Waco Surf, once a struggling wave pool, has become a year-round sold-out destination, and its co-owners David Taylor and Luke Schock are now planning Desperado, a 400-acre surf-anchored ranch community. In the latest episode of The Building Texas Show, hosted by Justin McKenzie, the duo detailed how they flipped the customer base from 99% professional surfers to 99% Texas families, and why Waco is emerging as a surprising hub for surf culture and real estate.
The episode, published May 27, 2026, traces the business from a 2018 pilot of American Wave Machines technology at the original Barefoot Ski Ranch under Stuart Parsons, to Taylor and Schock's 2021 acquisition, to today's expansion. The key insight: 99% of surfers at the park have never touched an ocean wave. This shift has reframed Waco as a tourism and real estate story in Texas.
Desperado, the master-planned community, will include a second surf pool, a 13-hole golf course, a hot springs resort, pickleball courts, and dirt-only roads. Taylor and Schock explain why they refused to copy the private, gated model used by other surf communities. "It's a community for people that want high access but not high walls," Schock says. "That's because we believe that the magic happens when you're sitting on the beach talking to the guy that, it's his bucket list to come there."
Waco's location between Dallas, Austin, and Houston is being repositioned as the heart of a new Texas surf culture. Taylor notes that deposits on Desperado homes are overwhelmingly from Texas-based families, with one exception: a Hawaii native whose family lives in New York and wants a centrally located meeting place. The migration of Waco itself has been dramatic, with Taylor recounting how Tony Hawk quietly shows up at the local skate park at 7 a.m., films himself, and draws 200 people within fifteen minutes.
The pair also dig into Waco's history, including the 1952 tornado that derailed the city's run at becoming the financial hub of Texas and pushed that growth toward Fort Worth. They cite the Hippodrome on Austin Avenue, where Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin once performed, as evidence of the city's pre-tornado vibrancy. Today, Baylor graduates are staying to open restaurants and buy real estate alongside the Magnolia-driven Chip and Joanna Gaines effect.
The episode with David Taylor and Luke Schock of Waco Surf and Desperado is available now wherever podcasts are heard.
