Tom Lochtefeld always dreamt of building a wave park where surfers feel like they\u2019re riding on an actual ocean wave. To create these perfect waves, Lochtefeld, who is the founder and CEO of Surf Loch, needed the technology that controlled various elements, such as power, control and timing of the water all situated within a wave pool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To develop Surf Loch technology and to get it where it’s currently at, Lochtefeld has put his years of experience behind him and has waited for the technology and computing capabilities to get where they\u2019re at now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the software and automation technology and capabilities evolved, the cost of computerization decreased. While that factors into the investment of the digital tools, it was accessing Siemens\u2019 Xcelerator<\/a> and its capabilities that allowed Surf Loch to program and create and optimize their own wave factories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another major factor was the growing popularity of surfing in the past years. The mindset and the marketing combined with the availability and demand of surfing on a global level has grown exponentially.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen I first started, surfing was definitely in the backwaters. You need a market to create value to entice a company to invest software and advanced machinery. And so it’s been these combinations of elements all coming together at once which has allowed us to get to where we are now,\u201d Lochtefeld says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Surf Loch is now at a level where their product can be packaged up and delivered to the public to bring surfing everywhere in the world at a cost that makes building the wave pool an economically-viable investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n