The High Stakes of Surfing’s Wave-Pool Arms Race

A glaring omission from this article is mention of the surfer who died from a brain eating bacteria [0] after visiting the pool in Waco.

The wave pool there is classified as a 'lake' so normal rules for chlorination and filtration don't apply.

[0]: https://www.nj.com/atlantic/index.ssf/2018/10/brain-eating_a...

What the article misses is the long tradition of river surfing all over the world. Championed at Munich Eisbach since the late 70ies, and then all over the world since the 90ies, esp. in Canada, Austria, Germany, USA and Switzerland. There's no need for an expensive and commercial pool with pumps if you just need to throw some big rocks into a river, or use a canal. It's also helping to save bridge piers, which otherwise need to repaired every 10 years.

In Montreal or Munich there are usually 200 surfers a day, surfing for free. With incredible tricks, previously only seen on a skateboard.

http://riverbreak.com/

I have close friends working at all of these companies. Nice to see the industry growing!

Really hoping one of these wave pools makes its way to the midwest.

They had better keep the wave programs in a .wav file.