Catch a Wave, Right on Laguna Blvd

Chris Parvizyar knows most of us want to feel like rock stars, but getting there is pretty tough.

“You’re going to fall probably the first couple of times. You just are,” he said. “But I got to tell you, falling is kinda fun, too.”

Parvizyar isn’t talking about depressing stuff like failure and broken dreams. He’s referring to the customer experience at SurfXtreme, his new flowboarding business opening this summer in the same Laguna Blvd complex that houses and .

There, Parvizyar hopes to make people feel like champions in fog under bright lights—while they ride jets of water streaming at more than 20 miles per hour. Indoors.

“It’s going to be like you’re at a rock concert with lights and sound, but you’re riding a wave or skateboarding,” he said.

SurfXtreme’s main attraction will be a room containing a wave-simulating machine known as a FlowRider—a 32-by-49-foot sloped structure with water shooting over its surface in layers a few inches deep.

The machine, manufactured by the company Wave Loch, is designed to allow riders to surf, skateboard, snowboard, bodyboard or wakeboard without having to go to the beach, mountains or asphalt to do it. Parvizyar’s also throwing in lasers, fog and a sound system to enhance customers’ adrenaline rush, along with a projection screen on the room’s back wall so people can see themselves and others ride.

“It should be pretty cool. I’m really excited,” he said.

Parvizyar’s not the first in Elk Grove to make a run at the flowboarding business. Elk Grovians may remember Dream Xtreme, which opened in the same building in February 2009 and lasted barely a year. (See attached YouTube video).

Former Dream Xtreme owner Shane Carter, who’s consulting for the new owners for free, says he faced some challenges Surf Xtreme won’t confront. Those included high insurance bills and construction in the area.

Plus, Carter admits he didn’t fully understand how the FlowRider worked or how to design a room around it.

“About $150,000 went to fixing things, replacing things that we were not prepared to deal with,” he said.

Parvizyar and his wife, Darla, say they’re doing a complete remodel of the space and hope to open their doors in late June or early July, to capitalize on summer crowds.

Besides flowboarding, Surf Xtreme will also offer paintball, a trampoline area, a retail store and concessions in a roughly 14,000-square-foot area.

“We want a place where the kids want to go but where the parents would like to relax and hang out,” Parvizyar said.   

Parvizyar said he expects to have a staff of about 40 people, and will work to keep prices affordable for families.

“Come Saturday and Sunday, it’d be nice for somebody to be able to go somewhere, have a good time, and not feel like they got cheated,” he said.