Originally published in the San Diego Business Journal on December 31, 2012

TECH:  American Wave Machines Can Offer Custom Rides
By: Brad Graves

There is now an app for making waves.

American Wave Machines of Solana Beach designs pools with technology that creates waves big enough to surf on. They can bring the familiar sport to places that are nowhere near the ocean.

Among the company’s latest innovations is a way to modify those waves with an Apple Inc. iPhone or iPad.

Standing before a miniature, tabletop wave pool at the company’s headquarters — just a few steps from the Belly Up Tavern — company founder and President Bruce McFarland demonstrated the variety of waves he can turn out by changing the settings on his phone.

Then, he invited a reporter to try out the controls, on a console with a tablet-sized computer screen.

By manipulating the shape of the wave on the screen, a person can modify the wave emitted by the machine. Press a button, the air-operated system makes some noise and, voila, the wave breaks. McFarland sizes up the result. “You made a mushy wave on the right side of the pool,” he said.

The app will work the same way on the full-size wave machines that McFarland and his company engineer.

American Wave Machines was founded in 2000 in McFarland’s home. Its machines are now up and running in Peru, Sweden and the Caribbean region.

“We made it through the recession with international business,” said McFarland.

Seven Patents

American Wave Machines holds seven patents, and it has applied for several more in the United States and overseas.

One of its more ambitious projects is a wave pool at the Russian resort city of Sochi, the city that will host the 2014 Winter Olympics. The 35,000-square-foot pool will be part of the Sheksna Resort, and will offer a 10-second ride.

Another buyer is the owner of an amusement park in Nashua, N.H., 40 miles north of Boston. The customer is putting the wave machine indoors, in a space with a retractable roof. The attraction will complement other rides at the park, including technology that lets people “skydive” in place.

Depending on the technology, American Wave Machine projects can cost between $500,000 and $15 million. And the company can not only supply a park with equipment. McFarland says it can also help formulate business plans.

Third-party contractors build the wave machines to company specifications. The wave machines come in two styles.

The SurfStream is more compact and reminiscent of a treadmill. It can produce a small wave for beginners or a barreling wave for advanced surfers. Detachable modules get the wave to break to the left or to the right, depending on the rider’s preference. The waves continue to churn for as long as the machine is running.

By contrast, the PerfectSwell machine sprawls out over a large area. It sends waves across the surface of a pool at regular intervals, and those waves peter out at water’s edge.

Unlike other products, the wave machines accommodate regular, off-the-rack surfboards with fins. “It’s beyond a simulator,” McFarland said.

Several market forces affect the people who buy water play equipment.

Financing a water park has been a challenge during the economic downturn, said Aleatha Ezra, director of park member development for the World Waterpark Association in Overland Park, Kansas.

Making Waves Overseas

International development, however, has been strong, she said. Asia has “a burgeoning market,” Ezra said, while Europe and the Middle East are also strong.

American Wave Machines can claim one other innovation: It built a wave machine that was part of a float in the 2012 Tournament of Roses parade in Pasadena.

Natural Balance Pet Foods Inc. of Pacoima sponsored the float, and the wave machine wasn’t really the focal point. A surfing bulldog stole the show.

It was the longest and heaviest float ever entered in the Rose Parade, McFarland said.

Going forward, McFarland is enthusiastic about his wave machines’ potential.

“There’s room for at least one of these in every major city,” he said.

A Former TRW Engineer and California’s First Family of Surfing Team Up to Bring Surfing on Shore

by Kevin Cody
Easy Reader News- The Drop Zone, May 2012


Download PDF of The Drop Zone

by Lilian Cox
The Coast News

SOLANA BEACH — Surfer Bruce McFarland has achieved much success as the founder of American Wave Machines where he has developed wave technology for applications in both research and recreation. Moreover, he’s followed in the family business.

Uncle "Sonny" Charles Wright, 1925

Great uncle Charlie Wright promoted surfing in San Diego in the beginning of the last century after learning the sport from friend Duke Kahanamoku, the “Father of Modern Surfing.” Wright, a San Diego lifeguard, was able to replicate the design of Kahanamoku’s surfboard for popular use.

Today, McFarland recalls recognizing the genius of Uncle Sonny as a 10-year-old.

“Uncle Sonny made an early form of a diving hookah (air supply device used in free diving) when he lived in the Philippines,” he said. “He had a pool that was green, and said my brother and I could swim in it if we used his hooka to dive and scrub the pool with a brush. We had never seen a diving apparatus. We were stoked.”

Growing up in Manhattan Beach, McFarland began devising his own gear including skim boards, skate decks, surfboards and bikes using parts. After high school, he earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from UC Santa Barbara as well as a master’s specializing in fluid dynamics and experimental methods. He did post-graduate work in structural dynamics at UCLA.

His first job after graduation was as a staff engineer with TRW Space and Technology in Redondo Beach. A job offer with Structural Dynamics Research Corp. in Del Mar brought McFarland and his family to Solana Beach in 1989.

Bruce McFarland at SurfStream Peru

For a while the family lived in a VW van while he kept his options open, hoping to find a career fit that would lead to developing surf machines. That happened in 1991 when he met an inventor of sheet flow technology who needed help developing a ride. Recognizing a ground floor opportunity, McFarland co-founded Wave Loch Tool & Die in La Jolla.

Subsequently, McFarland was inspired to start his own company after watching a video of beachgoers at the Waimea Rivermouth riding surfboards on a standing wave.

“I knew that it could be recreated in a pumped water system,” he said. “A guy living in Hawaii already had a related patent. I licensed it.”

In 1999, McFarland founded American Wave Machines, or AWM, in Solana Beach.

“The rest has been a nonstop pursuit of making waves,” he said. “My wife, Marie, the kids and the extended family have supported it all the way.”

AWM began doing research and development of standing wave apparatuses and was issued five patents. In the fall of 2004, on ABC’s “Don Polec’s World,” McFarland introduced SurfStream, the first hydrofoil standing wave machine. Manufacturing and sales began in 2006. Products started shipping in 2008.

Today, McFarland touts that SurfStream delivers the ultimate surfing experience — “the long ride.”

In January, pro surfers Cheyne Magnusson and Anthony Walsh, representing Body Glove, provided a demonstration at the Ola Movistar Surf Arena in Peru.

Body Glove pro surfer, Cheyne Magnusson, on SurfStream in Peru

Body Glove CEO Robbie Meistrell is on the AWM board of directors.

“Body Glove looked far and wide for the most authentic wave technology,” Meistrell said. “Bruce and his company share the same vision as Body Glove, to bring the passion we share for surfing to the world.”

AWM offers a second product line: PerfectSwell and WindSwell wave generators, which are used at facilities such as the University of Texas for ocean energy research related to harnessing wave energy.

The technology is more popularly known for recreation applications at waterparks, surfparks, hotel resorts and sponsored wave-riding exhibitions.

AWM is also riding the wave of the fast-growing market niche for surfing dogs. At this year’s Tournament of Roses Parade, stoked canines, hanging 20, demonstrated SurfStream on a float sponsored by Dick Van Patten’s Natural Balance Pet Foods.

Central Florida Power Couple Todd and Lauren Holland Visit Sweden to Test Out the Latest in Standing Wave Technology

by Allison Arteaga
Eastern Surf Magazine

Most couples looking for a winter getaway this time of year are probably headed straight for the tropics — someplace warm and sandy where they can defrost and sip embarrassing fruity cocktails complete with mini umbrellas. But the Cocoa Beach, FL-based Hollands are in no way a typical couple. Todd, a former WCT warhorse, and Lauren, a former East Coast women’s surfing champion, opted instead to jet off to Sweden this February to compete in the Hangloose Surfstream Open.

The contest was put on by the Swedish Surfing Association and made use of the latest in artificial wave technology developed by American Wave Machines, a California-based company that has been working closely with the Hollands to develop high-performance standing waves that work with real surfboards. The event was held during a snowstorm, but all the competitors stayed toasty indoors, and Lauren took first in the Women’s division while Todd put on a show in Men’s. Both left stoked by the experience and took some time to chat with EasternSurf.com about their Scandinavian adventures and the future of artificial waves.

ESM: So how did you two end up partnering with American Wave Machines?

Lauren Holland: Three years ago Ron Jon Surf Shop flew me out to the grand opening of Beaches Turks & Caicos to go showcase a brand new surf machine. It’s a little tiny knee-high wave, and Todd and I had seen YouTube footage of it, so we sat down and thought, “Wouldn’t that be cool to actually bring a surfboard and surf it in the machine?” So we designed a little tiny surfboard to fit in my luggage, and when I went out there, I got to meet the developer of the machine. He was real impressed with the board and saw that I actually brought a surfing style to the machine, which is what his real goal is: to create a standing wave that allows a real surfboard with fins.

American Wave Machines now uses me to showcase grand openings of their venues, and this time they invited Todd to go along with me to an event in Sweden, because he’s been designing new surfboards for the machine but actually had never had a chance to ride it. So this time he got to come and bring his professional surf style to the machine, and he brought his surfboards for the other riders to check out.

ESM: Was it cool getting to visit Sweden?

LH: Yeah, this was Todd’s first time coming to Sweden, and it was the first time either one of us had seen snow in probably 20-some years, so that was pretty cool. And we climbed up a mountain. Well, I’m not sure if it really was a mountain, but everything over there looked like mountains to us, because we’re from Florida. But we hiked up there and found their old town that was built in 1752. It overlooked the town center, so we really got to see how water surrounds these people’s culture.

Todd Holland: It was about a three-mile hike in the snow [laughs].

LH: It was a blast though. And to see a surf-stoked culture in such an out-of-place environment was kind of surreal. But those people honestly do love surfing and everything about it. They’re all about promoting surfing and introducing it to the youth. They’re developing a following out there, and the wave machine brought people from all over to showcase what they’ve learned to do over the year and half that they’ve it.

TH: One thing that was really cool about the machine was that, obviously, we were in Sweden, so when we landed, all we saw was snow everywhere. That doesn’t really make you want to go jump in the ocean. If you were going to go surfing out there you might only last an hour. They actually did try to get us to go surfing the last morning we were there, but it got cancelled because the ice came in on the ocean. But with the machine, you’re in an enclosed space, so even though there was two feet of snow outside, people in those extreme weather conditions can surf year-round and really work on their skills.

ESM: Could you tell us a bit more about the machine? How does it compare to a real wave?

TH: Well, you’re not going 100 yards down the beach when you’re riding the wave, but the way it’s designed, you can still work on your positioning as if it was a real ocean wave. You can move out onto the shoulder or surf it more in the pocket. It’s big enough that you’re able to move four or five feet to change your positioning on the wave to be in a more critical or less critical spot. There are so many maneuvers you can do on it that are so similar to surfing that I think it could be a really good training tool for actual ocean surfing.

LH: You can practice a trick over and over again in a controlled environment, really learn how to stick each maneuver, and then translate it into ocean waves. Todd looked like a kid in a candy store when they brought out the high-performance barrel for us. It’s a right, open-faced little tiny barrel, and he had so much fun he didn’t want to get off. It’s addicting, and I’d personally like to see one here in Florida for the flat spells.

TH: The other good thing about the machine is that the transition from the last surf we had there to when we got back and went surfing in the ocean on our regular boards was nothing. There’s not that much you have to change about your surfing other than reading the ocean to catch your wave, so that’s a real positive part of it.

ESM: How about the special boards you two have been designing for this machine?

TH: As more machines get built and this gets more popular, I’m hoping to learn more about it. After going over there and surfing on it, I’ve learned how far I can go with the width of the board, and I can possibly change some fin placements to make it an even better training tool for regular ocean waves.

LH: Overall though, there’s not too much that’s different about the boards. It’s basically a surfboard that’s a foot shorter because you take away the paddling power that’s necessary in normal surfboards. The fin placements are very similar, and the board design is very similar. If the machine was bigger, then you could take your actual surfboard that you use in the ocean and put it in the machine. There’s one in Montreal that’s opening in August, and that’s what the goal is, for us to be able to fly up there with our everyday surfboards and put them in the machine.

ESM: So are you guys sold? Do you think these machines have the potential to be the next big thing?

LH: Well, the company that sent us out there, American Wave Machines, not only produces standing waves, but they also make wave pools, and they’re always trying to create technology that caters to the surfer. They use our input to help develop better, higher-performance waves. This is the closest you can get to actually being in the ocean. I’ve tried other machines that were very similar, but without fins it’s really not surfing.

So with these fins, and with us showcasing what we can do on the wave, hopefully we’ll attract more people. It could spark interest in surfing in places where there has never been interest before because there isn’t an ocean. That’s something I’d like to do, and it’s really cool that they have Todd on board trying to develop real surfboards for it. There are good things to come with a bit more financing, and there is a lot of interest, so hopefully we’ll see more of them built.

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by Diane Mastrull
Philadelphia Inquirer

For those who awaken thinking the New Year’s holiday holds no parade of relevance but the Mummers’ march, an engineer for a Burlington County small business has this to share:

A dog will surf on what is being billed as the world’s longest and heaviest float – Guinness Book certification pending – in the 123d Tournament of Roses Parade airing from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday on NBC10.

But forget the dog. Sea Box Inc. in Cinnaminson wants you to pay attention to the technology behind the wave.

It’s the creation of American Wave Machines Inc., of Solana Beach, Calif., whose founder, Bruce McFarland, is the mind behind some of the most creative and difficult projects produced at Sea Box, a manufacturer of customized shipping containers used from circuses to war zones.

And Sea Box has played a role in helping McFarland, a surfing enthusiast, develop and improve on his wave technology since 1999.

Back then, Sea Box owner Jim Brennan helped McFarland design a large mobile wave machine. The solution to moving it around the world was to use shipping containers as the basic structure – about six or eight of them, each 40 feet long, connected together to hold the water.

At the time, Sea Box was much smaller, both in sales and physical space. So the construction work went to a company in South Carolina. Brennan was put in charge of ideas and sales.

Thus was McFarland introduced to the world of shipping containers and Brennan introduced to a design engineer he decided he could not do without: “I thought he was brilliant.”

So Brennan offered the California-based McFarland a job at Sea Box, allowing him to work from home and e-mail his shipping-container designs to New Jersey.

By 2005, McFarland needed Sea Box’s help again. He had designed a surf machine that worked with deeper water and made a more natural wave, and needed a full-scale prototype to market it to hotels, resorts, and water parks.

Again he went to Brennan, who, McFarland said, was “excited to build anything that you could make out of a shipping container.”

What emerged is what American Wave Machines markets as the Surfstream. It came to life on land Brennan first had graded and then covered with sand behind Sea Box’s former factory in Cinnaminson.

There, Sea Box employees cut old shipping containers into shapes McFarland designed, “bent a bunch of metal,” added three huge pumps, and set four or five container footprints into a vinyl above-ground pool measuring 35 by 65 feet in width and length and 4 feet deep.

“We turned it on; it worked great,” McFarland recalled during a recent visit with his wife and business partner, Marie, to Sea Box to attend the company Christmas party.

Since then, American Wave Machines has sold permanent versions around the world. But as a privately held company, it will not disclose its sales figures.

McFarland has continued to design projects for Sea Box as he has worked on expanding his wave-machine business, confident demand will expand.

“Surfing is a well-known thing around the world, but few people are near enough an ocean to do it,” McFarland said.

In California, they are. Which brings us to the Rose Parade and a pet-food company that appears to be hell-bent on making a bigger splash (pun intended) each year it enters a float.

This year, the Natural Balance Pet Foods Inc. float is 116 feet long and more than 100,000 pounds, what with the nearly 7,000 gallons of water it will be toting, said Ron Davis, the Pacoima-based company’s dog trainer.

Wearing a wet suit, he will be in the water during the parade, to make sure the star, Tillman the bulldog, and friends “are stable on their boards right before the wave comes.”

McFarland’s wave, that is. Something that Davis, the ultimate surfer dude, marveled over last week not because of its size – no more than two feet high, on the theory that parade-watchers would not be amused to see a dog wipe out – but because of the technical sophistication behind it.

“What they’ve built in the rear of the float . . . it’s like a giant science project,” Davis said. “To me, it’s amazing because I push a button and I get a wave.”

At Sea Box, there is disappointment the company lost out on actually constructing the float’s wave machine. Rather than building it in New Jersey and shipping it across the country, “they decided they could do it cheaper with a float-maker locally,” Brennan said.

No hard feelings, though. He said he expects that Sea Box will get plenty of future business making steel component parts for McFarland’s wave machines. (The main structures are made of concrete and fiberglass, not Sea Box’s specialty.)

Granted there will be fur rather than feathers in the Rose Parade, but Davis assures Philadelphia’s Mummers faithful they will not be disappointed if they tune in to see surfing dogs.

“The end-all goal,” he said, “is to make people crack up, have a great day, and make people be wowed.”

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By Ethan Stewart
ESPN Action Sports

The wave pool arms race has just escalated. One hundred kilometers south of Peru’s capitol city of Lima, in a massive outdoor mall facility, the California-based American Wave Machines recently unveiled a wave park of epic proportions.

Being touted as the “biggest standing wave in the world”, the Ola Movistar surf arena, with its multiple wave options and ability to pump out 4-to-5-foot barreling rights and lefts, had its official opening earlier this winter — a fact that was largely overlooked by the surf universe. Two other fake wave Shangri-Las, Kelly Slater’s as-yet-unseen Wave Company (KSWC) and Spain’s Wavegarden, also captivated the masses this winter with their high-profile promises of ocean-free stoke factories.

However, with ringing endorsements starting to come in from folks like former World Champion Sofia Mulanovich and the Peruvian National Surf Team (who use the park as a training facility), the only artificial surf spot in South America is starting to steal the spotlight.”The park has been packed and people are really taking to it,” explained Bruce McFarland, founder of American Wave Machines. “From total beginners to some of Peru’s best surfers, we can generate a wave for everybody that truly replicates the shape of what we ride in the ocean.”

Interestingly enough, Slater’s purported designs and the Wavegarden’s long synthetic peelers are “traveling waves.” That is to say, the wave actually peels off down the line, you paddle in to it, and, like you would in real surf, you physically travel forward as you ride the wave. But the new Peruvian playground works more like the old flow-rider parks that came into popularity in the late 1990s — the wave stands still and constantly pitches out over itself using the same water while also providing a small shoulder section in front of you for endless cutbacks and roundhouses. In short, the wave never ends.

According to McFarland, however, unlike the flow-riders of old, which required special, decidedly un-surflike boards to ride, his companies patented “Surfstream” technology, which allows for an experience more in sync with actual, real world wave-sliding. A deeper pool bottom with contours and a pneumatic air pump that blasts out circular bursts into the water creates a wedging wave shape virtually identical to what you would find in nature, allowing riders to shred the man-made gnar on actual thrusters. “The key in all of this, no matter what technology you are using, is the profile of the wave you create and ours truly is the shape of a wave in the ocean,” says McFarland.

Despite the recent uptick in wave park buzz, the concept of man-made waves in a place that has no ocean is nothing new. Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon, Rick Kane’s Arizona surf antics in the movie “North Shore,” and the 1985 ASP contest in Allentown, Penn. come immediately to mind.

Even more intriguing, as McFarland admitted, is that “In a lot of ways, that original technology was the most accurate [to simulating real world surfing].” So why then, if everyone loves surfing so much and the best breaks the world over are jammed up with the wave hunting masses on any given day, hasn’t the wave park revolution caught on? (Even Japan’s Seagaia Ocean Dome, widely considered the best wave park of all time and located right in the middle of a major league surf culture, ultimately shut its doors.)

The reason, it seems, is the money. Surf parks aren’t cheap and finding the right business model to sustain them has proven to be a heck of a lot harder than you would think. How do you rent them out, what do you charge, what type of amenities to surround them with and what type of wave (i.e. small, slow crumblers for beginners, fast, pitching pits for experts, standing waves or traveling waves) is most marketable?

For McFarland and his American Wave Machines, who already have six different parks open around the world since incorporating in 2000 and “several more” in the works, the answer seems to be a little bit of everything. Not only does their Surfstream technology offer four different types of waves in pools of all different sizes, but AWM also has a patent on a traveling-wave technology — akin to the Wavegarden — but has yet to find a deep-pocketed enough investor to help them build it.

“The reality is, machine surfing is here to stay,” summed up McFarland. “The technology is out there to make a truly incredible artificial surfing experience but you have to find the right buyer that is willing to go to the next level.” Right now, for good or bad, at a huge outdoor shopping mall in Peru complete with 10 discotheques and two million annual visitors, what exactly that next level might look like is becoming a bit more clear.

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February 4, 2011 – Blooloop.com

“If everybody had an ocean, Across the U.S.A., Then everybody’d be surfin’, Like californ-I-A….”

Well what can you do if you don’t have an ocean and endless summers? You can easily get some “baggies” and “Huarachi sandals” too, and it’s a matter of personal choice whether you feel you can get away with the “bushy, bushy blonde hairdo”, but once you’ve got the look then catching that wave can be a bit more challenging, especially on a rainy day in Manchester. Blooloop looks at the new breed of surf simulators.

Surfing has its own culture and enthusiast tribe. The image of beautiful people in beautiful places living the dream inspires us to shake off our real lives, if only for a day, and grab a board. We can’t all be Kelly Slater, 10 time ASP world champion recently voted one of GQ’s 25 ‘Coolest Athletes of All Time’ (see image right), but over the last decade there has been a surge in interest in extreme sports including surfing, as we spend our leisure time engaging in experiences that help reinforce our values and self image.

Surfing is now big business: the Surf Industry Manufacturers’ Association (SIMA) estimates in its most recent survey that the surfing industry in the US was worth $7.2bn in 2008. The baby boomer surf dudes have taken their sport to the boardroom , creating strong brands like Animal, Quiksilver and Rip Curl that have staked their place on the high street offering a promise of a cooler you with every purchase.

China

With strong brands and potential for huge revenues, it was only a matter of time before China got into surfing. In 2009 the first international Surfing China summit was held in Hangzhou where the Silver Dragon tidal bore on the Qiantang River was first ridden 800 centuries ago. Surfing China was founded in 2008 to promote the sport of surfing and the related lifestyle industry in China. Mr. Chen Xiaoping, Deputy Mayor of Hangzhou Municipal Government said “We are expecting surfing on the Qiantang River will bring the City of Hangzhou a wonderful, exciting and fashionable experience. At the same time, it also can improve city exposure and boost city tourism and develop other related industries.”

With its new generation of affluent thrill seekers and untapped potential along its Pacific coast, China could become the final frontier, with Hainan being tipped for a surge in tourism development. However, China’s waves will never rival those in Hawaii or California and concerns about water pollution, a vast inland population and a cultural antipathy to beach sports may mean that the Chinese will ultimately prefer to catch their waves away from the sea.

Innovation in simulation

Little wonder that the scarcity of perfect waves and our busy lives have led to a demand for an accessible, reliable surf experience away from the ocean. Surfers with their “go for it” attitude and passion for the sport are becoming creative in seeking that holy grail. Nothing can beat the real thing but when you can’t catch a perfect wave then surf simulators can fill the void and are now seen in theme parks, cruise ships, shopping malls as well as at dedicated surf parks and extreme leisure zones.

Blooloop talks to Bruce McFarland about making waves

One surfer who is intent to bring their sport out of the sea and to the masses is Bruce McFarland. His approach to offering a boarding experience is very different and Blooloop talks tohim about how to make waves.

SurfStream®

Bruce McFarland (American Wave Machines, Inc. [AWM]) created SurfStream®, the world’s first true standing wave machine that delivers an authentic surf experience enabling surfers and body boarders of all abilities riding adjustable waves on real boards. SurfStream® has been installed all over the world at surf parks, water parks, hotel/resorts and retail locations. In August 2010, AWM signed a strategic partnership agreement with Polin Waterparks and Pool Systems.

How did you get started?

I spent my teens surfing and making surfboards then went to engineering school. Those things came together in my first venture developing sheet flow surf simulators. The standing waves were a revelation first shown to me in context of a potential waterpark product by inventor Ken Hill. The business was started with backyard R&D and shed based office. Sales began after showing photo and video of our prototype at our first booth at IAAPA 2004. Our first customer, Sandals/Beaches Resorts immediately recognized that SurfStream® was the best fit for their customers.

There are other surf simulators around. What makes yours unique?

Well, it’s more a surf machine than a surf simulator. One can actually surf on it. That means using a surfboard and not a simulated surfboard. Also, surf in the ocean has many types and sizes of waves; SurfStream® typically works in four different wave modes covering beginning to advanced surfing and body boarding. No simulator does that. Only SurfStream® delivers both the authentic quality experience and the provenance of being developed by avid ocean surfers.

What does Surf Stream offer an operator?

The operator has the flexibility to operate SurfStream® in three primary business modes:

• A waterpark attraction with open lines and constant throughput as they do at Pirates Cove, Beaches TCI Resort and Spa. There are two entry points and up to 5 to 10 riders allowed simultaneously. Groups can also ride together.
• Pay per use mode. For example a 20 minute session can be sold to 10 riders at a time. Sessions can be scheduled ahead by an appointment desk, or over the web with our web interface software.
• Events and exhibitions. These can be scheduled during the day, or planned ahead as an entry cover charge party with music and libations.

How have you made the ride extreme enough for professionals but safe enough for younger kids?

Our patented modular wave system and fully variable stream conditions guarantee that the waves can be optimized not only for skill levels, but also adjusted for lower power usage when minimum operating costs are desired. We’ve found that for small kids, slowing the wave down helps them learn and speeding the wave up helps the bigger riders. This is a simple keypad button push which activates our preset programs.

Isn’t surfing all about getting in the sea?

It is if you have the opportunity and we hope that people who surf for the first time on a SurfStream® will have an opportunity to transfer their skills to surfing in the ocean. But beyond that SurfStream® is a sports facility and attraction. It is fun and rewarding for anyone. It’s also a training opportunity. The possibility of such a long ride is rarely found in the ocean. Balance and repetition can enhance personal fitness and health.

Is the current level of interest in surfing a passing fad or something longer term?

Some suggest that surfing has documented participation for over 2,000 years starting with reed surf boats ridden by Peruvians. Regardless, the sport has grown to nearing a saturation point of primary surf spots in developed countries and has spread outwards to every coastline, many large lakes, and in rivers from Amazon to Zambezi. It is so much fun that I can’t imagine that any fad in interest wouldn’t be replaced by people already waiting in the wings for shorter lines.

Are you seeing any key trends in the “surf simulator” industry?

We are seeing the growth of the SurfStream® based business in whatever opportunities entrepreneurs can exploit. We are seeing the SurfStream® added as upgrades to parks in separate pay schemes and planned into new parks all over the world. The other trend we are seeing is desire for larger SurfStream®s with more waves and new shapes.

China is being tipped as a growth market for everything including extreme sports. Are you seeing any demand from Asia?

We did our first installation in Taiwan. They had 20,000 visitors on opening day and the lines were 100’s long. They also have a surf culture and some of their own videos made on SurfStream® can be seen on youtube. After that AWM was invited to the first China Surfing Summit. The government indicated that it valued the sport and sought support to bring it to China. While there is some coastline with surf only machine and wave pool based surfing would reach the interior.

What’s your target market?

Our target operators are waterparks, hotels and resorts, and surf/sport parks. The small footprint allows indoor placement, so there is no geographical limitation. We are currently as far North as Sundsvall Sweden where the sun barely rises in the winter and as far South as Peru which is our first in the Southern Hemisphere.

Where have you installed SurfStream® and what has the response been like?

I mentioned a range of types of installations above. The response is uniformly enthusiastic. We literally have be told “thanks for inventing this” and “Before this resort had SurfStream® my son would read almost a book a day while on vacation, now he is riding the wave all day”.

How important is it to get your product endorsed by “faces” in the surfing community?

If its primary function were for competitive surf training or surf contests, then this would be critical. Right now endorsements are coming naturally when the facilities are built near surf populations and the industry gets a chance to use it and participate in the business. Our business model is “open” meaning that there is opportunity for a wide range of participation from sponsorship to gear supply to training camps. I had one ex champion say before his first ride on the biggest barrel we have made so far “I’m a little bit scared”. I didn’t seek that, but it’s an endorsement of the power you feel in the air when you a so close to a real barrelling wave.

AWM recently announced their partnership with Polin. What are the benefits of the partnership?

AWM and Polin share the same core business values: technology, innovation, quality and integrity. Beyond that, the benefits are a worldwide network providing SurfStream® sales into waterparks, installation support, and super high quality components for SurfStream®.

Sohret Pakis, Marketing Manager, Polin Waterparks & Pool Systems says:

As of August 2010, Polin became a global distributor of SurfStream® outside US. Since AWM offers a unique surf machine system that can offer many waves with one machine, and since Polin has a very widespread network all around the World with over 50 distributors globally, this agreement has been a perfect fit.

Polin introduced AWM personally to its dealers in January 2011 during Polin’s Dealer Convention in Antalya, Turkey. Bruce McFarland made a presentation that was greeted with excitement by our dealers worldwide. Plus, AWM and Polin Co. also have a manufacturing agreement, with Polin producing the fiberglass parts of the product. This arrangement will allow AWM and Polin to deliver SurfStream® unique patented technology with competitive pricing and fast turnaround, also improving service and expanding product offerings for AWM and Polin customers. Moreover, this alliance will enable both companies to share best practices in lean manufacturing, quality systems, and product development. Furthermore, the agreement will position AWM and Polin to capture market share in new regions and industries looking to integrate high-quality, advanced technology, unique artificial wave/surf products into their facilities.

AWM and Polin are working together to assist customers with the development of dedicated surf parks and surf zones within waterparks and resorts. The combination of AWM’s unique technology with Polin’s unmatched business and technological expertise in composites manufacturing and strong partner network across the globe will bring added value to our partners and customers.

Finally, a word of caution…..

So whether we make it to the ocean or not, maybe we should finally note these words of wisdom from Kelly Slater, regarded by many as the greatest surfer of all time, about the perils of catching not just a wave but also the surfing bug: “It’s like the mafia. Once you’re in – you’re in. There’s no getting out.”

Header and image of Kelly Slater kind courtesy of surfline.com
Quiksilver revenue data source: Quiksilver annual reports

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February 2011 – FUNWORLD Magazine

To anyone in the amusement industry, the term “wave machine” is usually associated with surf generators used at waterparks. But to the scientific community, it means something quite different, as American Wave Machines (AWM) of Solana Beach, California, is well aware.

AWM was recently contacted by the Ocean Energy Research Lab at the University of Texas at Brownsville about securing one of its wave generators for use in a large wave tank system. The university lab is involved with research into harnessing energy from offshore ocean wave swells. The lab wanted a wave generator that produces controllable wave heights and frequencies in a wave tank 15 meters (49 feet) long, 1 meter (3.3 feet) wide, and 1 meter deep.

“We get a lot of attention from scientific people because of studies going on around the world in capturing waves for energy generation,” says Bruce McFarland, founder of American Wave Machines, “and when they are looking for wave machines, our name immediately comes up.”

The Ocean Energy Research Lab is investigating technology for a maintenance- and-corrosion-free, hurricane resistant wave energy converter. The lab will use the AWM wave generator to simulate ocean conditions for testing small-scale prototype wave energy converters by simulating deep-water and transitional-water waves of varying heights and endurance. Ocean Energy needed a wave generator that could continuously provide reliable, repeatable characteristics.

“The availability of this wave generator will significantly facilitate our research along this line,” says Dr. Yingchen Yang, director of the Ocean Energy Research Lab. “It allows us to systematically examine and improve the design parameters of the wave energy converter in a timely and cost-effective manner. With this help, we are more confident we can reach our ultimate goal—to make ocean waves become a competitive renewable energy source.”

Though this scientific application is a departure from AWM’s amusement industry business, McFarland doesn’t see it as being really unusual. “I guess it’s because we still think our core business is making waves in general and not letting ourselves be limited,” he says. “In fact, we have another job we’re doing for the Navy in making waves over sediments to see how it affects the sediments. It’s an even bigger job and includes our wave generator and a special tank.”

Though the underlying technology is the same for the wave generators used in amusements and those used for scientific research, McFarland explains that his company’s focus is different. “From our core business of making waves, if it’s for amusements, it has all of the safety components wrapped into it, and if it’s for science, it’s about the specifics of the waves sizes themselves.”

As for AWM’s waterpark business, the company continues to promote its two signature products—SurfStream, a standing wave machine, and PerfectSwell, a wave generator for wave pools and custom surf pools.

McFarland says AWM has recently experienced a shift toward more outdoor waterpark business: “We still have more indoor business, but it’s not as lopsided as it was—we’re seeing more and more outdoors.”

By Susan Campriello
Hudson-Catskill Newspapers

EAST DURHAM — The Riptide Cove Wave Pool, which debuted this summer has been a success, according to park General Manager Ed Kerrigan.

Kerrigan said “99.9 percent” of the feedback has been positive.

“People really love it,” he said, adding that the pool and nice weather have drawn more people to the park than in years past. “It has been a great addition to the park.”

Children enjoy the Zoom Flume's new wave pool, which debuted this season. Photo by Claude Haton

The 16,000-square-foot pool is the first commercial pool built by American Wave Machines, Inc. with PerfectSwell, a pneumatic system that generates waves that behave like wind-generated ocean swells, according to a company press release.

The company advertises that the system alternatively reduces rip currents and energy buildup while creating breaking waves that have the same profile advance as ocean waves.

AWM developed the PerfectSwell in cooperation with Flometrics Inc., according to the release.

Kerrigan said air pushed through a series of valves into different chambers creates an endless combination of different types of waves.

The pool’s maximum depth is four feet and the tallest waves reach a height of two feet, he said.

Kerrigan said the shallow depth helps keep visitors safe: older technology for wave pools require pool depths of at least eight feet.

“Because it is only four feet deep it is much safer than most pools,” he said.

The pool’s floor is also lined with vinyl to decrease skin scrapes common with concrete pool floors. This, too, has won rave reviews from visitors, he said.

And the 21 lifeguards on duty at the pool — five guards are on duty at all times — received additional training beyond that required for other attractions at the park through the American Red Cross and taught by Cairo Ambulance Chief Reay Mahler, he said.

The addition created 30 new jobs, Kerrigan said, adding that the park hires all local employees.

Kerrigan said several local contractors, including Kurt and Mert Excavation, Borweigan Excavation and Holdridge Electricians as well as GNH Lumber, were used for the project. The full project, which will include the currently unfinished bathrooms and locker rooms, will cost “well over $1 million,” according to Kerrigan. Work began in September of 2008, he said.

Kerrigan said he plans to add some slides and increase food services in the wave pool area. The park’s entranceway will be reconstructed to accommodate the number of people who come to the park.

The park closes this year on September 6.

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On 27th May, 2009, Surfing China – the 1st international summit was held in Hangzhou. More than one hundred people from China and abroad got together to discuss how to develop the surfing industry in China. It was presented by the Water Sports Administration Centre and Administration of Sports and organized by Wabsono /GSM.

Mr. Chen Xiaoping, Deputy Mayor of Hangzhou Municipal Government addressed the summit “We are expecting surfing on the Qiantang River will bring the City of Hangzhou a wonderful, exciting and fashionable experience. At the same time, it also can improve city exposure and boost city tourism and develop other related industries.” Mr. Zhao Rongfu, the director of Hangzhou Sports Bureau, said,” The ancient Chinese rode the river in canoes 8000 years ago. Since the Tang Dynasty, it has been one of the sports events in the tidal bore watching festival.”

Download PDF of Summit program