Land-based surf clubs are having their moment. First came news of Matthew McConaughey investing in one in Austin, Texas. Now it emerges that Michael Schwab, the son of billionaire investment broker Charles Schwab, is planning something similar in Los Cabos, Mexico, Realtor.com reports.
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800-foot Endless Surf Wave
Michael Schwab, who owns a private real estate investment firm, Meriweather Cos., is a partner in Cabo Real Surf Club. The club, scheduled to open next year, intends to appeal to serious surfers by having a four-acre, 800-foot Endless Surf wave basin, a first in North America.
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“There are a handful of wave basins in the world,” Schwab told Realtor.com. The setup will produce seven-foot waves for 25 seconds, offering 400 customizable waves per hour. The surf club will be exclusively available to residents of luxury homes in a 3,000-acre master-planned community. It will cater to levels of surfers from beginners to pros, the latter keen to test their skills on the wave machine’s advanced “crushing barrel.”
Guaranteed Waves
The advantage of surf clubs is guaranteed waves, which is why talented pro surfers like 17-year-old phenom Erin Brooks have bought a home in the development. “She wants a place to live in a warm climate, where she can surf every day no matter what,” Schwab told Realtor.com.
“The private, world-class wave pool is a game changer,” Brooks told the site, “and the fitness center, beach club, tennis courts, and golf course provide everything I need to stay in peak shape, elevate my surfing, and make the most of every day,” she said.
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‘The Market Is Aspirational Surfers’
The wave basin replicates ocean wave surfing or bodyboarding in a controlled environment by using 250-horsepower motors that create waves by pushing into still water. It doesn’t come cheaply, however. According to Realtor.com, a wave basin costs $35 million to build. As such, the development will aim to appeal to the widest demographic of buyers possible, including average families, rather than exclusively targeting surfing experts.
“The market is not the pro surfers,” Schwab said. “The market is the aspirational surfers. When you get that family there, their minds are blown. And their surfing life has begun. Some waves will start in the center, some from the side. We’ll have full waves. Some will be point breaks,” Schwab says
According to Realtor.com, the development has sold 20% of its units — about $60 million worth of real estate. Surf homes near the basin cost between $2.5 million and $6 million. Schawab’s famous father, Charles, gave him the initial idea of investing in surf communities in 2012 after advising him to invest in something he was passionate about. Michael Schwab invested in legendary pro surfer Kelly Slater’s Wave Company. Slater is behind Austin Surf Club, which broke ground in January.
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The Controversy Behind Surf Clubs
Slater’s land-based surf clubs have not been without controversy. His Abu Dhabi Surf Ranch, the second stop on surfing's 2025 Championship Tour, has been criticized because of United Arab Emirates' laws banning homosexuality. His wave pools have also come under fire for being detrimental to the environment, consuming vast amounts of power, and destroying natural habitats, according to Beach Grit.
Additionally, the vast expense of Slater’s surf clubs flies in the face of the traditionally low-income proponents of coastal surf communities around the world and are often built in areas where the disparity between local incomes and those of surf club members is immense. The Thermal Beach Club in California’s Coachella Valley, a predominantly low-income Latino community, has sparked a firestorm of controversy amid scarce clean water resources.
“Yes, development does need to happen. But it also needs to be equitable. For folks who live in the eastern part of the valley, there’s just a lot less resources, a lot less investment — a lot less of everything,” Lesly Figueroa, a policy advocate with Leadership Council for Justice and Accountability, told the Los Angeles Times. “Traditionally, how the planning process has worked [is that] it doesn’t include the community,” she said. “It’s a developer-to-agency relationship.”
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