By R. Michael Brown, Writer| Producer & Former Field Engineer

In the lake in front of the Polynesian Hotel and Village, Disney World built a wave machine on an island to pump waves toward the hotel beach for surfing.

The company I worked for was doing some geotechnical work on it and I was the only surfer in the company so they sent me out to test the waves.

When the machine worked, which wasn’t very often, it would pump out a 2 foot closeout of murky swamp water.

There is only one photo that I’ve found of someone surfing the wave (above). A Disney employee newsletter ran the photo and said it was Dick Nunis surfing in the photo, the Disney executive that came up with the wave machine idea and acquired the $400,000 budget to build it. Might have been him but the newsletter also said it was a 5 ft. wave. That’s a stretch LOL.

It wasn’t a very powerful wave but it was strong enough to ride on a longboard AND wash away the man-made fine white sand beach next to the Polynesian.

I told them they should try to use larger/heavier grain size quartz beach sand; but, that’s tan and gray and they wanted pristine white – I’m sure for the Disney attraction brand or something. Powdery white sand only comes in tiny grain sizes and is easily moved by wind and waves. Erosion was instantaneous. Common sense really.

I was just an ocean engineering college student, employed field soils engineer, and surfer, so what did I know, right? They didn’t listen or try it.

It failed.

So the ride/attraction was cancelled and scrapped.

Nunis did finally get his wave machine with Typhoon Lagoon in 1989 – But that’s another story…