Revel Surf Park Review: A Desert Surf Trip with Team Badfish

My business partner and co-founder of Badfish, Zack Hughes, is frothing. He’s pacing around the parking lot, anxiously digging for gear out of the trailer and generally acting like a nine-year-old who’s not being let into the living room on Christmas morning.

“What time is it?!” he shouts across the crew of twelve people who are just as amped, hoping they’ll let us in to play soon.

“About a minute and a half since you last asked,” I reply.

The object of everyone’s excitement and the reason we hauled a dozen friends and employees to Mesa, Arizona is Revel Surf Park.

Revel is a new-school resort for people like us who would rather surf and skate than play pickleball or golf (no shade to either). Centered around an ocean-style wave pool, Revel Surf also includes a bar and restaurant, retail shop, skate park, cliff-jumping pool, and a standing wave pool for river surfing.

We’re here in mid-December to test our 2026 surfboards, but we’re also here to have some fun with our crew and escape the driest start to winter the Colorado mountains can remember.

First Impressions of Revel Surf Park

Revel Surf is part of the larger Cannon Beach development, which is still under construction and will eventually include commercial, retail, and residential spaces spread across 37 acres. For now, there’s more than enough to keep our crew entertained.

As they open the gates and let us in, our group, ranging in age from late teens to folks in their 50s, reacts like a cage full of monkeys finally released at the zoo. The sound of skateboards hitting concrete, shouts of “check this out,” and a giant pile of surfboards and gear announce our arrival.

Mesa is an easy day’s drive from Salida, and Revel does an impressive job of making you feel like you’ve stepped into a surf paradise somewhere far more exotic. An open-air bar and restaurant sit just behind a white sand beach with palm trees, all looking out over the ocean-style wave lagoon.

Surfing the Ocean Wave Pool

The surf lagoon delivers a clean A-frame wave every few minutes, with settings that range from the reeling “V-Land” barrel to mellower options like “Malibu” and “San-O.” These rampy settings offer plenty of time for surfers to get to their feet and go either right or left.

Experienced surfers in our group gravitated toward the higher-performance settings named after iconic breaks like Trestles. Less experienced surfers preferred the Malibu setting, which is more forgiving and ideal for long boards.

The wave itself is generated by a clever system developed by Swell Manufacturing. Surfers sit right at the gates that create the wave, and every few minutes an A-frame breaks left and right. Two surfers go at a time, dropping in side-by-side before peeling away from each other down the line. Once you kick out at the beach, there’s plenty of time to paddle back to the lineup.

I’m far more comfortable surfing rivers than oceans, and I left feeling like this place would be an incredible way to tune up for an ocean surf trip—or just improve overall.

The Standing Wave Pool (River Surfers, Take Note)

Right next to the ocean pool is a Unit Technology standing wave pool that creates a river-style wave very similar to our home spot, or City Wave technology like Lakeside Surf in Washington.

With very little water in the Arkansas River this winter, a wave pool felt like the closest thing to surfing at home on our new 2026 shapes. You launch from sitting on the wall or bomb dropping in, just like home, and all our core river surfing boards like the Wave Farmer and ShredTown performed perfectly on the wave in addition to some new shapes we have coming in the Spring.

The wave is 33 feet wide, roughly the same width as the Scout Wave in Salida, with plenty of room to pump across the face and wind up for big frontside or backside turns. Sessions are an hour long and affordably priced. We booked multiple back-to-back sessions, and even with a full group everyone got plenty of wave time.

Revel also offers a river surf league pass, which lets you book any open session in a month for $300—well worth considering if you’re planning more than a couple of days there.

Winter Surfing Tips at Revel

December in the desert is warm by mountain standards, with daytime temps climbing into the upper 70s, but wetsuits are still necessary. I was comfortable in a wetsuit top, while some of the skinnier folks appreciated a full 4/3.

The water isn’t heated, so if you’re visiting in winter, plan accordingly and bring insulation.

More Than Just Surfing

Between sessions, there’s no shortage of fun. The cliff-jumping pool and surf-skate-style skate park felt like a dream setup for aging skaters and people who want to carve some concrete banks like the face of a wave. We even kicked back at the bar and watched our hometown Broncos beat the Packers while some of the crew surfed the lagoon.

We rented a nearby Airbnb that appeared to be designed exclusively for bachelor parties, complete with a ridiculous backyard, putting green, outdoor TV, and a hot tub—perfect for post-surf recovery.

Final Thoughts on Revel Surf Park

Revel Surf is well worth the trip for inland surfers looking for a quick-hit surf mission with guaranteed waves, or for anyone wanting to improve their surfing in the off-season.

There are plenty of dining options in the surrounding development, including a Hawaiian BBQ spot if you want to keep the surf-trip vibes rolling through lunch. The staff is incredibly friendly—no beat-it-kook vibes here.

On the drive home, the evidence of a successful weekend was clear: younger crew members passed out in the back seats, while middle-aged dudes drove, popped ibuprofen, and stopped every few hours to loosen up stiff backs.

Revel Surf delivered for Team Badfish…and we’ll be back.