Richmond Olympic Oval Immersive Surfing Simulator at the Olympic Experience Museum
The Richmond Olympic Oval commissioned an ambitious new project at the end of 2019 to add a whole new type of simulation experience to its IOC-sanctioned Olympic Museum that already included simulators for Bobsleigh, Kayaking, and Sit-Ski simulation. The new simulator was themed after surfing as it had recently been added as an official Olympic sport. The completed simulator was enclosed within a custom-designed dome & featured a 4-degree-of-freedom D-BOX motion platform with a surfboard on top (with safety barriers & skirting around it to protect museum patrons), a 5.1 surround-sound system, and twin Barco 4K projectors with image outputs blended together 270 degrees around the interior of the dome “screen”. The surfing simulator ran one of two user-selected experiences: Tofino or Costa Rica – and using purpose-built projected footage loops & synchronized surfboard motion, the simulator takes users across the waves and through the barrels of a surfer’s experience.
I was responsible for all mechanical & structural design elements, designs in CAD, manufacturing oversight, overall dome design with electrical & ventilation specifications, project management, subcontractor coordination, and client interaction.
The completed simulator currently runs alongside the other simulation experiences within the Richmond Olympic Experience Museum.
External view of the ROX Surfing Simulator's projection dome.
Internal view of the ROX Surfing Simulator with the blended 4K projection & moving surfboard.
SolidWorks render of the surfing simulator assembly design.
