Surf Cat

With the announcement today of the new Kelly Slater Surf Resort, there will now be over a dozen water parks and water resorts coming to the Southern California desert of Palm Springs, Coachella and La Quinta.

With an eye for younger adventure travelers and tourists, the goal is to provide unique experiences for surfers rather than golfers, who make up a majority of the sports market in the area with over 100 golf courses. The new luxury resort will be similar to Slater’s other California location, including a wave-making machine that will be used for professional surfing competitions and also casual family outings.

Located in the shadow of Coral Mountain, the $200-million development will also offer up a 150-room luxury hotel, 600 private residences from $1-$5 million each and all within 400 acres in the La Quinta area, adjacent to the popular Coachella Valley Music Festival area. The 18-million gallon surfing lagoon will be created by Kelly Slater Wave Co., utilizing his creation of the largest open-barrel, man-made waves.

The developers Meriwether Cos. and Big Sky Wave also plan on integrating additional sporting attractions, including rock climbing, skateboarding, and extreme sports. The planned lagoons surrounding the property will also play host to SUP lovers and the futuristic new hydrofoil boards.

In addition to the 18-million-gallon surf basin, the features might include a network of ponds that hotel guests and residents could navigate on stand-up slow-moving paddle boards or decidedly faster electric hydrofoil boards that lift riders out of the water.

I previously wrote about extensive water park developments in the adjacent areas to Coachella currently being built on the former Wet ‘n’ Wild water park off of Gene Autry Trail, a project financially backed by pro surfers. And in Palm Springs, the Palm Springs Surf Club is among developers seeking out the millennial visitors to add more tourist dollars to desolate, underdeveloped areas.

The new Thermal Beach Club project is being developed by WhiteStar Development LLC and will tap into existing water rights. The development will incorporate American Wave Machines PerfectSwell technology, which is also used at the 2-acre BSR Surf Resort in Texas.

And nearby in Palm Desert, a $200 million surf resort recently was approved by the Palm Desert City Council, which will lead to the development of a project that includes a 5.5-acre wave lagoon, hotel, and residential villas at Desert Willow Golf Resort.

Slater is confident about the new project and says, “We’re excited to make another KSWaveCo design, and I’m personally excited to create a new wave that will be a stand- alone design that nowhere else in the world has. This can become the blueprint for new developments around waves and surf parks going forward and is in line with some of my original ideas from when we started this project.”