THE RIPPLE EFFECT
Words: Tim Baker.
Photos by Jarrason Bitton, Trent Mitchell and Andrew Shield
A weekend at Yeppoon reveals the wonder of Surf Lakes’ “5 Waves” technology on an old beef cattle farm, and the rewards and perils of chasing an improbable dream.
It all began with the proverbial pebble dropped in a pond.
Eight years ago, Aaron Trevis was skipping rocks with his kids when he threw a larger rock and watched the ripples radiate out from it and tiny waves peel along the bank of the pond, like countless others have before him.
But for Aaron, a lifelong surfer and mining engineer, it was a lightbulb moment. How big a pebble and how large a body of water would he need to produce waves that could be surfed? That thought proved unshakeable and launched what has been a near-decade long journey, involving countless hours of toil and millions of dollars to arrive where we are today.
Where we are is a 15-hectare property leased from a beef cattle farm on the outskirts of the Central Queensland coastal town of Yeppoon, watching what looks like a huge, upside down steel mushroom repeatedly plunging into the sheet glass waters of a large man-made lake.
These ripples radiate out from their unlikely epicentre on to a series of carefully sculpted surfing “reefs” placed strategically around the lake to produce not just surfable waves, but jaw-dropping, perfect, peeling, spitting barrels that represent the most authentic man-made surfing experience to date.
Welcome to Surf Lakes’ research and development facility, and the first full-scale prototype of the patented “5 Waves” technology they hope to export around the world. The numbers alone are eye-popping. The Lake contains 80 million litres of water. It costs $150,000 just to fill it. The plunger weighs around 1400 tonnes, about 100 times heavier than the anchor of a cruise ship. At full capacity, it can produce 2000 waves per hour, or deliver 10 waves each to 200 surfers an hour, making it by far the most productive wave pool in the world. So far, Surf Lakes has raised $22 million in investment and has commercial agreements to build eight more wave pools, in the US, UK and Australia.
But in doing so, its creators are fully testing the limits of the far-fetched contraption they have built out here in a large paddock with a kind of missionary zeal that has seen them overcome all kinds of setbacks. Which is just as well because the setbacks just seem to keep coming. If the Kelly Slater Surf Ranch and the Wave Garden have successfully domesticated the wave for our surfing pleasure, Surf Lakes is striving to deliver a wild wave in captivity and in the process they are discovering the awesome power of the forces they are working with.
Dean Morrison finds the sweet spot on the Island right.
While the results have been stunning, they’ve been beset by technical and mechanical issues, as they wrestle with the mercurial nature of the wave-making machine they’ve created. At one point, the concrete bottom of the lake cracked and the force of the swells generated by the plunger lifted whole sections and tossed them up on the shore of the lake like oversized seashells. A mesh lining has had to be added to the lake-bed to reinforce it. Running repairs and trouble-shooting have become a constant and expensive part of the R&D process. If Kelly’s Surf Ranch represents the slick, safe and conservative American approach to wave pools, Surf Lakes stands as the wild, untamed, Australian version – held together with pure passion and super glue.
We arrive late on a Thursday afternoon after a 10-hour drive from the Gold Coast, slowed by roadworks and several roadhouse stops for dubious sustenance. We pass the turn offs to more customary surf destinations like the Sunshine Coast beaches, Noosa Heads, and eventually Agnes Waters, commonly regarded as the most northerly surf spot on the east coast, before the splendour of the Great Barrier Reef blocks swell reaching the mainland. Surf trips rarely involve travelling this far north. When we finally turn off the highway onto a potholed dirt road and bounce through the gum trees, past old weatherboard farm houses and arrive at a farm gate, for the first time, this starts to feel like a surf trip. Once through the gate, a long gravel drive-way leads us to our first glimpse of Surf Lakes.
It’s a brilliant, warm, Queensland Winter afternoon, though out here it grows suddenly chilly as soon as the sun gets low in the sky. A nearly barren landscape features only low shrubs and small trees and a few grazing cows, punctuated by occasional A-shaped mountains rising abruptly from the vast flatness. A row of caravans lines a slight rise along one side of the pool like some kind of gypsy community. There’s a food truck, a pre-fab administrative centre, a couple of freight containers, banks of generators and large tanks of compressed air, half a dozen of those pop-up market shelters, a few potted palm trees and various forms of seating arranged around the perimeter. The Lake itself is around the size of a large football field.
We’re here for one of Surf Lakes’ semi-regular testing periods, when they invite investors, media, pro surfers and camera crews along to test the waves for a couple of days and capture the imagery that they hope will help them sell their grand plans to the world. The Surf Lakes crew are in an ebullient mood – like boys with particularly grand toys – determined to dial up their mighty plunger to see how far they can push it, after a lukewarm reception to the smallish waves they have thus far produced. The local community appear to have embraced the Surf Lakes project with gusto. The Yeppoon boardriders club (yes, Yeppoon has a boardriders club, for those rare occasions they get ocean surf) help out volunteering to staff the food truck or help herd surfers to and from their respective sessions.
We arrive just in time to watch a couple of sets detonate on the Surf Lakes’ four separate breaks as a brilliant sunset reflects shades of red, orange and purple off the sheet glass surface of the lake. It is an astounding sight. The machinations of the plunger are mesmerising – the low rumbling of compressed air traveling through large steel pipes signals that the machine is awakening, like some mythical beast. The plunger rises from the water as great clouds of steam erupt from a large air compressor mounted on a concrete tower next to it, and then the plunger descends, creating the first of three waves in a set. Surfers split what’s known as Occy’s Peak, racing left and right with a series of deft snaps, a couple of tight barrels, and even the odd end-section aerial.
It’s a hypnotic spectacle and my mind struggles to process what it is witnessing. This is not just a wave pool, but an entire wave eco-system, with surfing experiences tailored for every surfing level, all delivered with the click of a computer mouse in a pre-fab hut on the edge of the lake.
“How many people get to have such a nut-house dream and get to raise money for it and it works so well?” marvels Aaron Trevis, who now bares the grand title of Surf Lakes CEO and founder. Surf Lakes has received more than 500 inquiries about licensing their technology from around the world and have entered into four commercial agreements in the US, two in the UK, one in Brazil and one on Australia’s Gold Coast. “We’re averaging one new inquiry a day. We’ve had one from Egypt. We still think the best project’s out there and we haven’t even heard of it,” says Aaron, with his trademark optimism.
It’s a trait he’s needed in truckloads, since he first built a 1/25 scale, hand-powered prototype in a backyard swimming pool in 2014 with the proceeds of a modest crowd-funding campaign. Standing in knee-deep water, he manually drove his self-styled plunger up and down and satisfied himself that he could indeed generate quality, though miniature waves. (“What is this, a wave pool for ants?” someone surely wise-cracked.) The resulting imagery attracted the interest of one of Surf Lakes founding directors, Dr Chris Hawley, an engineer who helped Aaron develop a 1/10 scale prototype on a rural property, with the financial backing of current chairman and entrepreneur Charles Foster.
Every step of the way they had to overcome significant technical, engineering and financial hurdles. The land they’d built the 1/10 scale prototype on was up for a sale and a meeting with a potential backer, Reuben Buchanan, from Axstra Capital, took place only days before the property was sold and their prototype was bulldozed into the ground. But Reuben saw enough in the 25 cm waves it generated to jump aboard as a founding director, and Surf Lakes Holdings Pty Ltd was formed. “He came down, we turned it on and we pumped out waves for three hours. He put 200 grand of his own money in, and that was the Wednesday. Saturday, they bulldozed the thing,” says Aaron.
This helped fund the construction of a larger 1/5 scale prototype on a property in Broadford in country Victoria in 2016, which was successful in resolving some of the engineering challenges of the system, capturing more images and attracting more investment.
The next goal was a full-size working prototype for further research and development but finding the right land proved a tough job, where they could source ample water, a supportive council and adequate space. They were eventually offered a lease on this patch of dirt on a beef cattle farm by its owner Tony Champion, a classic North Queensland cow cockie, and former coal-miner who runs a trucking restoration business on the side in nearby Rockhampton. Tony’s come along to this weekend’s testing to see how far the facility has come since they first broke dirt here in 2017. “The proposal that got put to me was, if it works it’s got a future. If it doesn’t work, you’ve got a nice lake for nothing,” he quips.
A new, $50 million pipeline between Rockhampton and Yeppoon built in 2010 to waterproof the town after drought ensured they had abundant water. “They were struggling to find land, it worked out really well here,” says Tony. “It’s made the water situation very secure. The timing was right.” He’s hopeful the Surf Lakes development will bring significant benefits to the region. “It’s a great opportunity to see a world class act. It sends people scrambling for Google Maps – where’s Yeppoon?”
Tony still recalls the first time he saw waves produced at Surf Lakes three years ago. “We waited for three hours, and we made two or three waves for the night about a quarter of this size it is now, and we were pretty gobsmacked,” he says. “I’m so happy for the people who’ve put their money into it. There’s probably no one who wants this to work more than me, apart from Aaron.”
Aaron recalls those first waves with similar enthusiasm and says a kind of “spiritual confirmation,” has kept him believing in the project throughout its tumultuous journey. “It was one of those God moments. There are a number of key things in your life that tell you, this is the next assignment,” he says. “The first waves were one foot, and we were laughing and crying. If I didn’t have that faith and belief that this was a done deal, that was the only reason I kept going. It’s been a promise to me that it’s going to happen.”
This was also around the time Surf Lakes appointed their first ambassador, 1999 world champion and everyone’s favourite power goofyfooter Mark Occhilupo. Occy turned the first sod on the site and has been a regular visitor ever since, more recently with his two teenage sons, Jay and Jonah. This weekend, they take up residence in a modern, roomy caravan on site and set about thoroughly dominating Occy’s Peak for the two days of testing.
“They approached me … I had lunch with them at Rainbow Bay surf club, and I was just amazed with what they were trying to do,” says Occy. “Not long after, the next time I went down to Melbourne and saw the prototype, the 1/10 scale, I was already really interested. When I saw that I said, ‘Can you make that at three foot?’ And he said, ‘We sure can,’ and then I was in. The concept was so different, and me being a bit of a different kind of guy it appealed to me.”
Since then, Occy’s helped design the peak that carries his name and jumps on a flight to Rockhampton at every opportunity to surf it with his boys. “30 years on tour, I was always excited to go somewhere but I could always sleep on the plane. Now, when I get on the flight up here I’m so excited I can’t fall asleep,” he reckons.
Occy worked closely with marine engineer Simon Moreteson, who also designed the Palm Beach Reef on the Gold Coast, to come up with his own signature peak. “He said, ‘What’s your favourite wave,’ and I said, ‘D-bah, a peak’. And D-bah is what they’ve built,” says Occy proudly. “I still can’t believe I’ve got my own wave. I was always so jealous that Kelly had his own wave … There’s nothing like seeing your son getting barrelled on your own wave.”
Simon Moreteson had just returned from a trip to Occy’s Left, an exclusive wave in Sumba, Indonesia, that fronts the luxurious Nihiwatu Resort, made famous in the Jack McCoy movie Green Iguana, when Aaron got in touch with him. “When Aaron was working on his first prototype he contacted the University of Queensland for help and they sent him on to me,” says Simon. “He said, ‘We’ve got this pro surfer named Mark Occhilupo involved’. I’d just surfed Occy’s Left and I was going to help design Occy’s Peak. I thought, you can’t make this shit up.”
Simon’s effusive about the technology that Aaron’s created. “I spend a lot of time reviewing other people’s engineering work, so I knew that he knew what he was talking about,” says Simon. “It’s the only pool that creates a real gravity wave with a crest and a trough. It has a crispness, even when its smaller it’s still rippable. The others are just a moving crest.” He designed Occy’s Peak to deliver a 3.5 second barrel and tube rides of up to five seconds have been recorded. He has modelled on computer every conceivable way the break can be ridden and it turns out there are 68,000 different ways to ride it.
We rise early the next morning hoping to catch the first waves of the new day before the crowds descend. There are numerous competing agendas at work here – investors being granted the chance to ride a few waves to reward their faith, pro surfers and photographers collecting footage and photos, Surfing Life magazine are running their annual board test here, starved as they are of opportunities to travel to generate such features in the time of COVID. The hopes of a humble recreational punter like myself scoring a few waves appears slim, even more so when we arrive at the front gate at first light to a queue of cars already waiting for the gate to open.
If patience and resilience have been the defining traits of the Surf Lakes’ founders, it’s also required of its investors and test pilots today. The investors and other first timers have to start on the beginner’s gentle beach break, so our ability levels can be assessed, while the pros and the photographers are trained on Occy’s Peak and the Island, an abrupt slabby right best suited to bodyboarders. There is a great deal of froth in the air. They are creating three wave sets so we surf six at a time and get one left and one right in our allotted time before going back to the end of the queue, like surfing very short heats. If you fall or miss your wave that’s just too bad.
The beach break offers a gentle roll-in and the opportunity for a couple of turns and ends abruptly in a shallow close-out that deals out a few beatings. The first time sitting in the water as the plunger starts up is a surreal experience. As the large mushroom rises out of the water and then descends only a few metres from us, a wall of water arises and you have to turn and paddle with little reaction time. They are running the plunger at around 4.2 to 4.3 metre oscillation, the total range it moves from top to bottom, creating what most would call three to four foot, or head-high to slightly overhead waves. Its maximum safe range is considered 5.5 metres, possibly 6 metres, so it could theoretically produce waves 25% to 30% bigger than the ones we are seeing today.
Lead mechanical engineer Kit Sidwell is just one of many swept up in the Surf-Lakes founder’s enthusiasm and has jumped aboard the project with a stunning level of commitment. He spends all day in his small pre-fab hut on the edge of the lake, driving this curious contraption, poring over two computer screens to monitor every aspect of the operation, hanging on the feedback of surfers, and ducking out for a quick surf himself whenever the opportunity presents.
“I think it is the right way to make waves,” Kit says, bluntly. “Surf Ranch, Wave Garden, those waves, while I’d give my left nut to go surf them, they keep feeding the wave with energy the whole time. We create a swell and we set it free. The moment we release it, it is a swell travelling through water, therefore it is a real legitimate wave hitting reef. We haven’t had to force it, it’s just the way an ocean wave works, it’s like it wants to work. Every time we’ve done something, we’ve modelled it, mapped it and exceeded our expectations. Every step of the way it’s given us green lights.”
Like Aaron, he is a true believer in the nobility of their mission and that their ultimate success is almost pre-destined. “You live and breathe it, even though it is Aaron’s baby,” he says. “I’m really surprised how much commitment it takes to keep pushing. It’s massive pressure. The machine is running fantastically but it still is a prototype, and we still don’t have it to its full capacity. I’m fiddling and figuring out a multi-million-dollar machine. It means a lot to me that people like it and are stoked. I’m so invested in this. It’s been the last five years of my life and it’s surfing. I live for surfing.”
It’s a similar story of sacrifice and commitment from the entire Surf Lakes’ team. Media director Wayne Dart, a former Tracks editor, has been living in a caravan out here for a month with only his British Bulldog, named Pumpkin, for company. “I actually have to tell my team to back off and stop working so hard,” says Aaron. “Kit is unbelievable, Reuben is one of the toughest characters I’ve ever met, and Wayne is incredibly resilient.” Even so, the eight years of R&D, raising funds, trial and error, setbacks and break throughs, has clearly taken a toll. “I’ve only resigned once,” Aaron jokes. “I developed a bit of a caffeine habit that wasn’t good for me. It’s been eight years of the most intense pressure.”
But all that seems forgotten when a set of waves erupts around the lake. It’s hard to fathom that all this aquatic action is set in motion by one simple click of a mouse. Kit studies his computer screen intently, until all lights turn from red to green, then he manoeuvres the cursor over a little grey “start” button and clicks it. I’m not sure what I was expecting but it seems too slight a manoeuvre to have such dramatic consequences. Three loud beeps ring out around the lake. The enormous plunger rises from the water, and surfers begin making position as a ring of swell emanates out from the centre of the lake.
Once the surfing starts it’s hard to know where to look. The generally intermediate level punters on the beach break negotiate its gentle shoulders with varying levels of skill. The pro’s attack Occy’s Peak. A couple of bodyboarders get thoroughly pitted on the Island, and air kids attack the close-out section of the Wedge or try and get pitted on its slabby end sections. The Island is predominantly a right, but Occy and another young surfer/shaper, Coby Perkovich, have begun hurling themselves into the shorter left, backdooring the peak and getting spat out in a shower of spray. It says something about the Surf Lakes design that it is possible to discover a secret spot in a wave pool.
It’s all over in a matter of moments, a three-wave set breaking across four peaks, before the pool begins to settle and the wait begins for the next set. They are producing sets of waves every six minutes, but there are frequent delays while they tinker with the machinery or attend to glitches in the system. When a crack in the lake’s cement floor begins turning the water from an aqua blue to a muddy brown we are encouraged to help lug rocks from an on-site quarry into a trailer to help plug the cracks. It seems a remarkably low-tech fix for this hi-tech facility. At the end of the day, as the sun dips behind a mountain and the chilly night air descends, the decision is made to run a few sets under lights. A bank of flood lights is augmented by a row of cars training their headlights on Occy’s Peak. Those iridescent, sheet glass waves ridden in the purple glow of dusk are among the most mesmerising surf imagery I’ve witnessed firsthand.
By the end of the second day, it appears we may have pushed the Surf Lakes prototype to its limits. There’s a lengthy delay in the afternoon to attend to some mechanical issue, and when we eventually resume, after only a couple of sets, Occy sounds the alarm that something’s not quite right. The large concrete tower that the air compressor sits on top of looks dangerously off kilter. The force of the swells has knocked it off its footings and we are asked to clear the water immediately. There’ll be no more surfing today. Aaron addresses the assembly of investors, pro surfers and media in his typically upbeat manner, assures us this is a minor setback, that the concrete tower won’t sit in the pool in their commercial models, but will be housed on land, and this is an opportunity to refine the design.
It’s an inauspicious ending to two days of testing but I’ve still seen enough to convince me they are on to something out here on this old cattle farm, and that something may well transform our surfing world in ways we can’t yet predict. A large computer-generated image inside the admin hut depicts an integrated resort set around this lake, with multi-storey apartments, restaurants, cafes, retail and beach cabanas, as a model for the kind of development they envisage here. It’s not hard to picture grandstand surfing competitions, heats being run simultaneously on multiple peaks, with a Wimbledon-style “centre court” reserved for the primo match-ups. The potential to repeat and perfect manoeuvres is limitless. Whether you regard all that as good or bad, as progress or a blow to traditional surf culture, is up for debate.
What’s beyond doubt is, for better or worse, the age of the wave pool is upon us and Surf Lakes delivers a surfing experience like no other, with more variety, more space and more frequency of waves than any of its competitors. When they are able to tame this wild technology surfing may never be the same again.
Thanks to Surf Lakes for having us. You can visit the Surf Lakes website to find out more.
