Melbourne, Australia; famous for Trams, fine cuisine, people wearing black and inner city surfing. Wait? What? Inner city surfing! That’s right, a proposal has been made to build a 130m long wave pool in the middle of the city, floating off Docklands in Melbourne.

The developers behind the proposal, Damian Rogers Architecture, Arup and Squint/Opera, envision kids on trams with surfboards tucked under their arms. They see men in business attire dusting off the old mini-mal for an after work surf, and a beach lined with city dwellers getting their tan on. It’s an inner city oasis similar to Brisbane’s South Bank, except with waves!

Proven to be a popular concept by several cities around the world, inner city beaches drive tourism, provide a change from the usual Parks and City walks for locals, and of course give otherwise landlocked people a place to swim. But the addition of surf is a new one!

Pushing out waves up to 5ft with promised barrels for the experienced surfers, the inner city surfing proposal has Surfing VIC excited. They say international surfing competitions would flock to the venue, similar to the Wadi Wave Pool over in Abu Dhabi. The pool will feature a sandy bottom, be heated year-round and have a large deck area for viewing the surfers. It won’t be free, but if wave pools around the world are anything to go by, a surfing session is likely to cost under $30, with the beach goers and onlookers getting in for free.

The cost for such a project is expected to be in excess of 8 million, with some estimates closer to 20, but if it drives tourism to Melbourne, then 20 million is chump change really.

Give this project a few years to mature, and we might just see inner city surfing competitions in the Melbourne CBD…

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