Artist renders were produced to provide a sense of the aesthetics of the finished Auckland Surf Park project.
Artist renders were produced to provide a sense of the aesthetics of the finished Auckland Surf Park project.
Adrian Buchan knows the value of a good wave.
The Australian surfer, affectionately known as “Ace”, spent the best part of two decades competing on the World Surf League (WSL) championship tour against the best the world had to offer, beating John John Florence, Mick Fanning and Kelly Slater –all now multiple-time world champions - in succession to claim his second tour event win in Tahiti in 2013.
But the value of a wave goes far beyond the point score given by the WSL judging panel for Buchan, and it’s the far more relatable side of the sport that piqued his interest in artificial waves.
Buchan, 41, is now working as the surf and sustainability director for Aventuur – the company working to build a surf park in the rural north Auckland suburb of Dairy Flat, and it’s the benefits it can offer your average Kiwi that most excites him.
“Surfing, to me, has always been about much more than competing and putting a jersey on. It’s been about the feeling I get from riding a wave, and I’m lucky enough to do that now with my three kids. That’s at the heart of our business. It’s about giving people access to that feeling of [being stoked that] you get,” Buchan tells the Herald.
Adrian Buchan spent more than a decade competing at the highest level of surfing. Photo / Getty Images
“That’s everything. High-performance is just the tip of the iceberg. The reason we got into this, and personally for myself, was to build communities and transform people’s mental and physical health through riding waves. That starts with kids, or even grown-ups, surfing for the first time in a safe and supportive environment.”
The Auckland project has entered the final consenting stage, with a resource consent application lodged for the project with the New Zealand Environmental Protection Authority. All going to plan, the park will be ready to carve in late 2026 or early 2027.
The concept for the Auckland Surf Park is to build a wave pool so there are readily accessible waves for everyone to enjoy, but to create a community around it. While the Wavegarden lagoon will be the showpiece, the park will feature amenities, lodgings and a farm-to-table restaurant, with plans to use the venue for water safety training, functioning as an asset to benefit physical and mental health, as well as high-performance, recreational and entry-level surfing. The park will be largely powered by its own solar farm, while excess heat captured from the on-site data centre will be used to warm the water of the lagoon year-round.
After commissioning an economic report considering the total cost to deliver the park, solar farm and data centre, as well as the increased local spending and greater Auckland stimulus once operational, it was estimated the Auckland Surf Park would contribute more than $600 million to the Auckland economy over the life of the project.
A render of how the proposed Auckland Surf Park will fit into the Dairy Flat landscape.
Aventuur has been working with several Kiwis in planning the project - which was first announced in late 2020 - including Sir John Kirwan and Paige Hareb, in a bid to ensure the surf park is uniquely Kiwi.
“Anyone from a grommet who is riding their first wave or a grown-up all the way up to a pro surfer, I think there are huge benefits, but they’ve got to be community assets first and foremost,” Buchan says.
“We want this to be a park by and for New Zealanders and for it to be a reflection of Kiwis’ surf culture in every sense of the word. Sure, there’ll be benefits for high-performance, but that’s only one part of the puzzle here, and we want it to be benefiting the whole community.”
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.
