Surf Snowdonia to Open 1 August 2015

Surf Snowdonia, the world’s first ever publicly accessible Wavegarden surfing lagoon, will open its doors to the public on Saturday, 1 August 2015.

The one-of-a-kind inland surf facility is located in the village of Dolgarrog, in the Conwy Valley, North Wales.

The opening follows an ambitious 13-month construction schedule which saw the first spade go in to the ground in June 2014. Construction will be complete in the next few weeks, with a testing period to follow in July ahead of the public launch.

The surf facility will use innovative technology to deliver the longest man-made surfable waves on the planet. The barrelling waves will be 2m, 1.2m and 70cm high, and will peel for up to 150 metres. The waves will be generated - at the push of a button - at a rate of one every minute, and up to 52 surfers will be able to use the 300m lagoon simultaneously.

Andy Ainscough, operations director of Conwy Adventure Leisure, the company which is building Surf Snowdonia, said, “This is a huge day for all of us who have worked so hard on the construction scheme over the last thirteen months. We’re absolutely delighted that we’ve managed to stay on schedule for our summer launch ... This is a world-first engineering project which has required the close collaboration of multi agencies and contractors. It’s testament to the skill and dedication of all our partners and consultants that we’ve managed to deliver such a successful project.”

Surf Snowdonia has been built on the site of a former aluminium factory which went into liquidation in 2007. It was acquired by Ainscough Strategic Land in 2012, with a view to develop it for leisure use. The vision to develop it as the world’s first Wavegarden surf facility started to take shape in October 2012, when the company Conwy Adventure Leisure Limited was formed.

Since then, the site has undergone a major transformation. Over 100 years’ of heavy industrial waste has been removed, and 400 tonnes of steel, cast iron and copper have been recycled. Around 25,000 cubic metres of hardcore has also been recycled, with 85% of the stone used in the new construction sourced from the original site. The surf facility will be filled with rainwater taken from neighbouring mountain reservoirs.

Surf Snowdonia will also feature retail, restaurant and café areas as well as a 50 metre glass-fronted viewing gallery. Entrance to the ‘dry’ facilities in the park will be free.

The £12 million facility will create over 60 direct jobs, additionally sustaining around 100 jobs in the supply chain. It is conservatively expecting in excess of 75,000 visitors per year.