Normally people don’t associate the Britannia Beach area with a spot for prime waves, but recently, that has changed — at least for a little while.
On May 25, the Ka’ana Wave Co., of North Vancouver, announced on Instagram that it had set up a pop-up surf park within the Tiger Bay development lands.
The news spread quickly throughout the Squamish area, with a number of people wondering when the public will be able to get a crack at riding the surf.
However, this park is short-lived.
Andy Rogers, vice-president of brand and marketing at Ka’ana, told The Squamish Chief that the project is a temporary facility that the company is using to research its product.
“We are very much a pop-up surf park,” said Rogers. “It looks and feels like it should be here for a much longer time. But we are, in fact, closing it back down again in about a week's time and then returning it to the ground…We built this thing from the ground up, and then we'll return it back to the state we found it, and then we'll all go about our business as if we were never here.”
Rogers said it is a sheer coincidence that the lot where they set up the park is in the TIger Bay development lands. That developer is currently putting forth a major residential proposal to the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District (SLRD) that includes the creation of a surf park.
The Ka’ana project has nothing to do with the Tiger Bay proposal, he said.
A communications representative for the SLRD said that the Tiger Bay — formerly known as Taicheng — rezoning proposal passed first reading in December.
“It's just more coincidental than anything, to be honest. So yeah, no, no connection there.” Rogers said.
The pop-up park has been created primarily for the company to research its wave machine, which can generate three different types of waves.
“On site here, we have a kind of classic wake; we have what's called a hydraulic jump, or a river jump, river wave, which is very popular at the minute,” said Rogers. “And then we're also working on a right break to try and simulate an ocean barrel as well."
The team has also been shooting a promotional video for the technology featuring several local watersports athletes, including some who Red Bull sponsors, he said.
Rogers said that it’s been great to see the level of interest that the pop-up park generated.
“It has just been very, very rewarding to see people with such interest in surfing here,” he said. “And, you know, our whole kind of ethos behind Ka’ana Wave Co. — Ka’ana means to share in Hawaiian. So our whole goal is to provide access to surfing that people don't normally have. And this week has just completely confirmed that people get pretty giddy about surfing.”
