Wave pools have their own vocabulary, and booking pages assume you know it. These are the terms you will meet most often, in plain English, with a park where you can see each one.
Types of pool
Wave pool. Any pool that makes waves for surfing. Used loosely for everything from a large lagoon to a small standing wave.
Surf park. A venue built around a wave pool, usually with lessons, a surf shop, food and sometimes lodging. The Wave near Bristol is a typical example.
Surf lagoon. A large pool where waves travel across the water and break along a shaped floor, so you paddle into a wave and ride it down the line as you would in the ocean. DSRT Surf and URBNSURF are lagoons.
Standing wave. A wave that stays in one place while water is pumped through it, so you ride in place rather than travelling along the wave. There is no paddling out. Citywave and UNIT build standing waves; Wellenwerk in Berlin runs one indoors.
Deep-water standing wave. A standing wave with deep water below it, which lets you ride a real surfboard with fins rather than a thin board on a shallow sheet of water. Citywave and UNIT waves are deep-water.
Sheet wave. A thin, fast layer of water pumped over a shaped surface, usually ridden on a bodyboard or flowboard. FlowRider is the best-known example; it is a different sport from surfing a lagoon.
How the waves are made
Wavegarden Cove. The most common lagoon system, from the Spanish company Wavegarden. A central pier holds a row of wave-making modules that send waves peeling along both sides of the pool at once. See every Cove.
Module. One wave-generating unit on a Wavegarden Cove. The module count describes the size of the pool: Beyond the Club in São Paulo has 62, DSRT Surf 52.
Pneumatic. A system that uses air pressure to push water out in waves. Endless Surf, PerfectSwell and SurfLoch are pneumatic.
Caisson or chamber. One air chamber in a pneumatic system. Endless Surf names its lagoons by chamber count, so an ES36 has 36 and an ES48 has 48.
Hydrofoil. The underwater blade that the Kelly Slater Wave Co system pulls along the length of its pool to push up a single long wave, as at Surf Ranch.
Plunger. The central device in a Surf Lakes pool, which drops into the middle of a circular lake and sends waves outward in every direction.
Waves per hour. How many waves a lagoon can make in an hour across the whole pool. Wavegarden quotes up to 1,000 for a Cove; what matters for a surfer is how many they personally catch, usually 10 to 15 an hour.
Parts of a lagoon
Bay. The shallow, whitewater zone near the shore where beginners learn. Called the Bays at URBNSURF and the Bay at DSRT and SRF Park TLV.
Reef. The deeper part of a lagoon where unbroken waves break for intermediate and advanced surfers.
Point. URBNSURF's name for its main wave area, from the idea of a point break where a wave peels along a coastline.
Peak. The spot where a wave first breaks.
Wave shapes and settings
Whitewater. A wave that has already broken, the foam you learn to stand up on.
Green wave or open face. A wave that has not broken yet, with a smooth face to ride along. The step from whitewater to green waves is the step from beginner to intermediate.
Split peak or A-frame. A wave that breaks in the middle and peels both left and right, so two surfers can ride it in opposite directions. Palm Springs Surf Club sells A-Frame sessions.
Single peak. One long wave down the full length of the pool, the longest ride a lagoon offers.
Left and right. The direction a wave peels as seen by the surfer riding it. Most lagoons run both.
Barrel or tube. A hollow wave that curls over the surfer, the goal of advanced sessions.
Slab. A short, heavy, very hollow wave that breaks over shallow water, for expert surfers only.
Set. A group of waves arriving together, followed by a lull.
Sessions and booking
Session. A booked block of surfing, usually 45 to 60 minutes, on one wave setting and level.
Level. How a park grades its sessions, typically beginner, intermediate and advanced under park-specific names; see our guide to wave pool levels.
Lesson. A coached session, often with land instruction first and a board and wetsuit included.
Private hire or buyout. Booking a whole pool, or one side of it, for a group, from a few thousand dollars an hour to a full day at Surf Ranch.
Party wave. A wave shared by several surfers at once, as in Surf Abu Dhabi's Surf Social sessions.
Softboard or soft-top. A foam-topped board, safer for beginners and the standard rental at most parks.
Hold bar. A rail across a standing wave that first-timers hold while they find their balance.
Good to Know
Parks use these words in their own ways, so the booking page is the final word on what a session includes. For how the systems differ in practice, see every wave pool technology compared.
