The best wave in Bristol, England is back online. Photo: The Wave
It was the British Prime Minister Harold Wilson who said that a week is a long time in politics. Well, old Hazz might say that a weekend is even a longer time when it comes to wave pool states of affairs in the United Kingdom.
On Friday, we reported that The Wave, located in Bristol, announced it was closing indefinitely. The Bristol-based project had shut suddenly, canceled bookings, and most of its website was inoperable. Its future looked in doubt.
And yet, as of Tuesday, July 1, the park was back open for business, with the swell rolling in 12-wave sets and bookings being taken. It was good news for the site’s employees, and also for competitors in the English Para Surfing Open, which is now set to run this week.
And yet in those three days, well, a lot of shit went down. After The Inertia article, I received a press release from Sullivan Slater Partners, the majority owners in the Wave Group, which had been running the facility up until Friday.
They announced that on Friday, the Bristol site under the entity Surf Bristol Limited, having been placed into a technical insolvency the day before, was sold by the administrator, Begbies Traynor Group (BTG).
This removed the business from the staff and majority shareholder Sullivan Street Partners, who said they had built and grown the park over the last three years, including a $40-million investment in 2023. They had been working on a refinance deal to see all creditors being repaid and to continue to operate the park. It’s worth noting that a report of the debts and creditors hasn’t been released at this stage.
“A previous minority shareholder and individuals associated with the shareholder chose to pursue personal returns, significantly acting out of step with their moral and fiduciary duties,” said the press release by Sullivan Street.
They have since clarified to The Inertia that the minority shareholder was the Asheshov family, a wealthy family backer of The Wave through JAR Wave, the family’s private investment vehicle. In 2023, JAR Wave’s fund manager Francis Menassa went bankrupt, the group’s assets were frozen, leaving it unable to process interest payments made by The Wave Group to JAR Wave.
At the time, Sullivan Street said another JAR director, Nicholas Asheshov, had confirmed that half of the unpaid interest would be converted into equity. However, once JAR Wave was unfrozen in late 2024, Nicholas abruptly reversed his position, claiming he never had the authority to agree to any of the above.
“His actions – coordinated with his cousin Nicholas Feron, now based in Switzerland – have since exposed their true intention: for management to deploy company cash, and then to use legal maneuvers to take control of the business at a discount,” Sullivan Partners told Rayo, a Bristol radio station.
Sullivan Partner’s press release also claimed that assets had been appropriated illegally, with systems being hacked and frozen, and that they had simultaneously been the victim of a cyber attack. However, they have since rowed back on that statement saying, “We are not making allegations at this stage as it is sensitive and requires legal analysis.”
Later that Friday, The Wave’s CEO Hazel Geary announced that it had been sold by the Administrator to a company called Sea Level Wave Company Ltd, which was formed in April this year. That company would run the park and had appointed Julian Topham to step into the role of interim CEO. He is also registered as the sole director. Topham founded and runs the Boardmasters Surf Festival in Newquay and the Vision Nine entertainment business in the UK.
“I have worked in the surf industry for 25-plus years and in my view The Wave is an extremely important part of the UK surf community and has the ability to grow and support a diverse and inclusive surfing community,” said Topham in the announcement.
He is also both the CEO of the Blue Earth Summit, an environmental and business conference, and Surfing England, the national governing body for surfing in England.
Interestingly, Topham had taken over the Surfing England CEO role from Nick Hounsfield. Hounsfield was the key player and founder of The Wave, but in April, his firm The Wave Group Ltd. had moved from Bristol to London as it entered administration, and appointed BTG to manage the insolvency. Nick then resigned from the company at the end of May and the company was renamed to SBL Midco.
Hounsfield posted a video on social media over the weekend, largely talking through the genesis of the project over his 15-year involvement and supporting the new owners and CEO in their plans to keep the site running. There was, funnily enough, no mention of the reported debt, Swiss financiers, takeovers, creditors or corporate skulduggery.
And come Tuesday, that’s where the political landscape stands. The new group says it is committed to the long-term future of the facility, which has to be a positive. The pool was up and running in quick time.
Sullivan Street say they also want the park to succeed. “The Wave Group and Sullivan Street are doing their best to support the Bristol operation. Sullivan Street has been helping them on various fronts of their own accord, taking a “no hard feelings” approach.” They are still aiming to get planning off the ground for another site near London.
At this stage, it’s hard to tell whether this corporate chicanery has anything to do with the long-term viability of wave parks in general or is related to very distinct UK or Bristol’s site-specific circumstances.
Either way, the waves are running. For now.