As part of a new urban redevelopment project in the giant port city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, the Dutch have just started work on surfing’s latest urban variant, a canal wave.

Up until now better know as being the commercial gateway to Europe or for its popular Erasmus student exchange university programme, Rotterdam is looking to rival Munich as one of Europe’s best artificial wave destinations.

Planned for 2015 and going by the name of RiF010, the water sports centre will be located in the city centre’s Steiger canal, an offshoot from the city’s bigger Rott canal. While we don’t at present know any precise details on the wave pool technology developers will be using, we imagine the wave will much resemble Dubai’s Wadi wavepool, with the wave travelling down the length of the canal (for 14 seconds), although with winters being somewhat chillier in Holland it’s thought visitors are probably less likely to sport boardies year round. Maximum wave height is estimated at 1.5m

But RiF010 won’t just be about surfing. The new city initiative also hopes to cater for other waterspots too, such as kayaking, diving, rafting, goat boats, SUPs, etc., while of course providing plenty of very trendy bars/cafés/shops in the surrounding area for those preferring to just soak up the atmos.