Surf in the desert, and never refresh a booking calendar again
There’s something deeply wrong - in the best way - about paddling out in the middle of the Coachella Valley. Palm trees, mountains, 100-degree afternoons… and a 5.5-acre lagoon firing overhead barrels.
DSRT Surf opened to the public in Palm Desert, California, in September 2026, and it’s now officially part of the Surf Session Finder family. Welcome to the lineup, DSRT. 🌵🌊
Here’s what makes it special, how the sessions work, and how to stop losing the good spots to faster fingers.
DSRT Surf in a nutshell
- The biggest Wavegarden Cove in North America. The lagoon covers 5.5 acres, and it’s California’s first Wavegarden. On the East Coast, Atlantic Park Surf in Virginia Beach runs the same Cove technology - DSRT is its bigger desert cousin.
- Up to 1,000 waves per hour. Wavegarden engineers built a new programming system for DSRT with more than 60 wave types, from mellow 1-2 ft rollers to expert-only tubes.
- Two sides, two calendars. Sessions are booked on the Reef and the Bay, with up to 35 surfers on each side.
- Sessions every hour, from 8 a.m. on weekdays (6 a.m. on weekends) all the way to 10 p.m.
- Public access. No membership, no private-club gatekeeping. Book a session and go surf.
- Where: 105 Wave Drive, Palm Desert, next to Desert Willow Golf Resort.
The waves: from first pop-up to Twister
DSRT splits its sessions into three levels:
- Beginner - low, forgiving 1-2 ft waves for first-timers and anyone building confidence.
- Intermediate - chest-to-head-high open faces for working on technique and linking turns.
- High Performance - overhead waves with critical sections, for surfers who want to push it.
And then there are the named waves that had the pros losing their minds at the opening super session (Rob Machado, Griffin Colapinto and Josh Kerr were among the testers):
- Turns to Barrel - a turning section that finishes in a tube.
- Air Training - ramp sections with a wave every 30 seconds. Basically an aerial gym.
- Twister - a wide, powerful, very technical barrel designed for experienced tube riders.
Not sure where you fit? Our DSRT Surf waves & sessions guide breaks down each level, and if you’ve never surfed a wave pool before, read what to expect from your first wave pool session.
Night surfing under a dark sky
Here’s the feature nobody else has: DSRT Surf is the world’s first surf lagoon with International Dark Sky certification. The lagoon is lit for evening sessions, but the lighting is designed so you can still see the stars.
In the desert that’s not just a cool photo op - it’s practical. Summer afternoons in Palm Desert are brutal, and a 9 p.m. session can feel a lot more comfortable than a 2 p.m. one. More on that in our night surfing at DSRT Surf guide.
Learning to surf in Palm Desert
Never surfed? DSRT runs a Learn to Surf experience: 30 minutes on land, then 60 minutes of guided surfing in the water. It costs $100, or $75 for Coachella Valley residents. DSRT is also fully accessible, runs an adaptive surfing programme, and was chosen to host the 2026 ISA World Para Surfing Championship.
The catch: everyone wants in
A giant, world-class wave pool, a couple of hours from Los Angeles and San Diego, with pros calling it one of the best waves on the planet? You can guess what happens to the booking calendar.
Popular sessions go fast. Weekend mornings, High Performance slots and the named barrel sessions are the hardest to get. Then someone cancels at 7 a.m. on a Tuesday, the spot goes back up, and it’s gone again before most people even notice.
You can sit there refreshing the Reef calendar, then the Bay calendar, then the Reef again… or you can let us do it.
How Surf Session Finder helps
We check the DSRT Surf booking calendar around the clock, on both the Reef and the Bay. You tell us:
- your level (Beginner, Intermediate or High Performance),
- the days and hours you can surf,
- and whether you only want quieter, low-count sessions.
The moment a matching session opens up - a new release or a last-minute cancellation - you get an alert with a direct link to book. It’s free, and it takes about a minute to set up.
Want to see what’s open right now? The DSRT Surf live schedule shows every upcoming session with the spots left, plus an AI assistant you can ask things like “any Intermediate sessions on Saturday evening?”
Quick tips for scoring a DSRT session
- Check both sides. The Reef can be full while the Bay has room, and the other way round.
- Go early or go late. 6 a.m. weekend sessions and the night sessions beat the midday heat.
- Set alerts for cancellations. They happen more than you’d think - usually close to session time.
Welcome to the family, DSRT 🤙
DSRT Surf joins our growing list of surf parks, from Atlantic Park and Waco in the US to URBNSURF, The Wave, Alaïa Bay and more. We’re stoked to have a desert wave in the lineup.
Ready to surf the desert? Set up your free DSRT Surf alerts and let the open spots come to you.
Published by Surf Session Finder - Free alerts to help surfers find open and low-count surf-park sessions.