The World’s Best Wavepool Costs $100,000 a Year to Surf (Video)
Surfing is free…at least, in theory.
Sure, there’s all the gear (board, wetsuit, fins, wax, etc.), the access to the coast that can often be pricey (either living near the beach or gas money to drive there), and then the potential income lost while lollygagging around in the lineup (unless, of course, you can monetize that through social media influencing, vlogging, what-have-you).
But at its core, surfing is a gratis pastime…well, it was, in the pre-wavepool era that is.
So, it sorta makes sense that what many people are dubbing the “world’s best” wavepool, Boa Vista Village in Brazil, would also potentially be the world’s most expensive.
In the video above from Laguna Beach skimboarder, and stylish soft-top aerialist surfer, Blair Conklin gets the golden ticket to surf Boa Vista and he has this description:
“2 World Champion Skimboarders get to test Brazil's state of the art Wavepool. The Boa Vista Village boasts the largest Wavepool with PerfectSwell technology. The development includes private properties ranging from the $1.2 million to $2.2 million price range. The residents will be paying $100K a year to have access to the wave. Safe to say Skimboarders won't be buying a home there anytime soon!”
We’ve seen a lot of pros surfing Boa Vista, but not many average joes. And from a cursory Google search, it’s unclear how to actually book a session at the wave, or what the price would be if anyone – not just residents at the Boa Vista compound – can surf the pool.
For comparison, one YouTuber went to Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch, claiming that it was rented out for $70,000, and that equated to $7,000 per wave.
Yeah, not cheap.
But perhaps, in the brave new wavepool world, surfing is going to cost you some money (or even a timeshare) – just like playing a round of golf on the links.
For more about Boa Vista, Blair continued:
“I don’t know how we lucked into this one.
“We just hung out with Italo [Ferreira] last night, and we’ve watched a bunch of his videos here. [Like this one where he surfs the wave like a videogame; or this one with a freakishly perfect tube.] He said that this is his favorite wavepool in the world. I’m pretty excited to try it.
“It’s the same technology as the Waco wave in Texas, but it’s on a whole different scale. This pool is about two-to-three times larger, and I think the amount of pumps they have making the wave is, like, twice as many.
“PerfectSwell, they are creating the best wave in the world at the moment.”
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