Physicist Calculates The Cost Of Powering A Single Wave

Most surfers have probably dreamed of avoiding crowds in the lineup and having a private wave pool in their backyard.

But that dream depends on money. What would it cost?

In a recent article in Wired, Southeastern Louisiana University physics professor Rhett Allain used a lot of math to calculate how much it costs to power a single wave.

And guess what? It’s a lot less than we expected.

Allain first explained how wave pools like the Surf Ranch work. He said they’re pools of water with a type of car on rails with a hydrofoil in it, essentially a wing that moves through the water creating surfable waves.

Through some pretty advanced math, Allain then calculated how much energy is needed to create one wave.

Next, he determined the joules— AKA units of energy —required to power hydrofoils with electricity and gasoline and considered the average price of each fuel. Lastly, he explored what it’d cost to run a human-powered one.

Ya know, if you really wanna go green.

Allain used even more complicated equations and scientific jargon to find the answer we were looking for.

And voila! Here’s what he found.

A wave generated by an electric hydrofoil would cost $1.23 to produce and a gas-powered one would be about the same price.

And the human-powered wave? It turns out it’d take about 89 hours of pedaling a bike to generate the energy needed to make a wave.

The professor broke it down. “Even if you work in 10-hour shifts, it's going to take more than nine days to get enough energy for a single wave. Technically, this wave is priceless, but it’s still going to cost you. At least if you are making your waves this way, you will have plenty of time to think about your poor decisions as you prepare for the next surfing session. I would probably go with electric-powered waves instead.”

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