Doug Coors, descendant of brewing legend Adolph Coors, announced June 4 that Austin was selected to host the first inland surf park in North America called NLand Surf Park. The park will be located just east of Austin Bergstrom International Airport on a 160-acre lot and is scheduled to be open by the summer of 2016. The project is privately funded, requiring no tax dollars, according to Coors, the park’s founder and chief executive officer.. NLand has teamed up with Spanish engineering firm Wavegarden, Austin-based White Construction Company and various architects and engineers to make this first-of-its-kind action sports venue. The park will boast 11 different surfing areas, with difficulty levels ranging from beginner to professional, and waves that vary in size from 1- to 6-feet-tall. The surfing lagoon will cover an area the size of nine football fields, or roughly the size of Lady Bird Lake between the Congress Avenue and South First Street bridges, according to NLand staff. Coors claims the facility will be 100 percent sustainable by relying only on rainwater. No other water facility in the world can make the same claim, he said. “Our top priority is water and water conservation,” Coors said in an email. “The surf community is environmentally conscientious, and they pride themselves on environmental stewardship. We share those values.” If the park were to open today, Coors said it would not require any outside water to initially fill the lagoon, instead relying on rainwater the NLand team has already collected. Most water loss at similar amusement facilities occurs because of evaporation, which Coors admits will also be NLand’s greatest hurdle to remaining sustainable. “We will have some water loss mainly through evaporation in the summer months,” he said. “Otherwise we have invested in water efficiencies to ensure conservation. There are many technologies being developed to manage evaporation, and we will invoke technologies that meet our mission.” On average, the Austin area receives 34.2 inches of rain per year, according to AccuWeather, and last year Travis County received 35.53 inches. Coors insisted the average rainfall totals would be enough to maintain the necessary level of water for NLand’s lagoon. “Even in the most challenging drought conditions we will be able to sustain our lagoon,” he said. May brought record-breaking rainfalls to Central Texas, but the city of Austin remains in Stage Two watering restrictions.