Why Surfing Is the New Golf at Luxury Developments

Welcome to Beach Week, our annual celebration of the best place on Earth.

Wave pools, surf basins, surf clubs. Whatever nomenclature you prefer, man-made waves are cropping up all over the world, from Bristol, England, to the Coachella Valley. Many operate as pay-to-play public aquatic parks, but some developers are creating entire high-end resorts with wave pools as the main attraction, carving out a new meaning for beachfront real estate.

Now under construction in Palm Desert, California, DSRT Surf will feature a large surf lagoon fronted by housing as well as a 139-key hotel. Behind the project is John Luff of Beach Street Development in Del Mar, California, who says he and his partners are “extremely bullish on surf driving residential sales.” By project’s end, there will be 57 villas, each with three or four bedrooms and a footprint of around 2,500 square feet. To accommodate all those surfers, Luff says Beach Street will likely create a private club for homeowners, with preferred times to access surfing while still accommodating hotel guests and the general public.

Luff and other developers are betting big on wellness trends that have been driving many resorts and private resort communities as lifestyle attractions. Surfing can be a full-body workout, providing cardio and engaging core, and man-made surf takes away an element of danger by eliminating paddling into treacherous, choppy waters. It also provides a quicker reward factor by allowing surfers to get up on waves consistently and on schedule. “After an hour of surf, you’re going to be toasted. We look at surf as the nexus of wellness and real estate,” says Dave Likins from Meriwether Companies, a resort developer in the ski and surf industries.

Formerly the chief operating officer for the Kelly Slater Surf Ranch in California and Waco Surf in Texas, Likins has shifted his focus to a wave pool resort in southern Baja, the Cabo Real Surf Club. Cabo Real will be a luxury private resort community with what it is calling boardwalk homes, having both a surf lagoon out their front door and the ocean out back. CJ Stos, who has bought a home in the upcoming development, says he was drawn to the surf club because, as a long-time surfer, some of his best surf trips have been to Waco Surf. “I live in Newport Beach, California, one of the surf capitals, but my friends and I are flying to Waco to surf all the time.”