Surf Park Summit ran September 1 to 3 in Virginia Beach, and its organiser Surf Park Central put attendance at around 400, the largest the industry has gathered. Developers, investors, operators and technology companies spent three days on what Surf Park Central called a major theme of the event: the industry's shift from simply building surf parks to making them work better.
The same emphasis showed up earlier in the year. Bisnow, a commercial real estate publisher, held a Surf Park Real Estate Conference in Irvine, California on July 23, and its published program lists four panels on asset class, financing, delivery, and operations. Both programs treated the wave as the anchor of a larger real estate and hospitality play.
Day one ran inside a working surf park
For the second year running, the Summit opened at Atlantic Park, the Wavegarden Cove on the Virginia Beach oceanfront. Attendees toured the lagoon along with the hotel, concert venue, apartment building and 110,000 square feet of retail and dining built around it, with the project's own leaders walking through what has changed since opening and what the development has meant for the surrounding community.
Surf Park Central described the visit as a first-hand look at the realities of surf park mixed-use real estate operations.
The day also included a developer workshop from architect Chris Ryan on "third places": spaces outside home and work or school that encourage community, connection and repeat visits. Attendees also saw the Chlorine Clash, an invitational contest that Surf Park Central says brings some of the best surfers in the world to Atlantic Park.
Operators discussed helmets
Surf park operators from Australia, Europe, the Middle East, South America, and the United States held a closed-door meeting on day one. Surf Park Central reported that they worked on initiatives to improve visitor safety across surf parks, including exploring making helmets freely available to anyone who wants to use them, and mandatory in some instances.
Jess Ponting, Surf Park Central's CEO, wrote afterwards that the operators committee "kept grinding on safety best practices."
Utilization data, a Summit first
Ponting opened day two with 2026 consumer trends survey results and, in a first for the Summit, aggregated utilization data from real parks, developed in partnership with Flowstate.
It covers how full parks actually are, how that moves across the seasons, and how it varies by day of the week and time of day across different types of customer. Ponting said the investor and developer community "have been crying out for this information." Surf Park Central has shared the presentation deck with members of its Insiders community, and Ponting said it plans to provide regular data updates through the year to Insiders members.
The session ended with the launch of the Surf Conservation Fund, which Surf Park Central describes as a way for surf park users to contribute to local and global surf ecosystem conservation.
Cole Cannon on building in a young market
The day two keynote came from Cole Cannon, founder of Revel Surf in Mesa, Arizona, who is now developing Cannon Beach in McKinney, Texas. He spoke about the difficulty of building a surf destination in a market where the industry is still relatively new, and gave an update on the McKinney project.
That project had news of its own later in the month. Bisnow reported on 16 September that the McKinney Economic Development Corporation had approved a budget amendment allowing $20.9 million in land-sale proceeds to go toward it, funding the city first approved the previous year under an infrastructure grant agreement.
Four projects pitched live
Surf Park Sharks, the Summit's pitch contest, was won by Hidden Lake Surf Resort in Buckeye, Arizona. The plan puts a 12.5-acre Endless Surf lagoon on 120 acres built around an existing 60-acre river-fed lake, with a resort hotel, beach club, marina, villas, casitas and glamping. Managing partner Drew Boyles, a former mayor of El Segundo, also took Developer of the Year. The team's Sharks entry says the land is owned and the approvals are in place.
The other three finalists, as described in the entries their teams supplied, were:
- Ida Surf Park in Boise, Idaho, from Brandon Watson. A 40-acre Wavegarden Cove destination with an RV park as a lower-cost alternative to a hotel, targeting 2029.
- PA National Surfing Club at Montage Mountain near Scranton, Pennsylvania, from Daniel P. McDonough. A Cove added to an existing four-season resort mountain, pitched on the 30 million people within a short drive, with design through 2026 and a phased 2028 opening.
- Cleora near Salida, Colorado, from developer True North. A 3D-printed housing community on the Arkansas River whose master plan has added a full-scale standing wave on a block off Main Street.
The semifinalist field shows the range too: Molaya Bay in Panama, pairing a 2.5-acre Endless Surf lagoon with a 111-key Marriott Tribute Portfolio hotel; Smoky Mountain Surf Co, an indoor Citywave planned for a 250-acre development in Knoxville; Boston Surf Supply, an indoor retrofit into an existing urban building; and The Knot in Gainesville, a standing wave inside an action sports district near the University of Florida.
Sharks is open to projects at the capital-raising stage, so these are early by design. Of the four finalists, only Hidden Lake has a page in our directory so far. We add a park once there is land, an approval, a filing, or a date someone is publicly accountable for.
Day three and the competition question
The final day opened with the World Surf League's Graham Stapelberg and Dave Prodan in conversation with Stab co-founder Sam McIntosh on how surf parks, professional competition and surf media fit together. The Wavepool Surf Tour released a provisional 2026-2027 schedule the same week, spanning Europe, Asia Pacific, the Americas, China and the Middle East, which makes that relationship one of the more interesting open questions in the sport.
The rest of day three ran on capital, development, operations, technology and real estate.
The 2026 awards
- Leadership: Shaun Hutchinson
- Sustainability: DSRT Surf
- Community Impact: Lost Shore Surf Resort
- Best Surf Park Event: URBNSURF Sydney with Stab
- Developer of the Year: Drew Boyles, Hidden Lake
Good to Know
Surf Park Central counted 16 openings in the past 24 months. As of 24 October 2026, our own directory has 100 parks, 52 of them open and 47 somewhere in the pipeline, with 11 open in the United States and 21 more coming.
If you are planning a trip, the helmet discussion is the part most likely to reach you: operators explored making helmets freely available to anyone who wants one, and mandatory in some instances.
The pipeline lives in the opening tracker and the residential side in real estate.
