Inland surfing resort near Roseville gets green light from Placer County
Surf's up in southern Placer County as plans to build a new inland surfing resort near Roseville have now been approved.
Chris and Andrea Gallardo are the founders of Alchemy Surf Resort, an action sports business that's proposed to be built in the Placer One neighborhood just north of Roseville, near Foothills and Sunset boulevards.
Plans call for creating a 5-acre lagoon where people can surf on artificially created waves.
"There are about 25 different wave types, so we can create a wave one hour for a beginner and the next hour can be an advanced wave," Chris said.
The resort will feature a three-story, 100-room hotel along with a beach and bungalows. The site will host other recreational activities like swimming pools, a cold plunge and skateboarding.
"It's something that anyone can come and families of any age and any type of ability can learn," Andrea said.
The resort is another effort to attract sports tourism to southern Placer County.
Roseville opened up an outdoor soccer complex last November with 10 lighted fields, and the Grounds routinely hosts large basketball and volleyball tournaments that draw in thousands of players from across the West.
"It's just a really great opportunity for jobs in the community," Andrea said.
The resort is being built in an area that's seeing rapid growth, with the population increasing 57% in just the last decade.
The project was approved by the Placer County Planning Commission this week.
"It's extremely easy to learn and that's one of the things that makes these facilities so neat is that they're really changing the sport," Chris said.
The resort is expected to create about 200 part-time and full-time jobs.
One of the biggest surfing benefits may be the water temperature.
Northern California ocean currents average around 55 degrees, but the lagoon water is expected to be in the mid-60s to 80s depending on the time of year.
