How a Struggling Texas Wave Pool Became a Year-Round Sold-Out Sensation

In the latest episode of The Building Texas Show, host Justin McKenzie sits down with David Taylor and Luke Schock, co-owners of Waco Surf, to discuss how they turned a struggling Central Texas wave pool into a year-round sold-out destination. The episode, published May 27, 2026, traces the business's arc from a 2018 pilot of American Wave Machines technology at the original Barefoot Ski Ranch to Taylor and Schock's 2021 acquisition and today's expansion plans. Surprisingly, 99% of surfers at Waco Surf have never touched an ocean wave. The customer base has flipped from 99% professional surfers to 99% Texas families, reframing Waco as a surprising tourism and real estate story. "It's a community for people that want high access but not high walls," Schock says. "That's because we believe that the magic happens when you're sitting on the beach talking to the guy that, you know, it's his bucket list to come there." The co-owners also reveal their next move: Desperado, a 400-acre surf-anchored ranch community featuring a second surf pool, a 13-hole golf course, a hot springs resort, pickleball, and dirt-only roads. Unlike other surf communities worldwide, Desperado will not be a private, gated community. Deposits on Desperado homes are overwhelmingly from Texas-based families, with one exception: a Hawaii native whose family lives in New York and wants a centrally located meeting place. Taylor and Schock also discuss Waco's broader transformation. Taylor recounts how Tony Hawk quietly shows up at the local skate park at 7 a.m., films himself, and draws 200 people within fifteen minutes. They delve into Waco history, including the 1952 tornado that derailed the city's run at becoming the financial hub of Texas and pushed that growth toward Fort Worth. They cite the Hippodrome on Austin Avenue, where Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin once performed, as evidence of the city's pre-tornado vibrancy. Today, Baylor graduates are staying to open restaurants and buy real estate alongside the Magnolia-driven Chip and Joanna Gaines effect. Waco, sitting between Dallas, Austin, and Houston, is being repositioned as the heart of a new Texas surf culture. As Taylor notes, the migration of Waco itself has been just as dramatic as the wave pool's turnaround. Listen to this Episode