The New Wave

Cutting-edge tech is turning deserts and other inland areas into top-flight surfing destinations.

- David Shortell

A Wavegarden park in Itupeva, Brazil; the Wave, in Bristol, England.

THE MIDDLE OF the Sonoran Desert may not seem like a prime place for waves, but Revel Surf in Mesa, Arizona, had other plans when it opened in 2024. The resort-y destination is built around a 2.2-acre pool that churns up a variety of breaks using a system with more horsepower than a Porsche 911 Turbo S. And though it’s more than 300 miles from the Pacific Ocean, there’s plenty of powdery sand, trucked in from Florida, to give the place a beach-vacation vibe.

“You’ve got a lounge chair, an umbrella, and somebody bringing you a wonderful cocktail or mocktail,” says Adam Saks, the chief operating officer of Cannon Beach Arizona, the development in which the park sits.