Sports

Basque engineering company Instant Sport, creator of the Wave Garden project, will open the first public artificial wave park facility in the spring of 2012, Surfer Today reported on Monday.

The artificial wave generator was tested out during last year in a lake situated in Aizarnazabal, a small town in Gipuzkoa. The professional surfers who came along to try it out included the Basque Country's Aritz Aranburu and Indar Unanue, as well as Californian Bobby Martinez and South Africa's Jordy Smith.

"The waves are real and of good quality," said Aritz Aranburu, "it cannot replace the sea but it is a good alternative. It's fascinating."

According to the engineers behind the project, Wave Garden is currently capable of producing one metre-high waves.

Josema Odriozola, co-founder and Technical Director of Wavegarden, says he and his team developed their simulated wave system as a way of providing surfing opportunities for people living a long way from the coast:

"We are all surfers; the sea and beach were our favorite sporting environments. We wanted to replicate that in areas without a coastline," he says.