18 hours ago
Popular inland surfing centre The Wave in Bristol closes suddenly amid financial dispute
Britain's ground-breaking popular inland surfing lake The Wave, near Bristol, has abruptly closed amid an alleged row over its finances
Existing customer bookings have been cancelled and The Wave's website is mostly down. No new bookings can be made.
The closure came with no warning, with surfers and users of the site booked in today arriving to closed doors and an apology written on a sign.
Majority owners Sullivan Street Partners claimed the closure followed problems surrounding the bankruptcy of a director of another funding partner, JAR Wave, according to BBC News.
A statement from the majority owners said: 'The Wave Group team apologises unreservedly for any upset caused and is doing its best to ensure the situation can be remedied.'
The statement said The Wave Group, owners of the surf park, had 'lined up a refinancing alongside its exciting London developments, which would see all creditors repaid in full within a week and is offering to continue to operate the park.'
Sullivan Partners said it invested £27m into The Wave in 2023, BBC News said.
Hazel Geary, chief executive of The Wave, said: 'This decision has not been driven by operational failure or lack of customer demand - but for a financial technicality completely unrelated to commercial matters.'
Highlighting how suddenly the saga deteriorated, on Wednesday The Wave was posting on social media about an upcoming surf festival being held at the centre next month.
The Wave opened in 2019 and cost £26million to build. The unique complex could generate up to 1,000 waves per hour.
Since opening, the site provided surfing facilities for all abilities, catering for disabled visitors, total beginners and veteran surfers.
The Wave's power supply stems from solar and battery storage and since 2019 the complex has welcomed 400,000 people.
Since 5 May, The Wave's founder, Nick Houndsfield, has not been a director of the business.
The Wave was the fruit of the ambitions of Nick Hounsfield, a pioneering British entrepreneur who wanted to build a unique business that had a positive social impact, with improving health and wellbeing for surfers and non-surfers alike baked in.
Hounsfield did not come from a background in property or business, but was an osteopath, who started with £500 in his bank account and managed to raise £27million to build his dream.
THE WAVE STATEMENT IN FULL
The Wave said in a statement: 'The Wave Bristol has had to shut suddenly today, and also shut down its website.
'This decision has not been driven by operational failure or lack of customer demand—but for a financial technicality completely unrelated to commercial matters.
'The closure follows the bankruptcy of a director of a funding partner, JAR Wave.
'Despite The Wave Group repeatedly offering support and a full repayment to JAR Wave to solve their own issues, the creditor has instead opted to appear to attempt to take control of the business.
'We as The Wave Group, have lined up a refinancing that also provides funding for the initial development for London, which would see all creditors repaid in full within a week of now and is of course offering to reopen Bristol and continue to operate the park.
'To date these approaches have been ignored by JAR Wave, which has instead chosen to appoint administrators for the Bristol operating company.
'The Wave Group team apologises unreservedly for any upset caused and is doing its best to ensure the situation can be remedied.'
