The hi-tech wave pool that could turn Edinburgh into Scotland’s Surf City

Most sports evolve at a reassuringly sedate pace – a rule tweak here, a tactical innovation there – but not the sport of surfing, which, thanks to some mind-boggling technological advances in recent years is increasingly starting to feel like something out of a science fiction movie. Even Scotland, it seems, is in line to get a piece of the sci-fi action. In 2014, a company called Tartan Leisure Ltd announced that they were planning to install an artificial surfing lake, Wavegarden Scotland, in a disused quarry at Ratho, just outside Edinburgh. Earlier this month they released a video of “the Cove” – the kind of system they hope to operate there – and it’s enough to make even the most hard-bitten, salt-encrusted “real-waves-break-in-the-sea” cynics (yes, even this one) fall in love with the concept.