![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_UK-Adaptive-Surf-team-at-The-Wave-Bristol-1.jpg\")
The UK Adaptive Surf team at The Wave in Easter Compton, Bristol(Image: Image Cabin)<\/p>\nThe inland surfing facility is still closed as the row over who owns it becomes acrimonious<\/p>\n
12:11, 30 Jun 2025Updated 13:30, 30 Jun 2025<\/p>\n
The UK Adaptive Surf team at The Wave in Easter Compton, Bristol(Image: Image Cabin)<\/p>\n
The future of The Wave Bristol, the inland surfing lake near Cribbs Causeway, remains uncertain as the messy row over its ownership, debt, administration and management descended into acrimony and the involvement of the police, over the weekend.<\/p>\n
The Bristol site has now been sold by the administrators, who Bristol Live revealed last week had been called in<\/a> by one of its major shareholders back in April.<\/p>\n But the site remains closed for the time being, and an apparent plan to reopen it on Saturday collapsed late on Friday night.<\/p>\n The Wave now appears to be owned by a new company called Surf Bristol Limited, with a new group of investors taking over the site.<\/p>\n They have named Julian Topham as its interim chief executive during what they call a \u2018transition period\u2019.<\/p>\n Mr Topham is the man who founded and runs the Boardmasters surf and music festival in Cornwall, and another company called Vision Nine.<\/p>\n Mr Topham, who is also the chairman of Surfing England and the Blue Earth Summit, asked for patience while this new team get together to reopen The Wave.<\/p>\n \u201cI have known about The Wave since it was just an idea, and have surfed it many times since it opened in 2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI have worked in the surf industry for 25+ 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.<\/p>\n “I want to ensure it stays that way, and thrives, for the long term.<\/p>\n \u201cWe appreciate there has been huge uncertainty in the last week, for so many people, especially our wonderful Wavemaker staff, customers, and partners, so a big thank you for your understanding.<\/p>\n “There will be a short period of transition as a company changes hands and we get up to speed, but we are doing everything we can to make this as smooth and as fast as possible, and get The Wave open again.\u201d<\/p>\n Sign up to receive daily news updates and breaking news alerts straight to your inbox for free here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n The sudden sale on Friday, which came after The Wave suddenly closed on Thursday (June 26) last week<\/a>, appears to have scuppered the plans the previous majority shareholder said it had to reopen The Wave on Saturday, so now the 200 staff who work there still face an uncertain future.<\/p>\n The Wave\u2019s website, which was essentially closed down on Thursday, did reopen over the weekend, but bookings are \u2018paused\u2019 on the site, and customers redirected to Mr Topham\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n The complex web of companies and shareholdings that were running the site and employing the staff, and were struggling to pay off the estimated \u00a315 million are now split acrimoniously, with one accusing the other of deliberately \u2018undermining\u2019 their efforts to refinance the business and reopen it sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n The business which owned and managed the site was called The Wave Group, which went into administration back in April, a move which saw the man who founded and ran the project – Nick Hounsfield – forced out.<\/p>\n Its majority shareholder was a London-based investment firm called Sullivan Street Partners, which had taken on a large share of the millions of debt it took to build The Wave itself and get it through Covid.<\/p>\n Sullivan Street Partners said it had invested and grown the business over the past three years, but when a minority shareholder, called JAR Wave, went into administration, it took The Wave Group with it.<\/p>\n Since then, administrators have been involved in restructuring the company, overseeing the departure of Mr Hounsfield and saying they are offering the site up for sale. Things came to a head late last week.<\/p>\n On Thursday, the administrators closed down The Wave giving staff no warning, and said the site had gone into \u2018technical insolvency\u2019.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Bristol’s The Wave is expanding with more locations set to open across UK soon<\/a>READ MORE: The Wave closes suddenly as surf facility battles debt and administration<\/a><\/p>\n At the same time, Sullivan Street Partners said they were working on a refinancing deal of their own, which would have taken The Wave back out of administration and got it reopened.<\/p>\n Sullivan Street Partners said on Friday they had been close to sorting that out, so that The Wave would be able to reopen on Saturday, only to discover that the administrators BTG had sold The Wave from under them to a new consortium.<\/p>\n \u201cThese actions have unnecessarily removed the business from the staff and majority shareholder Sullivan Street Partners, which have built and grown the park over the last three years,\u201d a spokesperson for Sullivan Street Partners said.<\/p>\n \u201cA 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,\u201d they alleged.<\/p>\n \u201cThe sequence of events, in immediate hindsight, now appears to have been long planned to undermine all efforts to deliver a full refinance in an orderly fashion.<\/p>\n “Instead, issues have been raised over the past month and over the last several hours, specifically aimed at achieving the goal of grabbing the business at an undervalue and prejudicing other creditors in the process,\u201d they claimed.<\/p>\n According to Sullivan Street Partners, they still own \u2018The Wave\u2019 name, so if or whenever the surfing park does reopen, the new owners won\u2019t be able to call it \u2018The Wave\u2019.<\/p>\n Sullivan Street Partners also said they have called the police after they were the victim of a cyber attack at the same time all this was going on.<\/p>\n Sullivan Street Partners allege assets associated with The Wave park have been \u2018appropriated illegally with systems being hacked and frozen\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have simultaneously been the victim of a cyber attack with all data having been stolen \u2013 this may or may not be connected to the other assaults on the company,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe latter has also meant customers could not be contacted to make them aware of the potential compromise to their data. The police have been informed,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n Sullivan Street Partners claimed that at 5.57pm on Friday, Jun 27, they were ready to announce the reopening of The Wave the next day, Saturday, only to discover that the site had been sold, so reopening it was \u2018no longer possible\u2019.<\/p>\n Sullivan Street Partners had been the London investment firm that Nick Hounsfield brought in to expand The Wave to other locations around the country<\/a>, including one in London itself.<\/p>\n The investment company said it still planned to do that, under The Wave brand.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Wave Group remains on track to open an amazing site in London in 2027 and has several other opportunities under development,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhilst this is very disappointing to see a site we have built brick by brick over the last ten years face this disruption, we are mostly sorry for the upset the actions of others have caused for Wavemakers and clients of The Wave.<\/p>\n \u201cWe march on and are determined to continue our mission to deliver an exciting inland surf experience for all,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n Join Bristol Live\u2019s WhatsApp community for top stories and breaking news sent directly to your phone<\/strong><\/p>\n Bristol Live<\/a> is now on WhatsApp and we want you to join our community.<\/p>\n Through the app, we\u2019ll send the latest breaking news, top stories, exclusives and much more straight to your phone.<\/p>\n To join our community you need to already have WhatsApp. All you need to do is click this link and select \u2018Join Community\u2019.<\/a><\/p>\n No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Bristol Live<\/a> team.<\/p>\n We also treat community members to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. 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The Wave at Easter Compton has attracted thousands of surfers since it opened in 2019(Image: Nick Hounsfield)<\/p>\n![\"Nick](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/2_The-Wave-Founder-Nick-Hounsfield.jpg\")
Nick Hounsfield, the founder of The Wave<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1744476931_129_0_WhatsApp-Phone.jpg\")
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