A giant wave machine – by the sea – floats in El Segundo

The coastal town of El Segundo is a potential site for a large, new artificial surf park.

Other California surf parks with machine-powered wave pools are inland, away from natural waves in places like Palm Springs and Lemur in the San Joaquin Valley.

This summer, the owner of one of those parks, the Palm Springs Surf Club, bought 10 acres on the former airport campus in El Segundo. The location is close to a bonanza of sports enterprises that have sprung up in recent years, including the TopGolf entertainment complex and training center and the home of the Los Angeles Chargers football team.

A company associated with billionaire Vinnie Smith’s Tuba Capital paid $54 million for the site, said Colin O’Byrne, president of Inland Pacific Inc., Tuba Capital’s development partner.

Smith, a tech mogul and surfer, and a major investor in the Palm Springs Surf Club, reportedly got involved after testing a prototype wave.

Surfers wait their turn at Palm Springs Surf Club.

(David Fouts/For The Times)

The El Segundo Surf Park, which has yet to be named, will hold about 5 million gallons of water in a 2.2-acre lagoon, O’Byrne said. He hopes to get approval from the municipality to start work on this $175 million project within six months.

El Segundo is already a legit surfing town, known for its traditional surfboard shapers and waves at the El Segundo Beach Jetty.

“El Segundo has been a mecca for surf culture since the 1950s,” said city council member and surfer Drew Boyles. “But honestly, the surface of the surf outside is consistently rough and it’s absolutely crowded. So that wave pool is going to be incredible.”

Boyles compared the potential appeal of Surf Park to TopGolf, which makes a point in advertising by making club swings more fun for beginners while also appealing to experienced golfers.

“TopGolf basically lowered the barriers for people to get into the game of golf,” Boyles said. “Wave pools do the same thing, lowering the barrier to entry for people to get into surfing in a controlled, safe environment that’s not as scary as the ocean, it’s predictable and consistent.”

Boyles, a real estate developer, is working on building his own surf park in Phoenix.

O’Byrne, who learned to surf in Palm Springs, said the atmosphere in the man-made lagoon can be more fun than competing with other surfers in the ocean.

“You have the ability to make your own wave, and everyone is rooting for you to make your own wave as opposed to being yelled at in the lineup as a beginner or intermediate surfer.”

Wave pool at Palm Springs Surf Club.

(David Fouts/For The Times)

In Newport Beach, the city is considering approving the Stone Harbor Surf Park project, which would restore the centerpiece of the Newport Beach Golf Course with nearly five acres of surf lagoons. This will change the driving range and reduce the course to 15 holes.

The centerpiece of a typical surf park is a large pool containing millions of gallons of water and a machine that can generate up to 1,000 waves per hour. Developers typically add restaurants, shops, and other attractions to broaden the park’s appeal.

DSRT Surf, expected to open in the summer of 2026 at the Desert Whale Golf Resort in the Coachella Valley, will feature pickleball courts, a swimming pool, yoga classes, a restaurant and a skate park. Future plans call for a 139-room hotel and 57 luxury villas.

Inland Pacific and Smith are also working on a $275 million 45-acre mixed-use development surrounding the surf park in the ocean, O’Byrne said. It will include shops and restaurants with a hotel adjacent to the 2.5-acre lagoon.

In Las Vegas, the company acquired 66 acres of land on Las Vegas Boulevard south of the airport for a surf-focused development.

Now that engineers have figured out how to create sustainable waves in a controlled environment, there is potential demand for many more surf parks around the world, O’Byrne said.

“It’s been tried since the 1980s,” O’Byrne said. “We’re really at a point where the technology has advanced to be able to do this more economically and allow for more sustainability and longer wavelengths.”

Spectators watch surfers from dry land at the Palm Springs Surf Club.

(David Fouts/For The Times)

Inland Pacific has acquired the El Segundo site, along with millions of square feet of commercial properties along the South Gulf Coast, from California-based landlord Continental Corp., real estate data provider CoStar said.

Continental acquired the 30-acre corporate campus from Raytheon in 2021 and began plans to redevelop it into a 600,000-square-foot mixed-use complex with office, retail and media production space.

Los Angeles and Orange counties have the largest concentration of surfers in the world at more than 2 million, according to estimates by Surf Lakes SoCal, which is seeking investors to finance the development of more wave pools.