SoCal’s wave pool boom: DSRT Surf slated to open this summer

Southern California is about to become the highest concentration of wave pools on the planet, with the newest facility slated to open this summer. DSRT Surf, a 17.8-acre Wavegarden Cove development next to the Desert Willow Golf Resort in Palm Desert, has confirmed an early-summer 2026 public opening.

It joins Palm Springs Surf Club, which has been running since 2024, with three more major projects in various stages behind them: Ocean Kamp in Oceanside, the combined Thermal Beach Club and Coral Mountain Desert Club projects in the eastern Coachella Valley, and several smaller ventures further out.

DSRT Surf is the largest Wavegarden Cove in the United States. Its 5.5-acre lagoon uses a 52-module Cove system rated for up to 1,000 waves per hour and 70 surfers at a time, with simultaneous rights and lefts running from the ends toward the middle, barrel and performance sections on the outside, and beginner rollers on the inside.

Promotional materials cite up to 1,200 individual surf sessions per day. The project broke ground in 2024 after a permitting process that started in 2018 and got delayed by COVID.

This video featured a Wavegarden Cove facility in Virginia Beach:

Water is the obvious question for any new pool in the desert, and Palm Desert residents raised it during the approval process back in 2019. The developer’s answer is a program called Turf for Surf. In exchange for permission to build the lagoon, Beach Street Development is converting roughly 30 acres of irrigated turf at the adjacent Desert Willow Golf Resort to drought-tolerant native landscaping.

Beach Street projects the turf conversion will save about 34.8 million gallons of water a year against an estimated lagoon use of 23.8 million gallons, for a net annual savings of around 11 million gallons. The pool itself holds about 7 million gallons; the rest of the annual figure is evaporation, filtration, and maintenance. Whether that math holds up in practice is the part of the story that will get argued after the doors open.

Ten miles away, Palm Springs Surf Club has spent its first two years working through mechanical issues with its Surf Loch wave system and noise complaints from neighbors. Day-pass general entry currently runs $40; advanced sessions like the 5 Slabs barrel run reach $250 per surfer; cabana rentals run $500 per day. The pool offers A-frames at both intermediate and advanced settings, rights-and-lefts mode, and a beginner Waikiki mode.

The same group that runs Palm Springs Surf Club is also behind the next project on the coast. Ocean Kamp, a 95-acre Oceanside development on the site of a former drive-in theater and swap meet north of State Route 76, broke ground in April 2026 after nearly a decade of pre-construction work.

The masterplan includes a 5-acre wave pool, 700 homes (10 percent earmarked as affordable), a 300-room hotel, and 125,000 square feet of commercial space. According to project counsel Jon Corn, the pool will run split A-frames, point-break lefts, or point-break rights depending on how the wave is pushed. The developer is aiming to open before the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, which is also when surfing returns as an Olympic event.

Further south in the Coachella Valley, the picture has changed in the last few months. The long-planned Thermal Beach Club, in Thermal, California, and the long-stalled Coral Mountain Desert Club announced in January 2026 that they are combining forces. Meriwether Companies, Coral Mountain’s developer, will site the Coral Mountain wave basin at Thermal Beach Club rather than at the original Coral Mountain location.

The combined facility will run a 48-chamber pneumatic system from Endless Surf, which Surfer reports will be the largest pneumatic wave basin in the United States. Targets are 2028 for opening and around $80 to $100 million in build cost per basin. Thermal will remain a 326-unit private residential community surrounded by a 20-acre lagoon, with membership-only access to the surf, though developers have publicly committed to some form of local school access. Pricing for members has not been disclosed.