In the modern age of manmade wave pools, the idea has been sold to surfers on a simple promise: bring perfect waves to places where they don’t exist.
Crest is taking a different approach.
The incoming Long Island development, billed as New York’s first private-member surf club, isn’t trying to democratize surfing. It’s trying to create the surfing equivalent of a country club. And membership doesn’t come cheap.
According to recent reports, Crest’s flagship New York location carries an initiation fee of roughly $50,000, plus monthly dues around $1,500. The project itself is expected to cost approximately $60 million to build, making it one of the most ambitious surf developments on the East Coast. The club plans to cap membership at just 500 people.
That exclusivity is the point.
“We’re kind of selling people time more than anything else,” Crest CEO Brett Portera recently told Yahoo Finance. “These are really busy people that, if you can schedule an hour to three hours to go and get your waves and you know what you’re going to get every time, that’s really attractive.”
The facility will feature a heated, year-round wave basin capable of producing more than 120 customizable waves per hour, allowing members to reserve sessions and avoid crowded lineups altogether.
Yet, when the wave will come to fruition is unclear; per social media, the project has broke ground. But that was two years ago.
As for the waves, Portera added:
“You’re going to be able to get customized waves [and] basically build out wave playlists so you know what you’re getting. You won’t be able to surf the Crest Wave anywhere else because it’s proprietary to us at the end of the day.”
Helping make that possible is Alexandre Poirot, the company’s CTO and a familiar name to many readers of SURFER. (Check out our interview with Poirot here.)
Related: Meet the Mad Scientist Who Helped Create Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch
Poirot previously worked on the engineering team behind Kelly Slater‘s Surf Ranch and has become a mad scientist in the brave new world of wave-pool technology. Crest says its proprietary pneumatic wave system will allow surfers to receive different customized waves during the same session.
In an industry largely built around accessibility and participation, Crest represents something different: exclusivity.
The company openly compares itself to private golf clubs, yacht clubs, and high-end social clubs rather than traditional surf parks. The goal isn’t necessarily to serve the masses. It’s to create a luxury experience centered around surfing.
Whether surfers embrace that vision remains to be seen. But one thing is certain: while most wave pools are trying to expand surfing’s reach, Crest is betting that some people are willing to pay a premium to escape the crowd entirely.
Crest has yet to announce a grand opening for its New York facility; stay tuned.
Related: $200 Million Los Angeles Wave Pool Project Remains in Limbo
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