This Is Big Surf, the Arizona Wave Tank Where North Shore’s Rick Kane Came From

Remember when Rick Kane won the contest at the wave pool, won a giant check worth a life-changing $500, and announced to the world that he was going to surf the big waves of the North Shore? Of course you do! Rick Kane, if you’ll remember, hailed from Tempe, Arizona, which is where Big Surf is. “The classic 1987 movie North Shore is loosely based on a surfer from Big Surf,” wrote the Active Times. Big Surf has been around for a really long time, too—it opened its doors way back in the late-60s, and although wave pool technology has rendered it almost irrelevant when it comes to actually surfing, it is still the place where Rick Kane started on his journey to becoming the best soul surfer at Pipeline.