Surfing Typhoon Lagoon

To-Surf or Not-To-Surf Typhoon Lagoon?

by: Brian Brown

I was recently a last minute invite to a group of guys heading out to surf the wave pool at Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon water park in Orlando, Florida. I had heard a lot of chatter about this wave and have been curious to see exactly what type of wave it could produce. I was a little reluctant to join as I’ve heard mixed reviews about the caliper of wave you get for the cost of renting the place out. Chances are, if you ask someone that has surfed it before you are going to get an array of responses  – “That wave sucks!”, “That wave is super fun!”, “That wave is decent”. I decided to throw caution to the wind and join in and experience the place firsthand for myself. I brought my wife along to photograph and document the experience and figured if anything, I would get some cool pics and information to help educate reluctant surfers back home.

If you’re not familiar with Typhoon Lagoon, it is a part of the Disney Empire and is one of their more popular water parks. The place is home to numerous slides, splash pads, and also a wave pool. During normal business hours and in the summer, this place is jam packed with people escaping the heat by floating in the water and going down water slides that send your bathing suit in places you’d thought it could never go. The wave pool itself is quite large and provides hours of entertainment to visitors by consistently pelting small-sized waves at them for hours on end. For the right price, the Disney crew will rent you the park and crank up wave pool to allow surfers the chance to catch some waves.

The park offers two different time slots to surf the wave pool. One is at the crack of dawn before the park opens at 5:30am and the other is a night-time session from 8pm – 11pm. The group that I joined opted to do the night-time session which is what I was hoping for. Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem getting up early for a dawn patrol session, but the thought of surfing this pool all lit up at night sounded pretty amazing.

We showed up to the park around 7:30pm, just as they were closing down and trying to usher the tourists and people out of there. I have to admit, walking into the the park with surfboards under your arm and bunch of camera equipment while everyone else was being herded out give you a sense of elitism. Everyone was staring at us and looking at us like we were rock-stars about to step out on stage.

We were greeted by a rather surly looking gentlemen who informed us that he was the “wave pool master” and that he ran the show. He went through his mandated spiel informing us of the rules and etiquette of the pool and we were soon on our way. *Quick Tip – Be polite to the wave master and laugh at his jokes and he may throw a few extra waves your way. Not only that, make some CD’s or a playlist on your mp3 player and they will play it over the speakers while you surf. Very cool to be able to surf to some of your favorite jams.

You have 3 different options with the types of waves you can get:

– Split peak: wave breaks in the middle allowing 2 people to surf at the same time, one going left and one going right.
– Full Lefts: single person surfs the entire wave
– Full Rights: single person surfs the entire wave

All in all you get about 100 waves total – give or take a few extra if the wizard allows it.  Being that I wasn’t the organizer of this group, I didn’t have much say in what waves were selected. The group decided to do 50 split peaks, 25 rights and 25 lefts. There was a total of ten of us including myself which meant I would get 5 split peaks, 3 full lefts and 2 rights. You have to break the wave selection up into sets of 25.

Time to wax up the boards and get in the pool!

Sitting in the pool and waiting for a wave is a bit nerve-wracking. You’re not quite sure what to expect from this thing or where exactly to sit to catch it right. I found myself drinking in the atmosphere and admiring the giant pirate ship 200ft above my head. Finding the right spot to sit can be a little tricky at first. You really don’t want to miss a wave because if you do, you might as well take a $10 bill and rip it in half as you just wasted a Hamilton. All of the sudden you hear a loud “Whooosh” and the next thing you know a wave is coming at ya. I have to admit, the wave had a lot more juice to it than I had expected. The drop on the split-peaks is pretty steep and can catch you off guard. After a pretty fun drop, the split-peak wave fizzles and doesn’t leave you much to work with. You can maybe get one turn in if you’re lucky as I demostrate below.

Brian – Split Peak

After a few split-peaks I’d had enough and was ready to try the full lefts and rights. The full lefts and rights have much more to offer than the splits. The wave doesn’t have near as steep of a drop but you get a much larger and longer wave with some decent sections allowing you to try some maneuvers here and there. One thing is for certain, you definitely need to bring the right equipment to this place. You are going to want to bring a board with more volume than your average shortboard. I was riding a 5’10” Channel Islands Whip and it was perfect. The Whip is a little shorter, wider & thicker but still had a lot of drive to it. A friend of mine was riding a 5’10” Firewire Alternator and really enjoyed it as well. Some other boards that were brought here were a Channel Islands Biscuit and a Firewire Spitfire. On these types of boards, the lefts and rights proved to be really fun and workable especially on the inside section.

Below are some shots of the full lefts and rights.

Brian – Full right – Inside section

Brian – Full Left – Outside Section

Scott – Full Left – Outside Section

After all was said and done, it turned out to be a really fun trip. It was a very cool experience and a fun wave to surf if you have the know-how. If you’re like me and tired of waiting on waves in Florida, this is a costly yet pretty good alternative to feed your addiction and get your fix of some waves.

Big thanks go out to Brandt and Matt for inviting me!

So to answer some FAQ’s:

– How much does it cost?

Night time session – $1,400.00
Early morning session – I think around $1,000.00

– How many waves do you get?

100 total waves
Must be broken up into groups of 25
If you get there early and don’t mess around and are nice to the staff, they will usually throw you a few extra waves.  The wavemaster ended up giving us 105 which were additional full rights and very much appreciated.

– How long is the session?

Usually around 3 hrs

– What are the waves like?

Split-peaks – pretty much a waste of money. I wouldn’t recommend getting them unless you really like dropping in and going straight. Yes, you get more waves with these and more people can surf but the quality of wave isn’t worth it in my opinion.

Do 50 full lefts and 50 full rights and you will have an absolute blasty.

– What type of board should I bring?

Definitely bring a smaller wave board – something with more volume and that has a decent amount of float to it. There are a lot of board models out now that cater to these types of waves and will make this wave a lot of fun for you.  Check out Surf Station’s online store for a more detailed review of the board and to purchase online!

– How many people should I bring to surf?

Depends on your budget. If you can afford it and have the energy, go by yourself and surf your brains out on 100 waves.
Our group had 10 people which meant $140 per person and you got between 8-10 waves each.
In my opinion, 4-6 people would be perfect. A little more expensive but you’ll get your fair share of waves.

– Can I bring my wife and kids or people to watch?

Yes, but they limit it. I think it’s only 2 additional people per surfer.

Don’t let ma ocean get you down, there are ways around it. Save up some cash, buy a small wave board and go shred the Lagoon!