In this episode, we dive into an engaging conversation with the dynamic and driven Joey Lawrence.

Learn about Joey’s fascinating journey from a college athlete to a visionary entrepreneur, and learn about the ambitious Barreled surf park project that’s making waves in Yakima, Washington.

Joey’s brainchild – the Barreled Surf Park, a project that promises a thrilling experience just east of Yakima. The vision for the 5.5-acre wave pool with its 6.6 million gallons of water, adjustable wave styles, and an array of amenities like campsites, cottages, and a bar and restaurant, truly paints an enticing picture of adventure and relaxation.

Joey’s unwavering dedication to his venture is evident, from the amount of time and resources he has invested in the project to navigating hurdles in securing funding. He opens up about the difficulty in fundraising, exacerbated by rising interest rates and a local downturn in the market, shedding light on the challenges faced by aspiring entrepreneurs.

The commitment to responsible environmental practices is another key aspect of the Barreled project. Joey reveals plans for a retention area to minimize water usage on the farm, illustrating an earnest effort to reduce the park’s impact on the local aquifer. Additionally, the intention to limit the number of visitors per hour and obtaining a “dark skies” accreditation to mitigate light pollution underscores their conscientious approach to preserving the natural surroundings.

Beyond its promise of thrilling surf experiences, the surf park aims to be a catalyst for positive change in Yakima. Joey envisions a significant economic impact, creating year-round and seasonal job opportunities, and potentially attracting a new wave of tourism to the region.

Barreled Surf Park Joey Lawrence Episode Transcript

Hello friends, and welcome to the Exploring Washington State podcast. My name is Scott Cowan, and I’m the hostof the show. Each episode, I have a conversation with an interesting guest who is living in or from Washington state. These are casual conversations with real and interesting people. I think you’re gonna like the show. So let’s jump right in with today’s guest. Well, I’m sitting here today with Joey Lawrence. At first, I thought I was talking to the child actor. Now I think I’m talking to Jerry Garcia.

Scott Cowan [00:00:33]:

Because, Joey, Do you look do you look a lot like Jerry Garcia, who is a an icon in my life? So that’s a compliment to you. That’s not not not meant to be a slam. Jerry Garcia is my my my go to music choice all the time.

Joey Lawrence [00:00:47]:

So Well, you you helped point me in the right direction For Halloween costume, so thank you back.

Scott Cowan [00:00:52]:

Yeah. There we go. That was it. So so the backstory there is with Joey and I were talking about being, having Joey on on the show, it was right before Halloween, and he had mentioned in passing he was gonna go as Jerry Garcia. And I’m like, what? What did you you know, come on. And then he he showed me a picture, and I’m like, oh, well, god. There’s a there’s there’s a frightening similarity here. And so I gave him the, you know, black black T shirt, sweat pants, and you’re you’re You’ve got old Jerry.

Scott Cowan [00:01:16]:

Not that you’re old, Joey. I don’t mean it like that, but, you know, that was kind of Jerry’s iconic look there for more than half of his career was just this very casual T shirt, sweats. Let’s go play guitar.

Joey Lawrence [00:01:27]:

So Thankfully, that’s an easy costume to find. Exactly.

Scott Cowan [00:01:30]:

No. But Joey Joey, you have nothing to do with music. At least that’s not why We’re talking today. You are the guy behind Barreled, which hopes to be a surf park In the Yakima area, just east of Yakima. So we’re just go I’m just gonna say Yakima. I know it’s probably technically is that Moxie. But

Joey Lawrence [00:01:50]:

We’re Yakima County, technically.

Scott Cowan [00:01:51]:

Yakima County. But we’re just gonna shorten that for the for the purposes of the show today. Yakima. Sure. Sure. Sure. Now, You know, I’m gonna tee it up with just a softball question for you because everyone’s gonna go surf park. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:02:03]:

Come on. What? But let’s go with that. Why? First off no. We’re not gonna go there. I’m gonna back up. Stop. Sure. You went to the University of Washington.

Scott Cowan [00:02:16]:

I saw that. Yes, sir. What brought you to Yakima?

Joey Lawrence [00:02:20]:

First of

Scott Cowan [00:02:20]:

all, let’s go there first.

Joey Lawrence [00:02:22]:

Okay. Well, I mean, I’ll just start at The beginning because they all kind of, okay. Rely on each other. So initially, I grew up, just outside of Seattle in a town called Woodinville, Washington. It was there that my dad showed me a video of the The endless summer. I think I was in, like, 3rd grade. And I tell people, I don’t know if it was the adventure Or the surfing, but I fell in love with 1 of them or both. But Woodinville doesn’t have much of a home break.

Joey Lawrence [00:02:58]:

And so I ended up turning my attention to a different sport, gymnastics of all of all sports. I ended up, doing gymnastics for over 22 years. I competed at the University of Washington and then, chased the US national team goal, for a few years after. Unfortunately, that got cut short. The meet before the qualifying meet, I ruptured my bicep trying to do a strength move on the rings. And so it was time to retire. And that left me with the freedom to go travel and chase my endless summer. So I ended up moving to Australia, and doing my working holiday visa, for a year down there.

Joey Lawrence [00:03:48]:

It was there that I kind of realized that I could turn a hobby. My dad had introduced our whole family to scuba diving at a very early age. I could turn Hobby into a career path where it would give me the freedom to travel around the world. So I came back from Australia, with a plan to go seek my dive instructor course, broke, and I had one very very unfortunate dive experience, which shook my confidence, but I wanted to try to push through it.

So I came back to the States, and it was right then that, one of my fraternity brothers at University of Washington and his family were getting Bail Breaker Brewing Company started. And so yeah. They they needed somebody to help with Packaging and Schlupkegs in in the taproom, and, I needed to raise some money so I could go out on my scuba adventure. So I headed over here.

Joey Lawrence [00:04:51]:

I believe that was March of 2014.

Scott Cowan [00:04:55]:

Okay.

Joey Lawrence [00:04:56]:

And spent 9 months out here. I was getting all set to head to the Maldives to go get my scuba instructor license. I decided to go to the doctor, and get a physical because I didn’t know when I was gonna be back in the US. And they poked around and they found a big old tumor inside of me. And I have the nickname of the luckiest of the unlucky because when things go bad, they go pretty good for me. So the tumor, it took him a few months, but they figured out that it was benign. But obviously, I had to get it taken out. That set me back from going to the Maldives.

Joey Lawrence [00:05:38]:

So I ended up, spending the summer doing ATV tour guiding in near Denali National Park. And then I finally got back on to the path, Of the scuba instructor course, which was only offered every fall, in the Maldives. And so I headed out there, And it was pretty quickly evident that that scuba diving accident plus the time out of the water, left me pretty uncomfortable. I could get myself down, but I certainly didn’t think I could, be responsible for other people’s well-being underwater.

Okay. So time to hang up the reg. And so I was standing in the tropic surf shop, on the island of Kootahura in the Maldives, about 5 days before I was moving back home into my parents basement, basically, head hung low, ashamed that I couldn’t achieve my goal. I did get my scuba instructor license, but I I didn’t take it any further than that.

Joey Lawrence [00:06:49]:

Yeah. And so, let’s see what happened after that. Yeah. So then I came back from oh, so I was standing in the Tropic Surf Shop and, an Instagram video hit From Kelly Slater in December 2015 of his wave, his artificial wave that he created. And literally as soon as I saw it, I knew where it was supposed to go and what I was supposed to call it, And so I headed back home, into my parents’ basement in Woodinville.

Spent a year bit building a business plan because I knew the seriousness of the ask that I was about to make to potential investors. I knew this had to be pretty well researched. And so spent a year building the business plan, eventually We moved back over to Yakima in 2017, started working back at Baybreaker.

Joey Lawrence [00:07:47]:

I’m the taproom guy. So if you ever come into Baybreaker, I’ll be pouring you a beer. But that was to start the land search, and so the land hunt started in 2017.

Scott Cowan [00:07:57]:

Awesome. Gonna pause because I have a question about bill breaker. I was on the bill I was on the bill breaker website, and they have photos of all the crew.

Joey Lawrence [00:08:06]:

Yeah. Noticed

Scott Cowan [00:08:06]:

I noticed 22 things. Seems like every single guy has facial hair. Is that a requirement at Billbreaker that you have to be be rocking a big beard or have good facial hair?

Joey Lawrence [00:08:18]:

To be honest, it’s it’s kind of a it’s a brewery, it’s kind of a brewery uniform is Okay. Let’s see his tattoos. Glasses, A big beard. I don’t have any tattoos, but oftentimes a sleeve tattoo. It’s, it’s the look in the brewery world. Okay. Alright. Yeah.

Joey Lawrence [00:08:36]:

It’s We we don’t have to stay clean shaven. So Right. It’s nice.

Scott Cowan [00:08:39]:

So why yeah. Why do it if you don’t have to? So then the other question is, your photo on the bill breaker site, What on earth k. I’m gonna I’m gonna steal that photo from the bill breaker site. I’m gonna admit that publicly. I’m gonna post it with this with this interview, Because that photo cracked me up. What on earth happened, and who was that planned, or was that somebody just got lucky with a camera? What’s going on there?

Joey Lawrence [00:09:04]:

So I used to have a little fun with, Movember, and try to come up with some interesting funny posts During my travels and, and, actually, this was not planned by me. It was supposed to be a fantasy football bet, that the guy that I played was supposed to take on

Scott Cowan [00:09:26]:

Right.

Joey Lawrence [00:09:26]:

But he couldn’t make it. And I had built it up so much to all the guys In the brewery that I just took one for the team and and tried it myself. So that’s me drinking straight out of a bright tank. So from, like, probably, like, a inch and a half tube. Yeah. You know? Fire away.

Scott Cowan [00:09:47]:

That that photo’s pretty funny. Alright. So you spent a year in your parents’ basement researching everything, You move over and you start working a bell breaker to keep keep keep a roof over your head type thing. Yep. Yep.

Joey Lawrence [00:10:01]:

Keep the lights on.

Scott Cowan [00:10:02]:

And what you’re trying to do, and I’m gonna oversimplify it, is you’re trying to put a surf park in a primarily agricultural area that’s Considered high desert. So this all I mean, it it makes makes you on the surface, you go, But then I started researching a little bit more about the whole concept. And so my understanding is you guys have procured 80 acres of land. Is that is that correct?

Joey Lawrence [00:10:29]:

Correct. Yep. Okay.

Scott Cowan [00:10:31]:

You have worked through a lot of the permitting process. You’ve, answered a lot of questions that the public has had both Pro and con. And at this point, what I can see online is you guys are gonna develop About 40 acres of that, so about half, and the other half is gonna be restored back or if not restored, but kept, you know, raw.

Joey Lawrence [00:10:54]:

Yeah. A little less than that. 25 acres is about Okay. The plot. We have a 500 foot corridors wildlife corridors on the north and south. Okay.

Scott Cowan [00:11:02]:

Yep. So that’s all I mean, you you that all sounds like being a very good cautious steward. That’s awesome. I love that. But still, why Yakima? You said you saw this vision. I mean, I don’t think it’s a bad vision. I’m not trying to say that. I’m just trying to get you, like, why? Why Yakima? Why not why not anywhere? And I don’t mean anywhere else, like, in a bad way.

Scott Cowan [00:11:25]:

But, like, why Yakima? What what Yeah.

Joey Lawrence [00:11:27]:

Yeah. No worries. Of course. Of course. So, really, what I was chasing is I wanted to provide an Experience that was different enough from coastal surfing that it would be Convincing to the market to drive 2 hours the other way to come to my wave rather than spend it out there. Okay. And the way that I could best differentiate, from surfing that cold North Pacific water, is finding the Palm Springs of Washington. I know everybody hates that moniker in the area, but it does a pretty good job of describing the climate.

Joey Lawrence [00:12:08]:

And so it first and foremost, gives people the chance, to Surf in a rash guard in board shorts or a swimsuit, which I believe is the best and truest form to experience surfing. I’m not one to put on a tight wet suit. It gets me a little claustrophobic. Plus the the cold is not my friend. So, we’re hoping to provide an experience that that’s a little different.

So the weather was the first thing driving it, but there’s a lot of places east of the Cascades that have Good weather. Mhmm. And so the second thing that drove it is we were looking to we knew we were gonna be a seasonal operation, But we were looking to maximize our operate our operating season.

Scott Cowan [00:12:54]:

Mhmm.

Joey Lawrence [00:12:56]:

The reason hops grow in Yakima and not in places Like Ellensburg and Menacee is it sits about a 1000 feet lower in elevation than those places, which means it gets warmer earlier and stays warmer longer. And so that gives us the potential we we, at the moment, have put into our modeling operating season April 1st through October 31st.

I do believe the chance to operate at least through November is there. But, yeah. So that was the 2nd part, operating length season. The third thing is, centrally located between the 3 main population hubs. So it’s just 2 hours east of Seattle, most people don’t realize it’s that close. It’s also just 2 hours, northeast of Portland, and then it’s 3 hours south what is that? Southwest of Spokane.

Joey Lawrence [00:13:50]:

And so the 3 main Population hubs in the Pacific Northwest are all within reach of Yakima for a day trip.

Scott Cowan [00:13:58]:

I also think you’re overlooking or at least you left out. Tri Cities has got a much larger population base than we probably think of. And that’s what an hour and a half maybe, You know, just just coming up 84. I mean, you’ve got Tri Cities. So you really got 4 4 major metropolitan areas that you’re conveniently located too.

Joey Lawrence [00:14:22]:

Right. And the reason why we decided, Yakima instead of Tri Cities was twofold. Number 1, our research showed a pretty major drop off of people willing to drive 2 hours to things versus 3 hours. There’s there’s, there’s some sort of mental block that like, right at 2 and a half hours, people it’s like a movie. Right? 2 hour movie, I’ll go see. 3 3 hour movie. I gotta I gotta mentally prepare for it. Right.

Joey Lawrence [00:14:50]:

The other thing, well, kinda 2 other pieces. Number 1 is it is a tourism hub already. Most people don’t know this. I didn’t know this, But, I believe it was 2022, maybe 2021. They had 400,000 more, tourist visitors Then Lake Chelan did. Lake Chelan has a water park and a surf simulator. And so I Started digging into what types of people are coming.

Scott Cowan [00:15:22]:

Mhmm.

Joey Lawrence [00:15:23]:

And they’re all if you made a Venn diagram of of My target market and a lot of these groups, there’s a lot of overlap. They’re coming because they have become the, kind of the mecca of Pacific Northwest Sports tournaments, especially baseball, soccer, and softball Yep.

Which As a member of the Taproom crew, I can tell you drives a lot of business especially on the weekends, throughout the summer. They also are the east entrance to Mount Rainier National Park. Mhmm. So all the outdoorsy folks are coming through. They are also on the way to the gorge amphitheater for everyone south of Olympia. So next time the Grateful Dead, Get get on the reunion the extra reunion tour.

Joey Lawrence [00:16:12]:

Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:16:13]:

The re The reunion reunion reunion tour?

Joey Lawrence [00:16:17]:

Is that what they’re on now? Really cute.

Scott Cowan [00:16:19]:

They’ve, the the current what was the current, Lineup of dead and company, kind of broke up during the middle of this last tour. And then At the end of it, John Mayer has at the for the time being, gone on to a solo career. So we’ll see what we’ll see what happens.

Joey Lawrence [00:16:40]:

Well, next time you head to the gorge for whatever festival Exactly. Yeah. Maybe one of the The EDM concerts or whatever they call the, yeah, the the the live techno house music.

Scott Cowan [00:16:52]:

Yeah. It’s not my thing, but I I’d probably show up if if Fish or,

Joey Lawrence [00:16:56]:

you know Okay.

Scott Cowan [00:16:57]:

The Jam Bands. The Jam Bands. I’m kind of into the Jam Bands town.

Joey Lawrence [00:17:00]:

Right on. So Yeah. And then, yeah. So and then the last thing I wanted to just, touch on about why Yakima is, especially opposed to the Tri Cities because we get a lot of Questions about that. I do believe there is a rather distinct unique culture in Yakima Surrounding craft beverage, surrounding ag, that we kind of built our brand around, which

Scott Cowan [00:17:27]:

Joey Lawrence [00:17:27]:

told you I knew exactly what They call it barreled is not only one of the pinnacle surf maneuvers. It’s obviously, what they use to measure and age all sorts stuff in the Yakima Valley. And so there was kind of a rural ag tourism, Existing culture that we kind of piggyback it off of, that I think was a little a little bit lacking in Tri Cities as opposed to

Scott Cowan [00:17:54]:

Okay. No. That’s that’s very cool. I I think I think personally I mean, I think the the location is a great idea. I I I like the idea because it seems I think you need to be a little out. Yeah. Like, putting this in downtown Yakima or downtown anywhere would be a little Well, a, it’d be probably a lot more expensive. B, I just think the idea of driving out to to a destination kinda like the gorge.

Scott Cowan [00:18:21]:

Like, When the gorge opened, when you were a little kid or before you were born, you know, they didn’t have lights out in the parking lot.

Joey Lawrence [00:18:30]:

Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:18:30]:

I remember I went I went to I think I went to the 1st show at the Gorge, and you couldn’t find your car. You’re wandering around in a lumpy parking lot because it was in the field, and, you know, At at least that’s

Joey Lawrence [00:18:39]:

And nobody had the the remote the remote, Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:18:42]:

Nobody had remotes back then. We didn’t have cell phones back then. We had our lighters, and, you know, they were out of butane. And, anyway but the gorge Bridges evolved to it it evolved to this, you know, this iconic, destination that people willingly travel to from across the Tens of

Joey Lawrence [00:18:57]:

thousands. Hundreds of thousands.

Scott Cowan [00:18:59]:

Right. And then have you ever made the mistake of stopping in Ellensburg on the way home after a gorge show? Every gas station’s full. I mean, it’s it’s kind of The wave that hits, and I’m sure it goes Moses like, I’ve always gone west. I’ve never had to go east. Anyway, I think it’s great. You’re making this destination thing. I got a couple of questions. I mean, this is where I’ll start to bounce around a little bit, so I’m gonna this may be throwing you off.

Scott Cowan [00:19:20]:

And I’m not trying to, but this is the way my brain works.

Joey Lawrence [00:19:22]:

No problem.

Scott Cowan [00:19:23]:

So so how big Is the the pool, the wave pool, what’s the projected size of this thing?

Joey Lawrence [00:19:31]:

Sure. So we, have entered a Early partnership with a Spanish company called Wavegarden. Mhmm. And we are looking to implement their Cove technology, which I tell people to think of basically as the shape of a baseball diamond, and it ends up being A 5 and a half acre total area pool. So it’s a pretty dang big pool.

Scott Cowan [00:19:56]:

That’s a big pool.

Joey Lawrence [00:19:58]:

It’s 6,600,000 gallons. And so, Actually, most of the pool is about in 3 feet or so of water. Okay.

Scott Cowan [00:20:06]:

We need

Joey Lawrence [00:20:06]:

it to be really deep where we where we, make the wave, but then it Comes up onto an artificial, basically reef, and and comes into shallow water pretty quickly, that then reforms into little ankle biters that that people can, learn on with all the foam boards. So kinda get double bang for your buck on the wave.

Let’s see. The rest of the property is, we are gonna have overnight lodging. So we have 21 campsites that can have up to 4 tents. We’ve got 21 RV slots that have power but not water. And then we’ve got, kind of what we’ve dubbed our deconstructed hotel. It’s gonna be a series of kinda cottages, all that, all that corrugated metal that you see in in most rural structures, but we’ll have 10 1 bedroom, 10 2 bedroom, 3 3 bedrooms.

Joey Lawrence [00:21:03]:

And then there’ll be, our entrance building will be a surf barn, which is our merch shop and our surf shop. Our bar and restaurant will be modeled after a roadside fruit stand, kind of a whole foods, food court style with a hot station, cold station. So I think the best way to keep the most variety, because we’re hoping people come back over and over and over and over again. Right. And then our, our Locker rooms and kind of auxiliary rooms for birthdays and corporate events and, yoga classes. That’ll be our tractor shed. So that’s kind of like I said, it all sits on about 25 acres in total. K.

Joey Lawrence [00:21:45]:

The, and then going back to the pool real quick. The Just to let you know, we can basically pump out, up to a 7 foot barreling wave on demand, and then we are able to, manipulate that wave to turn into a longboard Malibu style wave. It could become a steeper wave for the short boards. There’s tons of variety in size and shape, which again will hopefully keep people Coming back over and over

Scott Cowan [00:22:15]:

again. So you mentioned that the the majority of the pool is about 3 and a half, 3 feet deep in the but you said where the waves are created is deeper. How about how deep is that part of the pool? Like, how deep ish.

Joey Lawrence [00:22:30]:

Yeah. I’d say I’d actually don’t know for for a fact. They they, I haven’t gotten that far into the, Into the relationship with the Wave Garden team that they’ve shared detailed specs just because Okay. Yeah. They’re understandably trying We keep a pretty close

Scott Cowan [00:22:46]:

Sure.

Joey Lawrence [00:22:46]:

Close, but

Scott Cowan [00:22:48]:

then Yep. You said something that, you know, I wasn’t prepared for, and that is that you can change the wave Style. So how is there now now I’ve got a vision of a guy sitting up at a with a bunch of levers, and he’s pulling levers to make the waves do certain things. But How often and how easy are and and you may not know the answer to this yet, but how easy is it to change that wave style? Can you do it

Joey Lawrence [00:23:13]:

I I

Scott Cowan [00:23:13]:

don’t know if that makes sense to do it this way, but can you do 3 barrels and then do 1 different type of wave? Or is it more like you set it up for a while And then later in the day, you may be changing over to a different style of wave.

Joey Lawrence [00:23:24]:

So as far as I understand, it can, change wave to wave.

Scott Cowan [00:23:30]:

Oh, wow.

Joey Lawrence [00:23:31]:

Think I do think there is, a, they’ve found that there is some issues, when you have some of the smaller waves. Obviously, the beginners are are paddling through. If a big wave comes through and crashes on them, it’s still a big wave crashing on them. So they try to match up skill levels.

Scott Cowan [00:23:49]:

See, I wouldn’t be a good guy at the controls because I’d be like, hey. This will be fun. Let’s you know you know? No. Just kidding.

Joey Lawrence [00:23:54]:

Oh, yeah. No. You you, there actually is a guy up at the controls that that that, stands guard and has emergency shutoff and all that good stuff. Okay. But, essentially, what’ll happen is, you’ll have 12 so if you got that baseball diamond in mind Right? The machine that creates the wave bisects it right down the middle. And so when the machine moves, it creates a right hander, and then when it returns back to Rest position, it creates a left hand.

Scott Cowan [00:24:24]:

Oh, wow.

Joey Lawrence [00:24:25]:

So, yeah. Again, I haven’t gotten much further than that, but that’s How far I understand it, they say that they can create up to a 1000 waves an hour, which is a wave every 7 seconds, which It’s kind of a ridiculous number in my in, in our estimation, so we even backed off of that for our financial model and went with a much more conservative 600 waves per hour. So

Scott Cowan [00:24:49]:

it was there. Okay.

Joey Lawrence [00:24:50]:

Yeah. That’s a wave every 15 seconds, is what that works out to be. But The the last thing I’ll say about kind of the variety of wave is I do believe that the bigger waves will have more of an effect on the Pool, kind of stabilization rate. It doesn’t settle as quickly obviously when you create bigger waves, which can affect the waves that are coming after it. And so, yeah.

Usually, again, I’ve I’ve my guess is that usually, they would have kind of a premium section Where the guys are having barrels, and they’d space them out just a little bit more, just because the guys are gonna get rolled under there and need a bit more time to recover. But yeah. Okay.

Joey Lawrence [00:25:37]:

That’s,

Scott Cowan [00:25:38]:

yeah. And then temperature, are you will this will this be heated? Is this gonna be just Ambient temperature, what’s that gonna look like?

Joey Lawrence [00:25:47]:

Yeah. So, we have not yet explored geothermal, so it comes with that caveat. But the only one of these pools that managed to get heated is the one in South Korea.

Scott Cowan [00:26:02]:

Joey Lawrence [00:26:03]:

And I heard through the grapevine that it cost an extra somewhere between 7 7 and $10,000,000 in infrastructure, And they had to be, located right next to a garbage incinerator. And so we were not wanting to be next to a garbage incinerator.

Scott Cowan [00:26:22]:

I don’t know why.

Joey Lawrence [00:26:23]:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. The pristine natural environment. Here’s your garbage burning. And so, we, yeah. We’re it’s gonna be ambient temperature.

Joey Lawrence [00:26:35]:

We’re expecting, especially on the On the shoulder seasons that you’re gonna need basically the same wetsuit that you’d need out on the Pacific. Right. But over time, in the The hot sun, we’re hoping late July, August, early September, the water will stay warm enough that you can At least we’re maybe a a shorty up top, but hopefully just a rash guard is what we’re hoping.

Scott Cowan [00:27:00]:

Well, in in 3 and a half feet isn’t that deep of water to warm up. I mean, that should, you know I mean, The the majority of the pool is pretty shallow, so that yeah. I would think that that and you’re circulating it, so I would think that it would I’m not a scientist. I may be completely wrong. But To me, it seems like it would warm up and be comfortable.

Joey Lawrence [00:27:16]:

Yes. I’m I’m gonna go with your scientific

Scott Cowan [00:27:19]:

Just we’re gonna

Joey Lawrence [00:27:20]:

I’m actually gonna Quotes you in my next presentation just

Scott Cowan [00:27:22]:

to see that. This guy who knows nothing thinks this.

Joey Lawrence [00:27:26]:

He said science.

Scott Cowan [00:27:27]:

This is science. Yeah. So then one thing I read, And I thought this was an interesting, accommodation that you guys are are making is that you you were working with a farmer who’s agreed to stop producing on Thirteen and a half acres are get plus or minus there so that the water that that would be used for production would be, So that the paw the pool isn’t net you’re words can be so hard for a guy who talks. Net 0. Net 0. Heaven. Yeah. Yep.

Scott Cowan [00:27:59]:

Yeah. That’s that’s very cool that you’re doing that, and that that the the guy is Willing to to work with you. It’s a great a great trade off, a great way of managing, in my opinion, great way of managing the resources. So 1 question I had was you said this is a seasonal park, so April to we’ll say April to November. What happens to the water? How do you what do you guys do with the with the pool during the off season? Do you have to drain it? Or how does how do you envision the off season looking?

Joey Lawrence [00:28:35]:

Yeah. So, we don’t have to drain it. So it works basically just like if you have a pool at your house. We’ll essentially shut it down for the winter winterize everything. Mhmm. All the all the pipes that are small enough to burst will will winterize. And then, to keep the pool, in decent shape from freezing over, they’ve found they actually have one of these built in the Alps in Switzerland. They have found, that as long as they create, like, these little microwaves, like, just a couple inches tall, it Keeps the ice from freezing or keeps the water from freezing is what I should say.

Joey Lawrence [00:29:10]:

Interesting. Okay. Yeah. And so no. We are we are not expecting To have to empty the pool even though we have the annual allotment. Actually, the only reason that we can foresee that we’d need to empty the pool is To use the water to stay within Ecology’s 5 year use it or lose it loss. Right. And so, Yeah.

Joey Lawrence [00:29:34]:

Other than that, it’s basically a closed loop system we’ll have to top off for pan evaporation obviously, which is a decent amount of water being being Such a large surface area, but as you said, we have that compensated coming out of a a water right that It was existing where we took it from, so there’s no, like you said, new water coming out of the ground, which is very important in the Yakima Valley.

Yeah. Huge lawsuits are still pending, over water rights. But yeah. No. Our we wanted to be pretty water water wise and actually that’s even people get a little scared because, in our proposal, we we propose digging to take pressure off of the aquifer because our domestic use doesn’t have the same need As for a 650 gallon per minute pump

Scott Cowan [00:30:34]:

Right.

Joey Lawrence [00:30:34]:

We just need less than a 100 gallon per minute pump. And so we are willing to incur the additional cost to put another well in the ground to make sure that we have A lesser effect for our, our domestic use has a lesser effect on the aquifer than it would if we had to flip on the 650, gallon pump every time.

Scott Cowan [00:30:54]:

Okay. And then I read or I heard somewhere you guys so one question I had was If you were to just drain the pool, that’s a lot of water just to go everywhere, which isn’t good either. So you guys are Planning a retention area as well. Is that correct?

Joey Lawrence [00:31:12]:

So the retention area already exists. Okay. The yeah. It’s already on the farm to our south. There’s a chance we may have to widen it just a little bit, but but not much. But they have found, water I don’t dechlorinates pretty quickly In, in wave breaking situations, when it’s all turned up like that. And so what they’re finding is that, in order to dump the water, I just need to hold it turned on for about 7 to 10 hours and and all the chlorine would dissipate. And then it’s Water that’s ready to go that we would pump into the retention pond, and then they could use on the crops.

Joey Lawrence [00:31:58]:

And so Yeah. We, our belief is that, water is precious of a resource as it is in the Yakima Valley, can be used a little bit more efficiently, I e getting an extra use out of it before it ends up on the crops, either a recreational use or, I can’t really think of any other, use at the moment, but, but some sort of recreational use That we then end up putting that water on the crops because the the crops is the end of the water life cycle.

Scott Cowan [00:32:31]:

You can’t

Joey Lawrence [00:32:31]:

use the water on anything else after that. So let’s use let’s let’s try to let’s try to get a revenue generator out of it before it goes to the end of life cycle.

Scott Cowan [00:32:42]:

Okay. Another thing I was reading was that there has been some public concern about traffic. And what I saw as a response was you’re gonna have a reservation system, and maybe was it a 100 people an hour Using the pool, is that was that an accurate number?

Joey Lawrence [00:33:03]:

Yeah. Yeah. So I tell people to think of this like a summer ski resort conceptually, but not operationally. It’s not gonna be a big rush to first chair, and then people just keep pouring in over the course of The day till till it’s packed beyond reason. Like I said, this will the the pool itself will the surf pool will all run on hourly reservations.

And so with a 100 people maximum, plus all the carpooling, we don’t think it’s gonna be a ton of of, additional traffic. But the other thing that we we tell people to keep in mind is is Development is coming. Less than 2 miles as the crow flies to our west, there’s 600 homes that are going in.

Joey Lawrence [00:33:55]:

2 miles to our southwest, there’s another couple 100 homes going in, and And kind of my our our impact on the traffic, spectrum would be a whole lot less than a 600, 500, home development, Which seems to be kind of the, common theme in the area, especially when you realize, the quality of the view that we have. It really is premium real estate up here.

Yep. And so, Yeah. We just We kind of like to think of it like Yakima built the Yakima Country Club in East Valley, And some of the neighbors weren’t that excited about it, but look how much of a positive influence the Yakima the Yakima Country Club has been on East Valley. We’re trying to put in the next generation golf course. It’s a surf park.

Scott Cowan [00:34:51]:

Mhmm.

Joey Lawrence [00:34:51]:

And so, Yeah. We’re hoping we’re hoping that people can see that the that we’re willing to invest money in a project that Really lifts the entire area, both economically, from a real estate standpoint. And so, Yeah.

We’re we what we tell people is is all change is scary, but not all change is bad. Right. And and we think we’ve demonstrated through our research, through others research, that we are bringing a net positive. There are some things that are gonna change Traffic, there are gonna be more cars. And so, yeah, a little bit more noise, but we have a 40 acre barrier in between the the That secondary 40 acre parcel that we have for, habitat offset actually sits between us and our neighbors.

Joey Lawrence [00:35:48]:

So the closest the pool will get to our property line is a quarter mile. The closest the next closest house is a half a mile. So we, we’re not putting in we don’t have plans to put artificial lights in. We wanna we wanna qualify for a a a dark skies, qualification. What

Scott Cowan [00:36:09]:

is that? Let me interrupt you because that was in my notes to ask you, and so you brought it up. What is what is dark sky?

Joey Lawrence [00:36:16]:

So it’s it’s a it’s an accreditation. They mostly do municipalities, I think, but they will do individual projects, and it’s essentially that you are you have been smart about your lighting choices, And your lighting choices are causing the least amount of light pollution possible. Because, again, I’m I’m from a suburb. You got to see a star or 2 over on on the west side. But over here, I actually bought a house in the area because I I believe And what I say about traffic and water, out here, you’re you get to see some pretty good stars, and

Scott Cowan [00:36:55]:

Yes. You do.

Joey Lawrence [00:36:56]:

And we want we want our patrons and guests to the chance to see him.

Scott Cowan [00:37:00]:

That’s awesome. Walk me through what you envision. I okay. I’m gonna paint a scenario that’s completely fake because I’m about to say I’m gonna go surfing, And that’s just isn’t this is not gonna happen.

But I show up at Barreld. I’ve got a a reservation for, say, 11 AM For an hour, how many waves walk me through how you know, it’s like when you go to a ski resort, you know, you you you buy your lift ticket. You you How many runs you can go on is kinda dependent on how good of a skier you are and how how busy the the chairs are and all of that. But walk me through what A tip what you envision a typical experience is gonna be like.

Joey Lawrence [00:37:45]:

Yeah. So not to dodge the question, but, The it really does depend on your experience level. If you are an experienced surfer Let’s

Scott Cowan [00:37:55]:

go with that. Let let’s go with that.

Joey Lawrence [00:37:56]:

Yeah. And then we can jump into the beginners. Right.

Scott Cowan [00:37:59]:

Let’s

Joey Lawrence [00:37:59]:

know the experience. Yeah. Experienced, you’ll show up, you’ll change into your wetsuit. You’ll do your warm up on the shore At probably show up at 10:30, do your warm up 10:45, in the pool, right at 11. You will either be on right hand or left hand. You will have to choose your session just because there’s a big machine in between. That doesn’t make it very easy to you can’t dive dive under that one.

Scott Cowan [00:38:30]:

Probably not.

Joey Lawrence [00:38:30]:

Probably not. Yeah. And so Yeah. So you will pick left or right, and I tell people you will be with about 10 people, 10 to 12 people. And I tell people you can you will have 12 opportunities to catch waves, because it’s obviously on you to paddle in and catch the wave, which is what makes this technology so magical is is, how similar how how Close the simulation is to ocean surfing, having to actually paddle in and catch the

Scott Cowan [00:39:02]:

wave. Mhmm.

Joey Lawrence [00:39:03]:

So you’ll get 12 chances at that within your hour. If you are familiar with surfing, you will know that you could spend 5 hours, 6 hours Out in the break and catch 12 waves.

Scott Cowan [00:39:18]:

Mhmm.

Joey Lawrence [00:39:18]:

So we are compacting your surf day into a surf hour, But that means your paddle muscles are Mhmm. Getting a whole surf day’s workout in a surf out.

Scott Cowan [00:39:31]:

Compressed amount of time. Yeah. Yeah.

Joey Lawrence [00:39:32]:

Okay. Yeah. And so, yes, The even even some of the most experienced surfers will will gas out after an hour. I have seen a situation where there was like he he was a Superhuman. He did 5 sessions in one day, which I don’t know how you do that. I tried to do 1 session, and then I ended up on all fours Thrown up on the side of the pool in dog rogged whales. It was not my proudest moment.

Scott Cowan [00:39:56]:

Not your proudest moment. Alright.

Joey Lawrence [00:39:57]:

No. No. Like, wow, Joe, you are not in shape. Check. Yeah. And so, yeah. So that’s basically for the for the, people familiar with surfing for a beginner that has no idea what they’re doing. Generally speaking, we will allow you to Rent a board and go play in in the white water if you want.

Joey Lawrence [00:40:19]:

However, it will come highly recommended to sign up for one of our classes. It’ll be a 2 hour class, for $100. You’ll spend, an hour outside the 1st hour outside of the pool learning the basics, Both about technique and etiquette. And then we’ll spend an hour in the pool, pushing you into waves, getting you to paddle into your own waves, and hopefully getting you comfortable enough that you can make the jump up to the up to the premium wave eventually.

Scott Cowan [00:40:51]:

Okay. That’s that’s pretty cool. I mean, you know, I didn’t think about this in the sense that, an hour would gas somebody. Because because an hour doesn’t sound like it’s that long of a time. You know, it’s an hour. I mean, come on. Oh, but if I get a chance for a wave every 12 minutes, and I gotta work. It’s not like it’s just yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:41:13]:

Okay. I I can see

Joey Lawrence [00:41:14]:

this. All I’m saying is your audience just Think about how long you can stand versus how long you can stand on your hands. Yeah. And that’s Okay. Instead of using your legs in skiing, you are now using your your shoulders, Basically. And so, yeah, way smaller muscles. They I I promise you they get tired out pretty quick even in the best of us.

Scott Cowan [00:41:37]:

So in projections, I know we’re we’re just you know, things are subject to change. Reality is different than What our conversation is here today and all that. But how many people do you think this park will employ when it’s Firing on all on all waves.

Joey Lawrence [00:41:53]:

Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We we’ll have cylinders. I think the machine has cylinders. I don’t know. Yeah.

Joey Lawrence [00:41:58]:

Probably. Yeah. It’s gonna be a pretty major operation. We’re we’re, we’re looking at at putting 8 year round jobs, Into the mix and then 90 plus, seasonal jobs.

Scott Cowan [00:42:14]:

That’s awesome. Okay.

Joey Lawrence [00:42:16]:

And, actually, one of the the things that we have a unique, opportunity at is we are in the heart of ski country. In ski country, a bunch of ski instructors and and ski patrol are, not working or not at least at the ski hills during, during the summer. And so we’re hoping, especially with our buddies over at White Pass to kinda create a situation having been a travel bum. I know eventually you get tired and wanna wanna set some roots down.

Scott Cowan [00:42:48]:

Right.

Joey Lawrence [00:42:48]:

But don’t wanna give up what you’re doing. And so there’s the opportunity to be a ski instructor at White Pass during the winter and be a surf instructor at at Barrel Surf Park during the summer and buy a house in Yakima and raise Family and and, yeah. It it provides some unique opportunities.

Scott Cowan [00:43:07]:

Alright. Now this might be the hardest question.

Joey Lawrence [00:43:10]:

Sure. Are you ready?

Scott Cowan [00:43:11]:

Yeah. This might be the hardest question. So I based on what the no. So this is a podcast. People can’t see what we’re we’re we’re what I’m looking at, but I don’t see a stack of money behind you. Sorry. I just don’t see it.

Joey Lawrence [00:43:28]:

Like, I’m constantly double checking throughout the day just to be safe. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:43:35]:

Where are you at in in the in the process now of you you’ve kind of gotten through a bunch of the Regulatory hurdles. Right? And and now are you are you fully fully enmeshed in fundraising and or Where where are you at in the process now?

Joey Lawrence [00:43:54]:

Yeah. So, we still have more permits to go just as a just to clarify, but I would argue I would it’s a pretty easy argument that we have gotten the 2 most The 2 scariest and most uncertain permits that other projects, in particular, the water right that other projects in the US are Having a bit of trouble with. K.

Not only do we have the water right, we also have our our land use permit, which at the time we were the 2nd wave garden project, to qualify, we have since fallen, up a little behind a couple of the other projects because of their deeply funded pockets, that they already had, and that is what I am currently looking for.

So we are, not quite to the raise to get to put shovels in the ground. We’re in kind of an intermediary step, that I need, I’m guessing, somewhere in the 5 ish $1,000,000, range to raise, which Seems like a hell of a lot of money, especially when I you realize that I am still driving my 1996 Toyota Tacoma from high school. So you better believe I’m playing the Powerball every time I get gas. But yeah.

Joey Lawrence [00:45:09]:

So So that leaves us looking for that leaves us looking for some money in in case the Powerball plan doesn’t work out. Yeah. And so Good

Scott Cowan [00:45:17]:

that you have a backup plan.

Joey Lawrence [00:45:18]:

Yeah. Yeah. You No. You gotta have a backup plan. That’s what Mega Millions is for, the backup. Yeah. Yeah. And So really, honestly, at this point, the only thing that is slowing me down is money.

Joey Lawrence [00:45:32]:

Is Mhmm. It actually it it’s kind of a twofold double whammy. Not only are interest rates going way way up, which makes it Way, way hard to convince somebody to pull money out of a treasury bond that’s gonna pay them 8%. And the other piece is, locally, the hot market is, on a little bit of a downswing. So finding finding some some of the local, heavy hitters that had previously invested, like in the the local ski resort, some of the other golf courses in town. They’re all kinda just tightening up just because they can see what’s on the horizon, I believe.

Scott Cowan [00:46:20]:

Mhmm.

Joey Lawrence [00:46:21]:

And then it’s just it’s a it’s a crazy idea. It, I tell people it’s just crazy enough to work. Sometimes that gets me into doors that I shouldn’t have gotten into, and sometimes it gets a lot of doors, closed a lot quicker than than they would otherwise. And so, yeah, I am I am pounding pavement every day. I am searching, searching, searching, looking for, Somebody that believes in the potential for for, one of these in the region, which is obviously gonna be a unique individuals that not only Has some sort of regional connection to to the Pacific Northwest because otherwise, there’s there’s surf parks being built everywhere.

So I’m looking for a guy that has some sort of regional connection with the northwest that also understands the Economic driver that surfing can be, and that it it is very similar to the ski and snowboard market. Like I said, that summer ski hill, where people are willing to travel, like, from all over the world. I went to 1 in Wales.

Joey Lawrence [00:47:32]:

People go to these things all over the world. And so yeah. It’s I guess I’m searching for a needle in a haystack, but I’m searching.

Scott Cowan [00:47:43]:

Awesome. Well, let me let me ask you a couple questions. When you’re not searching for the needle in the haystack, when you’re not Working on the business plan when you’re not looking in becoming immersed in all things, land use and water and all all all those things. What do you like to do for fun and excitement when you’re not chasing this dream?

Joey Lawrence [00:48:10]:

I mean, if I am being honest, this this this is this is it. This takes up

Scott Cowan [00:48:18]:

Joey Lawrence [00:48:19]:

mean, I’m a bartender, and this takes up a majority of my discretionary income. So Yeah. What what I like to do for fun though, like, I I mean, literally, this thing is I eat, breathe, sleep, live, Surf park because it is a 1 man show. So, yeah, nobody else is gonna read the growth management plans or Or the water law or anything like that. So, yeah. I I, I guess I draw draw the short straw every time when it’s a company of 1. Oh, okay. But Are you

Scott Cowan [00:48:53]:

a skier do you just go skiing? Are you a skier at all?

Joey Lawrence [00:48:56]:

No. No. So, at part of blame you? Part of growing up, as a gymnast and trying to be fairly serious about it, I came back from the ski hill, like, back to back We’re not back to back weeks, but back to back trips with, like, a concussion. And my coach made it pretty obvious. He’s like, you need to choose, And so I chose.

Scott Cowan [00:49:17]:

Well, so when I think of gymnasts, especially, you know, I you know, when I think of gymnasts, I primarily think of women gymnasts, and they’re all very small. And I won’t say petite because they’re extremely muscular, but you’re you’re a dude, you’re big. You’re you’re bulky.

Joey Lawrence [00:49:32]:

Yeah. I I had yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I’m not as disciplined as I once was. That’s for For sure.

Scott Cowan [00:49:41]:

No. I don’t mean big, like, dumpy big. I mean, like, you’re a muscular you’re you’re you’re sitting there, and and, you look more like a a linebacker than, Gymnast.

Joey Lawrence [00:49:52]:

Yeah. So Yeah. Go ahead. Sorry.

Scott Cowan [00:49:54]:

So when what got you into gymnastics? And and you were on the gymnastics team at U Dub. So What was your specialty?

Joey Lawrence [00:50:03]:

So what got me into gymnastics was actually, I was tiny my entire life. I was The smallest kid, going into 9th grade, there was another guy named Stu Jenkins. I think he was 51 and I was 5 foot going into Freshman year of yeah. Oh, yeah. We were we were tiny, tiny, tiny little things.

Scott Cowan [00:50:23]:

Oh, well, how tall are you now?

Joey Lawrence [00:50:25]:

5 10.

Scott Cowan [00:50:26]:

Yeah. Okay. So you really shot up. Okay. But you’re okay.

Joey Lawrence [00:50:29]:

Yeah. I grew, like, 8 inches in 2 in my junior year, I grew 4 inches, and then senior year, another 4. It was how it was hard Hard doing gymnastics then.

Scott Cowan [00:50:38]:

Yeah. Yeah.

Joey Lawrence [00:50:39]:

But yeah. No. I was supposed to be a small little dude my whole life, and then I I hit the gross spurt late. My parents aren’t very big. Yeah. But yeah. I’ve I have ripped down my fair share of equipment. No doubt.

Joey Lawrence [00:50:55]:

It it, it is good for the ego walking into a gym where you’re One of maybe 3 people as big as you. It’s great. And then you, like, walk back out into normal society, and you’re like, oh, alright. But those guys smoked me on every event, but it, yeah. It was it was, like I said, I wasn’t supposed to be this big, but I will say I am if any of those guys that you see on TV in the Olympics were 5 foot 10, they would be This wide. Nice. Yeah. I mean, yeah.

Joey Lawrence [00:51:30]:

Just because they are so compact and tiny, they They don’t look very big, but, man, if they were their their, yeah, their strength to weight, I’d take it over anybody’s pretty much.

Scott Cowan [00:51:42]:

So what was your what was your favorite you you mentioned you you you tore her bicep on the rings, but what was your what was your favorite? I don’t know enough about gymnastics to really speak intelligently here, so please bail me out.

Joey Lawrence [00:51:55]:

Yeah. No problem. There’s 6 Guys events. We got 4 Okay. Pommel horse, rings, Vault, parallel bars, and high bar. Okay. I would say my 2 favorites were probably parallel bars and high bar. I like to go flying.

Joey Lawrence [00:52:09]:

I like to the release moves and big dismounts and all that good stuff. It it was, I tell people I’ve been chasing that high for 11 years now. So

Scott Cowan [00:52:21]:

Oh, okay.

Joey Lawrence [00:52:21]:

Since I retired. And so, yeah. It, Yeah. I did one of the reasons why I decided to stay at UW. It was just a collegiate program. It wasn’t, NCAA funded. There’s only about Teen men’s gymnastics programs left in the country. Yeah.

Joey Lawrence [00:52:39]:

Yeah. Actually, at one point, I was considering going to Michigan, and walking on to the team there and I’d it took me a while to realize this. My mom took me to visit in February and the middle of June, Like, the 2 worst times to go to Michigan, I guess, and that was all strategic. Okay. That was also, I would Stay close to home.

Scott Cowan [00:53:02]:

Good good good

Joey Lawrence [00:53:03]:

one, mom. Good one. So yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:53:05]:

Yeah. Well played, mom. Well played.

Joey Lawrence [00:53:06]:

Yeah. Yeah. Alright. Yeah. No. It’s, and and when people ask me power, why’d you think of the surf park? I I do have to credit gymnastics with testing your realm of what you think is possible. Uh-huh. I tell everybody, it seems impossible until somebody shows up in the gym and does it then gets to put his name on it.

Joey Lawrence [00:53:34]:

Actually, one of my teammates, at UW was the 1st in the world to do a skill. And So yeah. I have literally seen the impossible done. What what everybody thought could never have be done, I’ve seen done. And so when when somebody tells me, oh, that’s impossible, it’s like, well, watch it watch it happen.

Scott Cowan [00:53:59]:

Exact well, it was it when Roger Bannister broke the the the mile record, you know, nobody had done it. Nobody had done it. He did it, and then all of a sudden, everybody could do it. Yeah. Everyone could do Yeah. Alright. So here’s some questions I ask every guest. Sure.

Scott Cowan [00:54:13]:

You ready? Yep. Awesome. So I’m, I’m a big coffee fan. Where’s a great place in the Yakima area for me to get coffee?

Joey Lawrence [00:54:21]:

I actually don’t drink much coffee. I I do drink some out.

Scott Cowan [00:54:26]:

You can help me out here.

Joey Lawrence [00:54:28]:

On emergency. So let’s see. I go to CNS Coffee House. I think they are great. They’ve got a couple of places around town.

Scott Cowan [00:54:39]:

Yeah.

Joey Lawrence [00:54:39]:

Yeah. Yeah. Coffee and sandwiches. And then I’m blanking on the name of another one up by my house. Yeah. Like I said, I am a creature of habit. So once I find a place, I do I I follow that routine.

Scott Cowan [00:54:55]:

So so the second part of me showing up in the Yakima area is I’m looking for lunch. Where’s a great place for lunch? Depends

Joey Lawrence [00:55:04]:

on what you’re looking for.

Scott Cowan [00:55:05]:

No. No. You get to tell me. You’re gonna tell me where’s a great place for lunch. It doesn’t matter if I like What you’re gonna suggest or not, I wanna hear what you think is a great place for lunch.

Joey Lawrence [00:55:15]:

So especially the you gotta go to the Union Gap one, Not the one in West Valley. It it’s also great, but it’s you don’t get the full sense of the place. But, if if you ever heard of Los Hernandez, tamales and their asparagus Yeah. Asparagus tamales are they do them, I think, like, Early in the like, May, I think, is when they do the asparagus tamales. But, yeah, my my dad loves tamales, so For some reason, I guess it’s a a little hereditary.

Scott Cowan [00:55:49]:

Hereditary. Okay. We’ll put you on the spot. What’s the best beer at Bail Breaker?

Joey Lawrence [00:55:55]:

Oh. For

Scott Cowan [00:55:57]:

you. For you. What’s your what’s your like, if you’re gonna sit down, we I’m gonna show up at a bill breaker. We’re gonna have a beer together. What You can order.

Joey Lawrence [00:56:04]:

So my favorite beer of all time, which isn’t on all the time, is probably the rage Raging Ditch, Blonde. It But I’ll tell you what. They just they have this friend series that they do, and they just did a Fresh hop collaboration with Russian River, and that was easily my favorite Fresh hop I’ve ever had if you can find it. It’s hard to find now. But yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:56:30]:

Alright. Last question. For sure. Gotta answer it, and you gotta explain why. So it’s a you you gotta give me an answer and then give give me your reasoning. Okay? Super serious here. Ready? Cake or pie and why?

Joey Lawrence [00:56:45]:

Oh, cake. Easy. And if I can be more specific, ice cream cake? Yeah. Ice I mean, I yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:56:55]:

I had That’s that’s the

Joey Lawrence [00:56:58]:

Okay. Yeah. That’s the ice cream cake is the way to my heart. Mint chocolate chip ice cream cake is, Oh, yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:57:05]:

So funny this question. Some some people freak out, can’t answer it because it’s like, you know, left hand or right handed. I don’t know which one I have to cut off or whatever. Some people, it’s super easy. It’s always just kinda fun to watch the reaction of the guests when they go.

Joey Lawrence [00:57:17]:

Oh, I I was, I was watching Good Morning Football this morning, and one of the guests Or one of the host was like, oh, I’m surprised you had a take on that. He’s like and the guy responded with, I wake up with takes. I’ve got takes on everything. I’ve I’ve got I’ve got

Scott Cowan [00:57:33]:

a solid response.

Joey Lawrence [00:57:33]:

Yeah. I got takes. I got, yeah. You won’t you won’t catch me on the fence too often, but sometimes.

Scott Cowan [00:57:40]:

Awesome. Well, Joey, I really appreciate you taking the time. I’m really excited to keep an eye on on Barreld. I think it’s a great idea. I think it’s It’s I think it’s quirky in the sense, like, you’re gonna put a surf park in the high desert, I which I think is cool. I love your I love the research that you’ve done in the sense that you’ve you’ve identified it kind of as the the off season ski park, if you will.

And so The fact that your labor pool might be able to come from what White Pass as well, that that seems super smart. I I just think You’re able to articulate a really clear vision for this, and I think the region would benefit from it.

Scott Cowan [00:58:19]:

So I I I hope that you have, continued success.

Joey Lawrence [00:58:23]:

Oh, man. Thank you very much. Thank you for sharing the the platform. I’ll just give a shameless plug. If you know

Scott Cowan [00:58:30]:

Oh, yeah.

Joey Lawrence [00:58:30]:

If you know any, rich guys Or gals that love surfing. Send me an email at joey@surfbarreled.com, or you can find us On the socials, at Surfbarrel, and, I’m the only guy that responds to that stuff, so, I will be sure to see it.

Scott Cowan [00:58:48]:

Awesome. Joey, thanks so much.

Joey Lawrence [00:58:50]:

Thank you, Scott. Really appreciate it.