«The first artificial wave pool opened for business in London, of all places, in 1934. In 1966, Tokyo’s Summerland amusement park built a new wave pool, the “Surf-a-Torium,” and, for the first time, artificial waves were ridden by surfers. The surf media at the time went understandably nuts, proclaiming a near-future of perfect waves sloshing around wave pools in cities all over the world.» SM