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."

Stos says surf trips are hostage to good weather and that it’s not unusual to fly across the world, chasing waves, only to never hit the water; all the money spent on airfare, lodging, and meals is for naught. He says the driver behind trips to Waco is the ability to get consistent waves to surf, and to practice and refine technique for when he’s back out on the open water. "The weather’s not great. It’s not really fun there. There aren’t any amenities, but we go because of the wave pool. I’ve probably been there twelve times. When I heard about the opportunity to buy a lot and house in Cabo, I was really excited."

Likins says with the exception of boardwalk homes, which are larger, they’ve kept designs between 2,500 and 3,500 square feet, but that they’ll "still check all the boxes for what homeowners expect in their second home at a luxury destination." The price point for these homes starts near $2.5 million while boardwalk homes, he says, will be closer to $6 million all in, with those lots selling for $2 million.

"We look at surf as the nexus of wellness and real estate."

—Dave Likins, developer

At DSRT Surf in California, architect John Danielian says his team was asked to create a "barefoot luxury" product, so to speak, which was as much about atmosphere as it was the verticals being built on site. This included "adapted floor plans that can flex for its residence as needed, including lock-off units," he says. It also meant taking advantage of the units’ small yards by integrating them "closer to the surf lagoon to engage and highlight the amenities while simultaneously giving the sensation of a larger, private outdoor space."

Stos settled on a larger boardwalk home in Cabo, mentioning that he likes the clean, modern design in the renderings. But what excited him was the engagement with the surf lagoon. His home will be fronted by a pool and beyond, "you can watch people surf waves right in front of you."

Luff says DSRT Surf has yet to settle on a price point for their villas, believing that by setting a price now they could be negotiating against themselves. They’ve already had offers for homes based on renderings but have decided to hold off on selling until the project is closer to completion in 2026.

Given the cost to build out surf lagoons, their strategy might be a wise one. The industry standard to build a lagoon starts at $70 million and then ticks up from there based on its size and the surrounding infrastructure needed. Then there are different technologies to consider to create the wave, as well as the technology’s ability to create so many waves per hour. But a look across the landscape within the U.S. alone says wave pools have reached a tipping point. Surf parks are in various stages of development in Houston, Dallas, Jacksonville, Virginia Beach, Panama City, and Austin. Across the world, they are flourishing in South Korea, Brazil, and Australia, with more on the way.

It takes roughly 24 months to build out a surf lagoon alone, as a conservative estimate, but can often take even longer to launch the project and get shovels in the ground. Luff says it will soon seem like these are everywhere, but that in the case of their developments, they’ve been in the pipeline as long as five years. "The inflection point for surf is happening now as we live."

Top image courtesy of DSRT Surf

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