There’s a pool to the east, the Pacific Ocean to the west, and foam-topped pieces of an enormous fiberglass wave machine being assembled before him.
Tom Lochtefeld is poised to make some ripples in the local surf-and-sand driven market.
Lochtefeld’s $2 million venture, an artificial surf park and entertainment complex called Wave House, is getting closer to its mid-July launch.
Showcasing three of Lochtefeld’s patented wave machines, the park is being built on the Northwest end of Belmont Park in Mission Beach. It’s part of a project that will cost $7 million when its second phase is completed.
Last week, the building was a wooden skeleton. Eventually, it will hold about 500 people, Lochtefeld said. He added Wave House will employ about 100 people.
Lochtefeld’s company, La Jolla-based Wave Loch Tool & Die LLC, is a main investor, along with other financial partners that Lochtefeld preferred not to name.
They were tough to find, he recalled. “It’s not a normal project, and as a result, it took real visionary people to want to take a risk,” he said.
Lochtefeld and crew originally envisioned opening Wave House for the Memorial Day weekend, but with construction holdups and procuring the power to run the surf machines, the park’s opening was pushed back.
Walking through the site a few weeks ago, Lochtefeld pointed out where a smaller, gentler training wave will be, where changing rooms will be built, as well as the lockers, fountains, firepits, the display kitchen, multimedia entertainment center and the bar.
The latter part of that list might seem a little less simpatico with the initial image of a surf park. Lochtefeld’s plans call for recreation alongside the waves, with food, drinks, retail and spectator time being as much a commodity as rides on perfect waves.
The site will also be rented as a venue for parties and promotional events, he said.
Lochtefeld’s venture is based on flowboarding, a sport of riding his patented waves. It combines the skills of surfing, skateboarding and snowboarding.
The sport has already caused a stir in alternative sports circles.
Recently, executives at ESPN had asked Lochtefeld to bring a mobile wave machine to the network’s alternative sports fest the X Games, Lochtefeld said.
He declined, being too busy with the imminent opening of Wave House.
Although the Mobile Wave isn’t making an appearance at this year’s X Games, Lochtefeld struck a deal to provide the network with seven minutes per week of surf programming from the Wave House complex.
Setting up the multimedia production studio will cost a “couple of hundred thousand” dollars, Lochtefeld said.
Movable Waves
As he stood overlooking the first wave, which is by design moveable within days, Lochtefeld described his surf park’s next incarnation.
Depending on the sales conditions , if the mobile wave is needed for an event in another country, for instance , this first wave machine will be taken down and two permanent wave machines will take its place. The timeline’s a little loose, Lochtefeld explained. It could happen this October or even next, depending on demand for the mobile wave.
San Diego City Councilman Byron Wear, who represents the Mission Beach area, is pleased to see Wave House take shape.
“I think it’s going to be a tremendous economic engine that’s going to drive revitalization of Belmont Park and the surrounding area, plus it’s going to be a great recreational experience for not only our visitors, but residents as well,” he said.
When Lochtefeld first proposed the project to the Mission Beach Town Council and the community planning board, the reaction was positive. Members were supportive, looking at the amount of money that Lochtefeld planned to invest in the site.
Having the first-of-its-kind park in Mission Beach will be a tourism draw, Wear said.
“It will be one more feature, along with all the other things going on in San Diego, that will be good for visitors.” We have a lot going here for us and this will be one more thing that people will want to do while they’re in San Diego.”
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Melissa Jacobs
Jump PAge
Tom Lochtefeld, owner of La Jolla-based Wave Loch Tool & Die LLC, is the founder of the Wave House.
