A man-made surf park by surfing champion Kelly Slater is in the early planning stages in northwest Palm Beach County.
Kelly Slater Wave Co. has developed a technology that produces a long, open-barrel wave in a man-made pool so surfers can catch the “perfect wave” every time. The first Kelly Slater Surf Ranch is in Lemoore, a small town in California’s San Joaquin Valley. In an interview with Bloomberg in 2016, Slater described its wave as comparable in speed and power to what the pros ride, as opposed to existing wave machines.
Now it appears that technology could make its way to Slater's home state of Florida.
On March 23, the Palm Beach County Commission will hold a zoning hearing to consider a request to amend the county’s “planned industrial park” regulation to allow large scale commercial recreation facilities. While this would apply countywide, the specific purpose of the amendment would be to allow the Surf Ranch Florida with a man-made surfing lake to be developed on an 80-acre parcel within the Palm Beach Park of Commerce.