(August 11, 2007)--The boogie boarders at the Schlitterbahn Waterpark on South Padre Island know they have a really cool summer job.

Five nights a week, for a half-hour just past sunset, the park pays a team of 10- to 19-year-olds to perform loosely choreographed tricks on the park's Boogie Bahn.

That's a fast-flowing wall of water that mimics a breaking wave.

The audience cheers as they do headstands and flips, form pyramids -- even hula-hoop -- atop boogie boards as water rushes under them at 60,000 gallons per minute.

The paycheck comes with bonuses: Access to the wave and pioneer status in flowboarding.

Designing a better artificial wave was the obsession of Thomas Lochtefeld.

He's a California attorney and longtime surfer who felt existing surf pools weren't worth the expense or the space.

In the late 1980s, he sold his family's beachfront house to hang out with university engineers and dabble in hydrodynamics.

The result was the Flowrider.

It's a machine that uses patented technology to jet a four-inch sheet of water over a soft, springy base in a large, perfect wave.

Lochtefeld formed Wave Loch, which built the first Flowrider in 1989 and sold the first one in 1991. It went to the original Schlitterbahn Park in New Braunfels.

When the South Padre Schlitterbahn opened 10 years later, its Flowrider was then the largest in the world.

But the machines continued to grow.

The Wave House in San Diego now features the biggest manmade wave in the United States.

Worldwide, Wave Loch has built about 70 Flowriders, with about 20 more under construction.

By the end of the year, there will be 100.

Users found the wave it created was something like surfing, but different.

Unlike roller coasters, water slides, and other amusement park features, it's as much a skill ride as a thrill ride.

About 80 flowboarders ranging in age from 10 to 50 will emerge from 23 regional competitions to be at the national competition Sept. 22 in San Diego.

Click Here For Schlitterbahn Web Site

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