Parra News April 23 2024

LOCAL NEWS
Surfin’ Western Sydney
$75 million URBNSURF rolls into Sydney Olympic Park
ELLIE BUSBY
Projected to inject a whopping $250
million into the local economy over
the next two decades, Sydney’s first
ever surf park is already making waves in
western Sydney.
Locals will no longer have to make the trek
into Sydney or down the coast to catch some
waves, with the much-anticipated URBN-
SURF Sydney finally set to open on May 13.
Located in Sydney Olympic Park, the $75
million wave park spans 3.6 hectares, with a
lagoon size similar in size to that of the Sydney
Cricket Ground.
Having grown up in Greystanes, URBNSURF
CEO Damon Tudor believes the park will have
a huge impact on western Sydney and introduce
a whole new generation to surfing.
“For me, many decades ago I learnt to surf
traveling from the west, so being able to
present it here in such a great location… it’s
something really special,” he told Parra News.
“[We’re] also creating a destination location
that’s going to operate almost every day of the
year, other than Christmas Day, Good Friday
and ANZAC morning, so that in itself is very
different for Olympic Park, which is obviously
driven by events and major activities.
“Here you’ve got something people will
come to see – it will just bring to life the whole
precinct.”
Surf’s up in western Sydney, as URBNSURF Sydney prepares to open.
Last week, URBNSURF Sydney officially
turned on the wave machine for the first time
publicly, as plenty of surfers eagerly hit the
water to check it out for themselves.
The park uses Wavegarden technology to
pump out 400 waves per hour and provide up
to 12 “perfect” waves per person.
Not only open to expert surfers, URBNSURF
offers plenty of sessions at all levels of surfing
ability.
“What we’ve already seen with our park in
Melbourne, there’s people who have surfed
at Melbourne who have never surfed in the
ocean before, so it created a whole new accessibility
to different segments,” Tudor added.
“It’s definitely opened it up, the key thing
URBNSURF Sydney will officially open to the
public in Sydney Olympic Park on May 13.
is we like to say is it’s democratised surfing –
anyone can do it now.”
Set to operate seven days a week, the facility
will accommodate up to 1,000 visitors per day.
The park also features a surf academy, a
leisure swimming pool, skate pad, a Rip Curl
shop, and a health and wellness centre.
Hospitality group Applejack will also
introduce two new food offerings to the park
– including the second location of popular
North Sydney restaurant RAFI, and casual
surfside all-day eatery Sandy’s.
“We really needed to create a destination
restaurant, so we’ve got Sandy’s which is the
surfside all-day eatery for the general surfers,”
Applejack Director, Ben Carroll said.
“But upstairs [in RAFI], we wanted to create
something quite different, and we wanted that
elevated service but still super accessible.”
Bookings are now open at www.urbnsurf.
com/sydney.
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