Here's a really good and realistic review from a lad I've surfed with a bit.
http://community.magicseaweed.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=43859
I know others who've been and I'd give it a go when it reopens.
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According to the news it doesn't appear to be terminal. I presume the staff were on contracts which were due to end when their season finished anyway, so it's pretty bad news for them, but presumably no reason why they won't be re-employing the same number when they reopen.
Does have a feeling about it as the Bournmouth wave pit did a few years ago..
That ended in failure and at huge taxpayers cost.
Hope it doesn't turn out that way, I think it has great potential too.
You would have thought they would add salt to the water as it wont evaporate so should be a one time deal and surely most of the lack of float problems are down to the fresh water. I guess maybe some of the equipment has been specified for fresh water only.
You would have thought they would add salt to the water as it wont evaporate so should be a one time deal and surely most of the lack of float problems are down to the fresh water. I guess maybe some of the equipment has been specified for fresh water only.
I would have thought that the salt would corrode through the sledge pulleys and cable mechanism in no time. Pretty pleasant to wipe out and not end up with a mouthful of salt water (for a change) too.
I can see why you would not put salt in the water because of corrosion etc. but if it means that you can't ride your normal board in a normal way its a bit of an home goal.
Or just ride a more appropriate board with a bit more volume?
Don't get me wrong, I think it is an incredible achievement so far, I think they had always planned to close over winter, they just had to bring the closure forward, which is a shame for those booked in but for the project to be great they need to have time to perfect the technology. I am happy to ride a more buoyant board as long as they are available to use. I hope they come back in the spring with lots of the little problems ironed out and can offer the kind of service that will make it great value and brilliant place to visit.
Do people know if they plan to close every winter, just out of interest. I guess the water in a relatively small pond will cool down much more than the sea and probably in that location freeze relatively frequently.
I can see why you would not put salt in the water because of corrosion etc. but if it means that you can't ride your normal board in a normal way its a bit of an home goal.
But it's a different experience from sea surfing anyway?
Not a scientific calculation but they say the lagoon holds 33,000 m3 of water. Sea water contains 25kg of salt per m3, so they'd need 825 tonnes of the stuff to make the water like the sea. Say sea salt costs £60 per tonne (Google figure) that's a whopping £50,000 each time the pool was salted, plus the transport to get it there, so add on another £20,000 for haulage.
How many times has the pool there be drained and refilled already? Roughly three by my count, so if they'd have used salt then that would have been £210,000 down the drain (or down the River Conwy to be more precise) already.
I don't know if they intend to close every winter. From what I understand from talking to one of the guys there was that they were always going to close this winter to finish off the place (as mentioned it looks a bit unfinished in places). I was asking him when high and low seasons are so I would assume that they intend to stay open further into winter in the future as that would be a low season. It would make sense to keep it open all year round. It would have to be very very cold for everything to freeze up and I think the water circulates in the pool anyway. Its a pretty big pool.
