Kelly Slater in $1b bid to bring surf stadium and resort to Australia – The Age

Posted On: October 11, 2019

Kelly Slater is mounting a push to bring a $1.1 billion surf stadium and resort to Australia, as the sport hopes to ride a wave of popularity before its Olympic debut in 2020.

Surfing’s governing body, the World Surf League, wants to build the artificial wave pool within a tourist and residential hub proposed for a 510-hectare site at Coolum on the Sunshine Coast.

Kelly Slater surfs a man-made break at the 2018 Surf Ranch Pro in Lemoore. Credit:World Surf League

The artificial break would be Slater’s first outside the United States, where his $42 million Surf Ranch was built in 2013 at Lemoore in California – 160 kilometres inland from the Pacific Ocean.

“Australia is really important market for the World Surf League,” the league’s general manager for Australia and Oceania, Andrew Stark, said.

“The Sunshine Coast has a very deep surfing culture and the DNA of Surf Ranch really fits this location. We’re not going to be opening a lot of these in the world.”

The WSL, which acquired a majority stake in the Kelly Slater Wave Company in 2016, has partnered with Queensland developer Don O’Rorke’s Consolidated Properties on the proposal.

Thousands of fans attend surfing events at the Lemoore Surf Ranch. Credit:World Surfing Leage

It includes a six-star eco resort, another 200 rooms of accommodation, restaurants, bars, a retail village and an environmental education centre based on the site’s wetlands and nearby waterways.

Mr Stark said the 20,000-spectator stadium would cater to recreational surfers and aim to draw major competitions and events, including world qualifiers.

“The surfing community is ecstatic and excited. People go to these facilities and it’s quite a mind-blowing experience.”

Mr Stark said the surf park would be “primed” for the 2032 Olympic Games and could form part of the range of sporting infrastructure Queensland would need for a successful bid.

If approved by the state government, the first stage of the development could open as early as 2021.

Slater, a world champion surfer and Florida native, said Australia was the first spot the company had looked at building a wave pool outside the US and it was “very exciting for us to make it a reality”.

“I can’t wait. The Sunshine Coast seems like a perfect place to start. There is a very healthy and deep surf community and I’m sure there will be no shortage of people ready to surf it.

“I don’t really know what impact it could have but surfing is a big sport in Australia and any advancements in the sporting side could potentially help the 2032 Olympics bid.”

A Sunshine Coast Council spokeswoman said staff were first made aware of the development earlier this year, however, the council had not received a detailed proposal.

The council said it had no authority to consider any such development proposal as it was “on land situated outside the urban footprint on a site that is highly constrained”.

“It is understood World Surfing League is undertaking public consultation on its proposed development and council officers indicated to [league] that they will be interested to understand more details about the proposal and the results of the community engagement process.”

Slater’s Surf Ranch at Lemoore has drawn dozens of the world’s best surfers to compete in the vast pool that was intended to introduce the sport to a new audience before its Olympic debut at the Tokyo Games.

The 700-metre long structure uses a device called a hydrofoil that travels the length of the pool to push and pull the water to form a swell. This swell works with contours on the floor to create waves.

And while the artificial break technology has drawn the ire of some purists within the surfing community, the artificial wave pools are growing in popularity in Australia and overseas.

The push to bring the Kelly Slater Wave Company system to Coolum Beach coincides with the construction of Surf Lakes’ inland surf park at Yeppoon on the central Queensland coast.

Australian company Urbnsurf has plans for a wave pool at Sydney Olympic Park, to complement its surf park being built in Melbourne. The Sydney venue will open in 2021, the company’s website says.