Atlantic Park Surf: Everything You Need to Know

Atlantic Park Surf is the latest wave pool to join the stage of synthetic surfing. Like the rest of the East coast, Virginia Beach suffers from a bad case of inconsistent waves — but no longer. Atlantic Park Surf’s cutting-edge wave lagoon aims to make this a problem of the past. 

History of Atlantic Park Surf 

Atlantic Park Surf is the first Wavegarden Cove facility in the United States. Wavegarden is a Spain-based wave tech company, which currently has 12 surf parks in operation and more than 10 surf parks under construction across the world. 

Backed by music mogul and Virginia Beach native Pharrell Williams, Atlantic Park claims to be the closest human-made wave to the actual ocean, a feat that has eluded most wave pools. The surf lagoon opened to the public on Aug. 16, 2025. 

“There are other surf parks in the world, but none like Atlantic Park,” claims the wave pool on their website. Big brand names including YETI, Ripcurl, Sunbum, and Dryrobe have already been named official partners of Atlantic Park, according to press releases from the company. 

Senior Director of Community Marketing for YETI, Joe Koehly, said, “The Atlantic Park Surf team is doing incredible work to grow the sport and create a premier destination to bring the surfing community together, whether you’re a beginner or a professional,” in an article from Wave Pool Mag. 

On Oct. 5, 2025, the wave park hosted Ripcurl’s North America GromSearch National Final, the first surf competition held at Atlantic Park Surf.

A week later, Pharrell Williams made a visit for "Atlantic Park Weekend Celebration" from Oct. 10 to 11, a collaboration event with Ebony Beach Club. With several successful events under their belt and even more in the works, Atlantic Park Surf is off to a strong start in their first few months. 

Types of Waves 

Similar to the way ski resorts use shapes and colors to convey the level of expertise each ski trail is suitable for, Atlantic Park uses its own system of shapes and colors to differentiate wave types and session levels for surfers. Here’s a breakdown of all of the wave types and skill levels that Atlantic Park lists on their website. 

In addition to private and public sessions, the wave pool also offers group lessons and private coaching options for all levels.

The three wave categories are cruisers, turns, and barrels — pretty self explanatory. But within these three wave types, Atlantic Surf has designed nine different style surf sessions to cater to every surfers’ dreams and abilities. 

The beginner session offers small, gentle, whitewater waves perfect for learning to surf. Novice waves are the next level up, allowing surfers who have mastered whitewater waves to practice on knee-high, open-face waves. 

The progressive session offers slow, peeling, waist-high waves, perfect for surfers working on their take-off and cruising down the line. Intermediate sessions take it up a notch with faster breaking waves around chest-high, good for shortboarders working on turns. 

Advanced sessions offer quick, snappy, head-high waves for fast turns, crisp cutbacks, and noseriding. Advanced plus is the newest session on the menu, with Atlantic Park’s Turn 2 (T2) and Turn 3 (T3) settings, which are great for high performance surfers. 

Expert sessions include a variety of powerful, fast-paced waves with hollow sections that allow surfers to carve, turn, cutback, and get barreled. Professional sessions have the biggest, steepest, most powerful waves that feature critical sections that require professional skills to ride. 

Finally, the professional barrel session includes only the largest and most powerful waves, hollowed out for perfecting barrel navigating skills. 

Prices vary based on the session of your choosing, with the lower level sessions typically costing less than the higher level ones. 

What Can You Do Other Than Surfing? 

The surf lagoon sits at the center of the $350 million Atlantic Park complex, surrounded by resort-style poolside cabanas and lounges for guests.

But Atlantic Park offers a lot more than a wave pool and beach-esque hangout spot for guests. It is also home to a 309-unit apartment complex, 20 luxury lodging suites, creative office space, several retail and dining options, and a sparkling new live music venue, the Dome. Some attractions are still in development. 

The 70,000-square-foot concert venue is a revival of a venue of the same name that closed in 1994 and hosted music icons including Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones, according to an article from Virginia Business.

The first show in the upgraded Dome was performed by Three Dog Night in May of 2025, which was also the last band to perform at the previous Dome before its demolition. 

Outside of Atlantic Park’s entertainment venue is a public plaza that will be used as a community space, with plans to host events like arts fairs, markets, free performances, and more, according to their website.

How to Get There 

Atlantic Surf Park is located on Atlantic Avenue between 18th and 20th Street at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront, in the ViBe Creative District. It’s so close to the ocean that you can probably smell the saltwater at low tide. 

Paid parking is available on 20th Street and 17th Street for Atlantic Park guests, and there are various street parking and parking garage options available around the area. 

If you’re planning a trip, the nearest major airport is Norfolk International Airport (ORF), only a 20-30 minute drive from the Oceanfront area where Atlantic Park is located. There are plenty of lodging options around Atlantic Park, and plenty of other local activities in addition to a day at the surf park.

Bottom line 

Atlantic Park is the first of its kind in terms of mixed-use surf-centric spaces. It’s setting the tone for the future of wave parks, a blooming industry on track to compete with ski resorts, water parks, and theme parks in the near future.

The sport of surfing is growing exponentially, and wave pools are the latest technology to keep up with its growth. The bar is only getting higher.