Developer planning to build massive, 13-acre Orlando surf park on former construction landfill site

ORLANDO, Fla. - When people want to hang ten in Central Florida, they head to our great local beaches. Now, a developer wants to give them another option, further inland, at the Orlando Surf Park. Orange County Commissioner Nicole Wilson represents the district where it would be built.

"They brought this to us as a surf/athletic park, there appears to be an interest in competitive surf facilities - I didn't know!" Wilson said.

The facility would be a massive 13-acre pool, surrounded by an artificial beach. The pool would be 14 feet deep, at its lowest point, and hold 35 million gallons of water. Most importantly, the wave machine in the middle is capable of creating waves big enough to train professional surfers.

Theme park expert Tharin White said this would be literally huge for the surfing community. "It's not the most accessible sport. You can't guarantee the waves, you can't guarantee the weather. So being able to build something here in the middle of Florida, in a spot that usually has year-round weather for surfing, now you can put it into a spot that couldn't really offer that."

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What would also unique about this project is its location, northwest of Disney, in Winter Garden, on the site of a former construction landfill. "Typically, if you're looking for some type of use, something that has a large footprint like this, where it's very large what looks like concrete footprint might be a good fit," Wilson said.

Company Ocean Sports Development was behind the project. It would be open to the public but also cater to competitive surfers at the professional, college, and high school levels.

"So surfing was already a really big thing in the United States, but now that it's becoming more mainstream, they're trying to push it more into college and more online, so that people can really get into the sport," White said.

The surf park is still in the early stages of planning. Developers said they looked forward to sharing more details in the coming weeks. County leaders said it has the potential to be a big draw for the community.

"I think any recreational and sports investments end up being great for our region, right?" asked Wilson, "Because people do gravitate to those things."