Every FlowRider Surf Park

3 installations across 3 countries, 3 open and bookable. Counts and prices come straight from our park records, so this list changes as the parks do.

How FlowRider compares to every other wave system →What a FlowRider build costs →

WAVE HEIGHT

Roughly 4 to 5ft face on the FlowSurf deep-water version

WAVES PER HOUR

Continuous - no cycling wave count

TYPICAL BUILD COST

Whitewater West has not published a standard system price. Standing-wave systems from other vendors typically run $1.5 to $2.5 million, and FlowRider's classic (non-deep-water) models are generally the cheapest tier of that range given decades of installations.

HOW IT WORKS

FlowRider pumps a thin, fast-moving sheet of water up an inclined surface, and a surfer rides that sheet in place. FlowSurf, the deep-water variant running at Waco, uses a deeper pool than the classic FlowRider to reduce turbulence and let a standard shortboard with fins grip and turn more like it would on a real wave, rather than the bodyboard-style mats used on older FlowRider models.

BACKGROUND

FlowRider is a product line of Whitewater West (formerly Wave Loch), a standing-wave system dating to the 1980s and one of the most widely installed surf simulators anywhere, with more than 190 installations worldwide, mostly inside water parks, resorts, and cruise ships. FlowSurf, a newer deep-water version of the technology, launched its first US installation as the Shredmill at Waco Surf in Texas, engineered in part around how mangrove root structures naturally smooth water flow, to cut down the turbulence that affects most stationary-wave systems.