“We understand the optics of this situation are not ideal, but we intend to use this down time to upgrade our advanced settings.”
Earlier today, the world awoke to the shock news that the Palm Springs Surf Club, a facility patronised and feted by the world’s best surfers, had been shuttered indefinitely because of “technical challenges.”
You’ll remember BeachGrit’s Com Turren visited the Palm Springs Surf Club shortly after it opened to the public on New Year’s Day, booking two advanced sessions, at two hundred dollars per hour, and one intermediate session at one-fifty, but was denied the tubes cause of tech probs.
Still, our man enjoyed himself immensely concluding, “150 for 12ish intermediate waves in an hour seems like a fairly even trade given the $80 million dollar investment in this place.”
Following its closure, an email to patrons advised:
“It has been a tough decision to make but based on the current state of some technical issues with our wave machine, we will be cancelling the remainder of sessions scheduled for January; effective tonight, 1/10/24.
“In recent days, we have been experiencing technical challenges. We have been working through them but our goal here at The Palm Springs Surf Club is to consistently deliver epic waves. In order to maintain the quality we have worked so hard to achieve within our wave settings, we need to take the whole system down to make it strong again. As a team that has been dedicated to the stoke, it saddens us to make this call but we can confidently say we will be back again with the product you all have seen and hoped to experience.”
Later, the creator of the pool’s tech, Tom Lochtefeld, wrote to BeachGrit, giving a little more detail into what happened.
Chas and Derek –
I’ll take the hit for the Palm Springs Surf Club (PSSC) let down; although legitimately I can blame a ‘lightning strike’ (there was definitely was an aberrant power condition) and 3rd parties, i.e., the “technical challenges” which affected our advanced setting wave performance and PSSC’s ability to offer a premium surf experience.
Notwithstanding, due to the fault tolerance of our wave generating system, we can still make good intermediate waves; however, our ‘core’ market want premium slabs, barrels, and sections. Since Surf Loch is not satisfied with just ‘good’ and rather than compromise the offer, we have mutually decided with PSSC to cancel all remaining January / February surf sessions and the pool will remain closed until warmer weather.
We understand the optics of this situation are not ideal, but we intend to use this down time to upgrade our advanced settings, improve our unfinished beach run-up, and expand our intermediate and beginner wave riding options.
You guys have treated Surf Loch fairly, and your confidence and support are of utmost importance to us, and we appreciate your understanding during this opening period.
We are excited to bring PSSC back online with an even better wave and overall surf experience.
Lightning!
Delivered by God or a bolt from Team Slater?
