in than the beyond-vert free-fall Parko is forced to deal with. Certainly Joel’s response suggests he was confronted with a wave that offered a genuinely challenging barrel.
The clip concludes with a realistic appraisal by Surf Lakes inventor, Aaron Trevis, who suggests that there is still 50% to go in terms of maximum wave height. That’s a provocative suggestion and we’re certainly excited to see what happens when they turn up the dial on the Yeppoon pool. Watch this space.
