Wave Loch
Encyclopedia
Wave Loch Inc. is a water ride manufacturing company responsible for such water rides as the FlowBarrel and FlowRider in addition to Wave House franchises. The company also founded the increasingly popular board sport flowboarding
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water parks in the United States. Here he discovered his ambition to build a water park attraction to simulate the riding of waves in the ocean. In 1988, a patent was taken out on the concept of a sheet wave - the basis of most of Wave Loch's rides. After several years trying to model the perfect wave, the first FlowRider opened in 1991 at the Schlitterbahn
in Texas. This was followed by the first FlowBarrel at the Summerland Resort in Norway two years later. Throughout the 1990s Lochtefeld then worked with several skateboarders, surfers and snowboarders to develop the best boards and techniques to ride the sheet wave attraction. In 1999, Wave Loch built the first portable FlowBarrel unit which has since travelled around the world.
Flowboarding
Flowboarding is a late-20th Century alternative boardsport that is an alchemy of board designs, techniques, tricks and culture derived from surfing, bodyboarding, skateboarding, skimboarding, snowboarding and wakeboarding....
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History
During the 1980s, Tom Lochtefeld was a partner in the development of Raging WatersRaging Waters
Raging Waters is the name of three water theme parks located in Sacramento, San Dimas, and San Jose, California. They are the largest water parks in the state of California. The three parks are owned by Palace Entertainment but each contains different attractions...
water parks in the United States. Here he discovered his ambition to build a water park attraction to simulate the riding of waves in the ocean. In 1988, a patent was taken out on the concept of a sheet wave - the basis of most of Wave Loch's rides. After several years trying to model the perfect wave, the first FlowRider opened in 1991 at the Schlitterbahn
Schlitterbahn
Schlitterbahn is a family-owned and operated company based in New Braunfels, Texas, USA. Schlitterbahn began its first park, Schlitterbahn Waterpark Resort, in 1979. Since then Schlitterbahn has developed three waterparks located in Texas and one in Kansas City, Kansas.Schlitterbahn Waterparks are...
in Texas. This was followed by the first FlowBarrel at the Summerland Resort in Norway two years later. Throughout the 1990s Lochtefeld then worked with several skateboarders, surfers and snowboarders to develop the best boards and techniques to ride the sheet wave attraction. In 1999, Wave Loch built the first portable FlowBarrel unit which has since travelled around the world.
FlowBarrel
Description
The FlowBarrel is designed to be a perfect tubing wave. There are three different varieties available for different budgets and different capacities: FlowBarrel Five, FlowBarrel Ten, FlowBarrel Ten Double. The main difference between the versions is the theoretical capacity ranging from 160 to 480 riders per hour. Both the FlowBarrel Ten and FlowBarrel Ten Double are only sold as part of a Wave House venture. Despite what model is chosen, a 2 inches (5 cm)-thick wave is pumped at a speed of 30 mph (48.3 km/h) over the fixed, foam-padded surface.Installations
- Wave House Durban
- Wave House San Diego
- Wave House Santiago
- Wave House Sentosa (Singapore)
- Wave House Zaragoza