Surfing on Flemish-made waves

Within the scope of the WaveLake project, the innovative Belgian company AllWaves worked on a safe underwater wave generator for surfers. The ultimate goal was to ensure that surfing is possible in a profitable way all year round.

The project ended a year and a half ago. We recently sat down with the company for an interview. How is the company doing, what challenges are they facing and what plans do they have for the future? Read on to find out ...

Originally, the AllWaves team consisted of just three people. The main challenges in the initial phase were financial and technical hurdles. In this context, they submitted an application to Blue Cluster for the Wavelake project.

Thanks to the resources from the Wavelake project, private investors were motivated to invest. Furthermore, Blue Cluster helped find suitable reliable partners and ensured that the entire administrative process went smoothly

The project was technically complex, but fortunately they could count on a successful collaboration with partners such as Vapo Hydraulics. A significant challenge in the demo phase was the weather, which brought with it a strong unpredictability.

The WaveLake project has now ended, but AllWaves' wave pool technology is being developed further at the R&D site in Knokke-Heist. After a couple of successful demonstrations, they are now working on industrialising their product and starting sales.

AllWaves receives a lot of interest from developers worldwide who want to set up similar projects. Thanks to the Olympic Games and the need for outdoor sports since the pandemic, there has been a stronger interest in surfing.

Since then, AllWaves has been in numerous discussions with potential partners and has been approached by more than 300 parties. About half of these parties are currently actively planning future projects.

AllWaves also sees opportunities to use their technology in other segments, such as water parks, country clubs, and private domains. This will play an important role in their future business strategy.

The current technology is specifically designed for surfers, but in the future it can be further investigated whether the concept can also be used at other locations where water sports are central.

All company employees are strongly passionate about what they do. Steven Nauwelaerts, founder and CEO of AllWaves, even took a diving course to be able to carry out underwater inspections at the installation.

The passion for surfing and the desire to make this sport accessible to everyone are clear drivers behind their continued success.

Surfing in nature requires a lot of planning and flexibility, and AllWaves offers a solution for this: waves are always present for safe surfing at every level.