DSRT Surf pairs a large-capacity Wavegarden Cove with a full resort footprint in a location that genuinely has no comparable wave technology nearby. The multi-zone lagoon layout is designed for mixed skill levels, but the park has not yet opened and has published no pricing, so it is impossible to say yet whether it will be accessible to everyday surfers or skew toward a premium crowd.
DSRT Surf is a surf resort under construction at the Desert Willow Golf Resort in Palm Desert, California, targeting a summer 2026 public opening. The centerpiece is a 5.5-acre Wavegarden Cove lagoon with 52 modules capable of producing up to 1,000 waves per hour. As of mid-June 2026, the lagoon had been filled with water and the site was reported to be nearly ready to open.
The Wavegarden Cove system here runs on 52 modules that fire in sequence to push a continuous swell across the 5.5-acre, roughly 7-million-gallon pool. This is only the second Wavegarden Cove installation in the United States. The lagoon divides into multiple simultaneous zones: rights and lefts peel off a central peak, a dedicated beginner section runs softer rolling whitewater, and separate areas are tuned for aerial maneuvers and performance-carve walls. Teton Gravity confirmed the configuration as rights, lefts, beginner rollers, air sections, and performance walls all running at the same time. The Wavegarden Cove wave menu includes a barrels category, and Raised Water Research notes the site should produce barrel-shaped waves alongside the whitewater end of the range. Wave face heights are estimated at 2 to 6 feet based on the Cove technology's known output, but DSRT Surf has not published an official wave height specification. Sessions are expected to run approximately one hour. Capacity is reported at somewhere between 70 and 88 surfers simultaneously depending on the source, with up to 1,200 individual surf sessions per day.
The multi-zone layout makes the lagoon genuinely usable across skill levels in the same session window. Beginners get a dedicated soft-wave area separated from the performance sections. Intermediates can work on linking turns on the performance walls without competing for priority with more advanced surfers. Advanced surfers can target the barrel and air settings when those are scheduled. People traveling with non-surfers have real reasons to come: golf on two 18-hole courses, a spa, beach club, and pickleball are planned on-site. This is not a pure shortboarding specialist venue, and it is not a standing-wave FlowRider setup.
No session pricing has been published as of the research date. The developers stated publicly that they intend surfing to be accessible across income levels, and befenn.com reported that hour-long sessions are the expected format, but no dollar figures are confirmed. Comparable Wavegarden Cove parks internationally have typically charged in the range of $70 to $200 per session depending on wave setting and time of day; that comparison is offered for rough orientation only and should not be used for trip budgeting. Check dsrtsurf.com directly for pricing once it is announced.
The site sits inside the Desert Willow Golf Resort complex, approximately 20 minutes from Palm Springs International Airport and within two hours of central Los Angeles, making a day trip from SoCal realistic. Sign up for the email list at dsrtsurf.com since no public booking portal is live yet. If you plan to combine surfing with an on-site stay, verify hotel and villa availability directly before building a trip around it; those amenities are in later construction phases. Based on comparable Wavegarden Cove openings elsewhere, early session slots will likely sell out fast in the first weeks. Plan for heat: early morning sessions will be noticeably more comfortable than midday slots in summer months.
Technology
Wavegarden Cove