WORLD’S LARGEST SURFING LAGOON

With construction already underway on artificial surf parks in the UK and Australia, the Spanish firm Wavegarden is taking things up a notch with development on a Korean project that will reportedly be the world's largest surfing lagoon.

Known as Wavegarden Cove, the lagoon will be the centerpiece of the new €2.1 billion (AUD $3.2 billion) Turtle Island attraction, located about an hour's drive from Seoul in the South Korean province of Gyeonggi. Built on land reclaimed from the ocean, Turtle Island will also feature hotels, convention centres and marinas.

Plans call for the lagoon to incorporate multiple surfing areas, each of which will have waves of different sizes, shapes and strengths for surfers of various skill levels.

Snow plow-like wavefoils will move back and forth on underwater tracks, generating up to 1000 ‘ocean-like’ waves per hour. Some of the energy generated by those waves will be recovered in order to minimise electricity use and to help power the water treatment system.

Developed by theme park company Daewon Plus Construction, Turtle Island was officially announced last November and is scheduled to open in 2020.

Images Wavegarden via New Atlas