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(36 votes) Published: May 14, 2000 12:00 a.m. Viewed 995 times
We humanoids just love to out-do Mother Nature.
First we invented swimming pools, because they were easier to get to and cleaner than the nearest swim holes (besides, that girl you had a crush on in
high-school looked better sunning herself in your back yard than at the local beach with the whole football team circling nearby, no?). Then we invented the water slide, because let’s face it, not everyone can enjoy a fast-moving, slick-rock mountain river in their back yard. And, unless you count your friend Tubby’s 8th-grade cannonball attempt, we humans still felt that there was something missing from our aquatic leisure pursuits, so Viola! ... homo-sapien ingenuity gave us the wave pool.
And now, boys and girls, just when you thought we couldn’t possibly give ole’Mother Nature anymore gracious yet undeniably cocky Italian hand gestures ...
it’s time to get your boogie and body boards ready. Why? Because coming soon to a water park near you is the ultimate in adrenaline aided aqua acrobatics appeal: the sport of Flowboarding!
"It’s a body boarder’s dream." says Jay Reale, ESPN Commentator and Professional Bodyboarder. "What we have here is the closest thing to a perfect ocean wave that you can possibly get."
"It’s incredible." raves Mike Stewart, 8-time World Bodyboarding Champion.
"It emulates a perfect six foot wave that you can ride anytime."
Cadu Villela, Director of the International Surfing Association sees the sport of Flowboarding as the best thing to hit the surfing scene in recent years. "There’s no doubt, it is the future. All surfers will try it. It will
break the inland barrier, allowing wave riding to go anywhere."
So what the hell is flowboarding anyway? Basically, it is the sport of bodyboarding done on an artificially created, perfectly formed, continuous faux wave: No drop-ins, no pollution, no paddle out, no sharks. Just good ’ole fashion wave bashin’! The continuous wave allows boarders to link move after move, creating the opportunity to stream numerous maneuvers and opening up whole new worlds of creative expression. ESPN has recognized the popular
appeal and (let’s not kid ourselves) huge economic potential of flowboarding, and so recently made plans to feature it in the 1998 Summer X Games.
The sport of flowboarding got its start at the offices of WAVE LOCH, Inc., a Reno Nevada based company. Tom Lochtefeld, a life-long surfer and CEO of WAVELOCH, Inc. invented the Flow Rider, a masterful mass of machinery,
pumps and pipes responsible for creating the non-stop wave action. The motivation for inventing such a contraption is apparent: ride waves anytime,anywhere! The Flow Rider’s ability to realistically mimic ocean waves in a stationary setting earned the machine appearances in "Escape from L.A." (Kurt Russell and Peter Fonda shoot some gnarly curls in Paramount Pictures blockbuster movie) and in a music video for Midnight Oil. You can check out the action live in either of these two videos!
If you’re thinking ’bout adding one of these babies to your back-yard leisure line-up, better start counting those pennies. "The cost for a Flow Rider varies greatly depending on the model of Flow Rider selected," says Ray
George, Director of Sales and Marketing for WAVE LOCH, Inc.. "In addition,you have to take into account the number of Flygt submersible pumps used (one to four), the size limitations of each individual location, if we can tie-in
with any existing facilities like water, chlorination and filtration sources, and if we can tie-in with existing power sources. Thus the price of a Flow Rider can range from US $300,000 to over $1 million." That’s why rather than
finding one in your neighbors backyard, you’re more apt to pay that overpriced admission and discover the joys of flowboarding at select water parks world-wide.
Flow Riders are now in place at 15 installations -- including San Antonio, TX, Atlanta, GA, Denver, CO, Redlands and Vista, CA, Kissimmee, FL (near DisneyWorld -- go figure), Norway, Guam, Mexico, Tokyo, China, Nishiwaki
City and Sapporo City, Japan, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates -- and WAVELOCH predicts that number will increase at an accelerated rate. Certainly, they’d like nothing more than to outfit every waterpark in the US and abroad with one of these thrilling thing-a-ma-jigs so it wouldn’t hurt to call your local water park and put them in touch with WAVE LOCH, Inc., especially if you want to give flowboarding a shot and darn it, there just ain’t a Flow Rider nearby.
If you can’t get to one of the existing installations, and just can’t convince Wally’s Water World down at the corner of Center and Main to invest in a Flow Rider, make sure to watch AdventureTime’s web site for information on and action shots of the World Champions Boardrider Invitational taking place June 14th and 15th at Telemark, Sommarland in Bo, Norway. World Champion snowboarders, skateboarders, surfers and skinboarders will be competing for World Flowboarding Champion honors. You won’t want to miss our coverage -- it’s destined to be one wild, wet time.
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