Any engineer who knows pneumatics could work on it. SurfLoch has a good proof of concept, and people are happy about the product. In that scenario, other big surf park developers do have that scalability. Also, their depth of knowledge in deepwater standing wave space is also big. The intermediate and beginner experience is limited which comes down to the bathymetry in the design.
Surf lakes is the plunger technology that creates a ton of energy very quickly and dissipates out across 5 different surf breaks catering to a wide variety of surfers. I commend them though for the commitment to their test facility.
They can create a big, round beautiful lake and surround it with a nice beach. The deepest part of the pool is eight-to-ten meters deep to accommodate the technology. All the others technologies require pools about three meters at their deepest. Going down nine meters brings up a host of issues, from hitting water tables to boring through rock and a lot of other unknowns.
And then the size; They have to cover ten acres of water plus the rest of the facility and amenities which is a big ask for any development project in terms of overall land costs. So they had to shut it down and reconstruct it and then open it up again is what I know. The government will back them for surfing in the Olympics. They are in a solid position as they have that financial backing. So fine-tuning the surfing experience is a huge leap for them.
In addition, the noise and energy inherent with plow systems can take away from the user experience. Those spikes of energy to get the thing rolling also add to the cost. The bottom of the pool is similar to that of a squishy yoga mat. The entire article and video above are well worth a look, as they give some insight into the engineering that it took to create man-made perfection. For access to exclusive gear videos, celebrity interviews, and more, subscribe on YouTube!
In the next section, we'll look at the simple but ingenious mechanism that controls this system. A wave pool, just like any swimming pool, is constantly losing water. Some of it evaporates into the air, some of it is filtered out and a good bit is carried away in swimmers' bathing suits and on their bodies.
To keep the water level up in Thunder Bay, Emerald Pointe has to constantly pump in new water. The park is connected to the city water line, but most of the water comes from several underground wells. The wells pump water into the wave-pool canal as well as into other feeder pools in the park.
Installing the water wells required a hefty initial investment, but it meant much lower monthly water bills in the long run. In the last section, we saw that the wave generator's valves are opened by hydraulic pistons. As with most any hydraulic machine , these pistons are powered by a basic hydraulic pump.
The pump keeps a steady stream of pressurized oil flowing into the system. Emerald Pointe actually uses vegetable oil , rather than regular machine oil, since there is some risk of the oil leaking into the wave pool. In the wave generator, the oil flow is controlled by a directional control valve. The valve is connected to several hoses, leading to:.
You can see that the piston rod that extends outside the cylinder is actually moved by a piston head inside the cylinder. There is fluid on both sides of this piston head, fed by two different hoses.
If the force is greater on the blue side, the piston will move to the left, and if it is higher on the orange side, the piston will move to the right. To change the direction of force, you stop pumping oil to one side and start pumping it to the other. This sort of piston cylinder is commonly called a hydraulic ram. The directional control valve directs the flow to these rams.
It has a small spool that moves back and forth, blocking some inlet and outlet ports and opening others. When the spool is to the left, the high-pressure oil goes to the left side of the cylinder, pushing the piston outward. When the spool is to the right, it pushes the piston back in. As the high-pressure oil pushes on one side, the low-pressure oil on the other side is forced back into the oil tank.
The spool is moved back and forth by a simple solenoid an electromagnetic switch controlled by an electrical current. The solenoid is controlled by an electrical timer. Every two minutes, the timer activates the solenoid so it pushes the pistons out for a few seconds and then pulls them back in. This opens up all of the release valves, creating a wave. One of the most amazing things about this control system, and the wave generator in general, is how durable it is. All summer long, the Emerald Pointe crew starts the waves at the crack of dawn and doesn't shut the system down until the park closes in the evening.
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