Kelly Slater’s Texas wave-pool dream just got hit by a $16 million breaker.
Austin Surf Club, a 333-acre private surf park and luxury residential community backed by the 11-time world surfing champion, has been swamped by more than $16 million in construction liens as work on the splashy project grinds to a halt, according to The Real Deal.
The ultra-exclusive development near Austin-Bergstrom International Airport has been hit with a least another $11.6 million in liens, bringing the total north of $16 million, the outlet reported, citing public property filings first reported by the Austin Business Journal.
The project is being developed in Del Valle, Texas, on the former site of NLand Surf Park, which closed in 2018.
Austin Surf Club is backed by Slater and Scottsdale, Arizona-based Discovery Land Company, with Chase Koch, son of billionaire businessman Charles Koch, and local tech startup figure Jasen Trautwein also connected to the ownership, according to The Real Deal.
The project’s controlling entity, Austin Surf Club Venture LP, raised roughly $66 million from investors, according to the Austin Business Journal.
But the luxury surf oasis has now slammed into a costly roadblock.
Project leaders acknowledged construction was paused in April, according to The Real Deal. That same month, the development was hit with $4.6 million in liens for work done in 2025 and 2026.
The latest round of liens has now pushed the total to more than $16 million.
Slater had personally hyped the project in a December video posted to Austin Surf Club’s Instagram account, pitching it as the next step in his manmade-wave empire.
“When we built the first one we just hoped people would want to come surf it and it would kind of catch on, and now we’re building a whole community around it here in Austin, Texas,” Slater said in the video. “If you’re gonna have people live in a community you got to be somewhere around where they want to be.”
“Austin sort of fell in our laps,” he added. “There’s a lot of stuff to do here, a lot of food, a lot of fun people around.”
Slater said the property had “the right infrastructure and permitting and all the things we needed to make the project happen.”
The development is centered on a 2,200-foot-long Kelly Slater Wave Co. surf lagoon and is planned as a mixed-use lifestyle community with 178 private residences, according to The Real Deal.
Surfer Magazine reported the residences average for $2.25 million, while club memberships track around $1.25 million.
The premium grounds are also slated to include a wellness spa, fitness centers, pickleball courts, fine-dining restaurants and a private brewery, according to Surfer.
The project has already attracted high-profile buyers, including Hollywood star and Austin mascot Matthew McConaughey, skateboard icon Tony Hawk and former New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, according to the outlet.
Brees, a former Texas high school football star, has also supported the project’s efforts to establish a Municipal Management District, according to The Real Deal.
That special taxing district would allow the development to generate property-tax revenue and help fund infrastructure improvements, including roads, utilities and wastewater systems.
The petition said the project needed roughly $171 million in infrastructure improvements, according to The Real Deal.
The controlling entities have also filed paperwork to remove the development from Austin’s extra-territorial jurisdiction, a move that could cut through some local red tape.
It was not immediately clear whether the liens have been resolved.
In the December promo video, Slater framed Austin Surf Club as more than just another wave pool.
“While this thing’s gonna be real, we’re gonna build a community inspired by discovery, doing it with Discovery,” Slater said, adding that his friendship with Discovery Land Company founder Mike Meldman “made this thing gel.”
“This property was here to be made into this wave,” Slater said. “And I think this will be something I spend the rest of my life doing.”
The Texas turmoil comes after Slater’s manmade-wave empire already made a major splash in California.
Slater’s famed surf ranch in Lemoore was born only after his team killed off a far stranger plan: a circular surfing “merry-go-round” that would have churned out a nonstop spherical wave.
The idea was eventually ditched for the now-famous 2,300-foot rectangular lagoon, where a hydrofoil system creates one of the most precise artificial waves on Earth.
Austin Surf Club was supposed to be another elite entry in Slater’s surfing empire — a private, residential surf paradise where members could ride perfect waves far from the ocean.
Instead, for now, Slater’s luxury Texas surf dream is stuck in choppy water.
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