Surf or turf?
That’s the essence of the question before the Newport Beach Planning Commission on Thursday, Sept. 4, during a hearing that will discuss plans for a wave pool project that would replace a section of the Newport Beach Golf Course just south of the John Wayne Airport.
The golf course has been around for decades and is one of the more affordable places to play, a community staple where generations of golfers have taken their first swings.
But with a 55-year land lease up, the owner is exploring other options for the site – and the Snug Harbor Surf Park project could bring Orange County its first man-made wave — a trend seen around the globe.
The Planning Commission’s role is to advise the City Council, which is expected to consider the plan in October and decide: Will Newport Beach hop aboard for a wave of change?
Tee time
PGA pro golf coach John Leonard sat under a shaded umbrella at the driving range recently, waiting for his next student to arrive, a first-time golfer in need of some extra help.
“It’s a good learning place, because the golf course is shorter and the prices have been affordable all through the years,” Leonard said of the 18-hole Newport Beach Golf Course.
The course is a great place to “grow the game,” he said. “It is the type of golf course where you don’t have to be very good – and a lot of them are not – to be able to play this place.”
While there are many golf courses spread throughout the region, a place people can learn and not be intimidated is hard to find, Leonard argues. It’s where juniors can fine-tune their game before going to more challenging courses, and a place older golfers can navigate with ease.
“It’s going to have a big impact on this community,” Leonard said if the proposed project is approved. “It’s sort of like a breeding ground, or learning ground, for golf.”
The golf course is made up of three sections. The county-owned land north of Irvine Avenue, where holes 10-18 sit, would remain unchanged by the project. The middle section is where the surf pool is planned, which would eliminate the Original Pizza restaurant and bar, the retail shop, driving range and three holes.
A third parcel with holes 3-8, south of Mesa Drive would also remain, with a golf cart path planned to connect the back nine with the front six.
Newport native Doug Schmeisser, 57, recounted learning to play at the golf courses when he was a kid during a recent lunch at Original Pizza. He’s not shy about saying he’s against the wave pool.
“We have the real stuff, real close by,” he said. “I’m just not for it at all.”
What he would miss is the mom-and-pop place that has become familiar for locals.
“You’re going to miss a lot of nostalgia,” he said.
Original Pizza co-owner Steve Kalatschan opened the spot right on the course with views of the greens four years ago, after his location across the street was bought by developers. Another location on the Balboa Peninsula was shut down when a Taco Bell Cantina took over.
“That’s what built America, mom-and-pop shops,” Kalatschan said. “They are slowly getting rid of everything. Newport is starting to lose its charm.”
He worries people won’t show up to surf in a man-made pool, he said. “It’s the flavor of the day. My opinion is, it’s not going to survive.”
The golf course is also not just for the everyday golfer, he added, but a place where nonprofit organizations hold regular events to raise money.
“It’s huge to the community,” he said.
A wave pool with ‘aloha’
The surf project’s founder, Adam Cleary, also has deep roots in the beach town. His grandfather moved to Newport Beach nearly 100 years ago, a boater drawn to the harbor, he said, and his father grew up surfing the area in the ’40s, long before even the groins were put in along West Newport.
Cleary is an avid surfer, an assistant surf team coach at Pacifica Christian High School in Newport Beach, and both his teenage sons are surfers. So when wave pools started popping up around the world, naturally, he was more than intrigued.
Surf Ranch, 11-time world champion Kelly Slater’s pool, caused major buzz when it started making waves near Fresno, and an operation in Waco, Texas has luring surfers in recent years.
“I just knew that I needed to do this,” said Cleary, who got into commercial real estate 23 years ago and sells title insurance. “Here we are, we’re traveling all over the country, inland, to go surf these perfect waves. I needed to bring this where the surfers are.”
He searched across Orange County, looking in Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Santa Ana, he said.
Then, he learned the owner of the land at the golf course wanted a change. The location checked a lot of boxes – near the hub of the surf industry and next to the freeway and the airport, making for easy access.
“Lo and behold, I call it my Goldilocks site – it’s just right,” he said. “It’s the best spot in the world. It happens to be down the street from where I grew up.”
After traveling to test out different technologies, he landed on Wave Garden, which has the biggest variety of waves.
“It has basically from your beginner, or your bunny slope, all the way up to double black diamond,” he said. “It’s got everything.”
Surf parks have been popping up in beach towns, not just inland. There are now parks in Melbourne and Sydney in Australia, and a newly opened Wave Garden in Virginia Beach.
“Orange County – and basically the greater LA Basin – is the most densely populated place on Earth, but also the most densely popular place for surfers,” Cleary said. “There are millions upon millions of surfers around here.”
Surfing in the ocean can be challenging for novice and even experienced wave riders. It’s crowded and can be intimidating with aggressive locals, and the ocean is unpredictable. A wave pool gives surfers something they can’t get – consistency where they can do reps to improve their skills.
Cleary said he believes the wave pool will bring back the “aloha.”
“It gets back to the grassroots, what the Hawaiians intended it to be, which was fun,” he said. “We’re not trying to take anything away from the mother ocean.”
But the wave pool will give options when there’s a three-week flat spell, or for parents who don’t want their kids learning among the unpredictable crowds, he said.
Cleary, who grew up doing the local junior lifeguard program, said he has also been in discussions with nearby lifeguard agencies about training opportunities, such as high surf or swift water rescues, in a controlled environment.
Kaleigh Gehret, a two-time Olympic water polo gold medalist who grew up surfing in Newport Beach, jumped aboard as director of surf operations to give back to the sport that has given her so much, she said.
She envisions a surf academy program using the pool’s consistency for learning airs or other moves difficult with the ocean’s unpredictability.
And with the LA28 Olympics happening nearby at Lower Trestles, it could be a place athletes train ahead of the contest.
There would be nods to the Newport Beach community throughout, Cleary said. The name Snug Harbor is an ode to a bar that used to be in the cannery area in the ’50s.
There would also be an “Echo Beach” bar, named after the surf area in West Newport that gained popularity in the ’80s. The 5-acre surf lagoon would have warming pools, a spa and a seating area. There are also proposals for a three-story clubhouse and an athlete accommodations building on the 15.38-acre site.
The Planning Commission will be considering a general plan amendment, a conditional use permit, the project’s environmental impact report and other approvals at its 6 p.m. meeting Thursday.
Matt Williams and son Cole, 12, arrived at the golf course on a recent afternoon to swing some clubs. When asked about the wave pool replacing parts of the golf course, Cole perked up. He’s also an avid surfer.
“I think it’s a good idea,” he said.
Though his regular spot is 56th Street in Newport Beach, he’s twice made the trek to Palm Springs to surf the man-made wave with his school surf team.
Matt Williams, an avid golfer with less surf experience than his son, said he understands the appeal.
“I understand they have to balance the economic viability of this property, given this is prime real estate,” he said, adding keeping golf in place, too, is ideal. “I’d love it if there’s a way to preserve some of the golf and have the wave pool. If it’s a wave pool, that’s a cool experience. We would definitely use it.”