SOLANA BEACH, Calif. — Monday’s annual Tournament of Roses parade in Pasadena will feature a record-breaking float created with a local company's technology that will also help it bring ocean waves to Texas.
American Wave Machines, a Solana Beach company, developed technology that propels a wave down the middle of a float that dogs will be surfing on.
The float, which is co-sponsored by the Lucy Pet Foundation, is expected to be the longest and heaviest float in parade history.
However, the wave on that float isn’t as impressive as the company’s current project.
“You’re looking at a small scale of the waves that we’re going to be able to produce at the facility in Texas,” said company spokesman and surfer Cheyne Magnusson.
That’s where the company is building its first full size, two-acre wave pool at a water park in Waco.
“You can control the height, the frequency, the direction the wave shoots out,” said Magnusson. “It’s 240 feet of wave generation and that’s going to be able to spit out pretty much anything the ocean throws at you.”
It’s called Perfect Swell. The American Wave Machine patented technology creates waves in a gigantic pool that are close to real ocean waves.
“Gives you a much more authentic surfing feel,” he said.
Magnusson said the technology would take surfing to people who otherwise can’t travel to the beach to surf.
“You’ll be able to have, you know, kids coming from Ohio that can learn on these machines and compete with some of the best in the world.”
