THE DESTINATION IS THE DESTINATION

May 07, 2024

BING TAKES WACO, TEXAS

 Travel is all about getting somewhere else. The journey, comically titled “the destination,” by some real masochists, feels more to me like a practical joke then a zen-buddha lesson in being present; a blur of drinking $9 Chardonnay while trying to stream Lego Batman across the isle and entertain a baby with a series of 10 second activities (tray table, crackers, seatbelt, headphones!). Of course, I am traveling with four small children in tow, so pretty much everything we do feels like a mix of torture, hilarity and punch-drunk love. Fortunately this adventure involved the outright guarantee of waves, which is why we came.

Our travel crew consisted of five adults—Bing master shaper Matt Calvani, Bing Boss-lady Margaret Calvani, Arianne, myself, my husband, Scott and combined our 8 children, ages nine and under.

The wave pool feels like an oasis amidst the miles of pasture fields. You could see a hundred videos of it and still be totally floored. Although, worth noting is that this is more of a commercialized Disney-like experience of surfing with a lot more rules than I think any of us were expecting in Texas (no standing on the wall! no switching people mid session! no outside drinks!).

We all chose to stay at the hotel on property, which made it easy to adjust to the two hour time change and roll out of bed into an 8 a.m. session. We primarily surfed the “Advanced” group sessions which accommodate 12 surfers and offer 4 wave sets on the “Peak” setting (kind of like a Trestles or Snapper wave). You get 30 minutes on the right, 30 minutes on the left and approximately 8-10 waves in an hour, which is exactly why I opted for convention over adventure in this circumstance. In a big surf crew with so many kids involved, no one has to be the “sacrifice” and surf the crappy, on-shore, wrong tide session. Plus, the kids got to surf the beginner sessions with the assurance that there were no sharks or sting rays, then spend the rest of the day playing Marco Polo, floating the lazy river and eating Tex-Mex.

As for boards, I rode my 5’3 Dart Swallow Tail. The Waco wave is pretty high-performance so it felt like it fit in the tight pockets better with its narrow tail. Matt, Margaret and Arianne shared a 5’6 Cypress and a 5’6 Dharma Mod. The kids rode the provided foamies in their “Beginner” sessions and the older boys tried each setting, including pro on their micro Bing Cypress boards.

Personally, I wasted some money on the “Pro” session missing waves. The fact that it costs roughly between $18-$30 for each wave, whether you ride it or not, definitely makes it feel a little more high pressure than the ocean (but markedly cheaper than Kelly’s pool). The hardest thing to adjust to for me is not looking over your shoulder to gauge the wave. It appears essentially out of nowhere and the in-water guides instruct you to paddle towards different landmarks, like a light pole or a logo, which makes it harder to make subtle positioning adjustments you might make when paddling a farther distance. Once you’re up though, it’s easy to focus more on your surfing than what the wave is doing since the wave is mostly the same each time.

All in all, we netted positive with a surprise thunder storm, eating watermelon with a spoon, one busted board, a few scrapes and bruises, barrels, matching pajamas and enough stoke to carry us through the next flat spell.

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