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FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2017

Five years ago, Heather flipped open the newspaper and saw the faceof a man she would never forget. Her fourth-grade teacher, RobertKeith Bryan, had been arrested for touching little girls.Heather felt her stomach twist. In her gut, she knew the accusations

were true.Bryan had done it to her too.“All I can think about is that if more had been done when I was a kid

that there wouldn’t be lives shaped by his evilness,” said Heather, aCoachella Valley resident who spoke publicly about Bryan’s abuse forthe first time.

“God only knows all the victims that didn’t come forward over allthose years.”

Bryan, 64, a veteran teacher in the Desert Sands Unified School Dis-trict, was sentenced to nine years in prison last year after confessing to

ZOE MEYERS/THE DESERT SUN

Heather, a former student whowas inappropriately touched byRobert Keith Bryan, standsoutside her Coachella Valleyhome on Wednesday.

VICTIM SAYS KIDSWERE ‘BETRAYED’Bryan abused for years despite reportsBRETT KELMAN THE DESERT SUN

Please see BRYAN, 5A

“As a kid, you havean idealistic viewthat right is right,wrong is wrong andjustice will beserved. But nothingever came of it.”HEATHERAbuse victim

MLK, ALI AND MCCARTHY: PARAGONS OF RESISTANCE AND COURAGE PAGE 1B

Tachevah:Bridger, ElektricLucie advanceCOACHELLA VALLEY, 3A

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Comics 2D

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Obituaries 21A

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Strong winds leadto suspension ofopening round atANA InspirationSPORTS, 1C

Snow in the Sierra Nevada begins melting thistime of year as the weather warms. If morestormy weather hits California and its moun-tains soon, snowmelt could put pressure on al-ready swollen reservoirs, officials say. CALIFORNIA, 11A

Robust snowpack boostsconcerns over flooding

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Frank Gehrke,chief of theCaliforniaCooperativeSnow SurveysProgram for theDepartment ofWater Resources,checks snowpackdepth at PhillipsStation Thursday.

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A Native-American owned businessbased in the city of Riverside has offi-cially declared itself “interested” in theconstruction of a 30-foot high concretewall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Hal Hays Construction Inc. has pre-viously built over 2 miles of borderfencing in Tecate, California, and Luke-ville, Arizona, for the Department ofHomeland Security. The work involveddriving three hours on remote gravelroads to get to fencing locations. Thecompany received an “outstanding” re-view from the Army Corps of Engi-neers on the project, which was com-

Wall ofinterest toRiversidecompany Firm helped erectfencing along borderJILL CASTELLANOTHE DESERT SUN

Please see WALL, 8A

More than 100 miles from the Pacif-ic coast, there are two proposals forsurf parks — water and sports parksdesigned around huge wave pools forsurfing — in the works for two neigh-boring desert cities.

Honokea Surf Villages and Resorts,a Hawaii-based company that helpeddesign a recently opened surf park inAustin, Texas, says it has land undercontract in Indio for an outdoor recre-ation facility that would include a“surf lagoon,” skate park, BMX trackand acquatic track for stand-up pad-dleboarding.

That proposal joins one from Matte-son Capital, working with QuiksilverHotels and Resorts, which pitched asurf park and recreation facility for

Surf’s up?Companiesvie to set upwater parksROSALIE MURPHYTHE DESERT SUN

Please see SURF, 10A

10A THE DESERT SUN | DESERTSUN.COM | FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2017

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Palm Desert two and ahalf years ago. Agree-ments between the com-pany and the city havebeen renewed once, andMatteson is due to pre-sent new plans to the CityCouncil in April, citystaff said.

“The development ofstandalone surf parksand man-made surf desti-nations, with the focalpoint being a high-qualitysurf pool or surfing lake,is not necessarily new,but it is picking up a lot ofmomentum in the lastfive years,” said JohnLuff, founder and presi-dent of Surf Park Central,a six-year-old trade publi-cation for the surf parkindustry.

Luff said two surfparks have opened in theU.S. in the last five years,and he estimated 30 to 50more are in variousstages of development.

He was familiar withboth Coachella Valleyproposals, and believesseveral other developersmay be eyeing the desertfor their own surf parks.

With tens of millions ofpeople within driving dis-tance and an existing surfculture in Southern Cali-fornia, plus thousands ofCalifornia visitors whowant to learn to surf, hethinks the Coachella Val-ley is “in the top 10 mar-kets for a surf park to-day.”

“There’s a ton of poten-tial for a surf park in thedesert,” Luff said. “I’msure somebody will get itand get it right, but I’mjust not sure who that’sgoing to be.”

Honokea helped de-sign the U.S.’ newest surfpark, NLand, in Austin,although the companyleft the project beforeconstruction began in2015, according to NLand.That project was devel-oped in partnership withWavegarden, a Spanishengineering companythat Luff said is one of theworld’s leaders in wavepool technology.

Honokea’s CoachellaValley proposal includesa Wavegarden surf la-goon, too.

Honokea chose theCoachella Valley for itssecond surf park projectbecause of its proximityto the Southern Califor-

nia coast, where surfingabounds but waves aren’tconsidered as good asthose in Hawaii or othersurfing hotspots, market-ing manager Janos Palkosaid.

“We want to use thesekinds of sports to inspirepeople to live healthierlifestyles,” Palko said.“We want to create some-thing that’s both a com-munity amenity and akind of regional attrac-tion at the same time.”

Honokea hopes to opena 60-acre facility in Indioin 2019, Palko said.

The company has part-nered with the La Quinta-based Rilington Group, alongtime local developer,on the project.

“Even though the re-sort has this high-levelsurfing component, withwaves getting up to sevenfeet, they are also appeal-ing to the family, not justthe beginner surfer butyoung kids who have notdone any surfing at all,”said Mickie Riley, foun-der of the RilingtonGroup. “I just think it’sreally exciting for thevalley.”

Palko said Honokea is“deep into the fundrais-ing process” now. He esti-mated that the surf la-goon and basic infra-structure would costabout $30 million and thefully built-out projectcould cost up to $100 mil-

lion. Honokea is also plan-

ning a 50-room boutiquehotel and restaurant onsite, Palko said. The com-pany believes the projectwill create about 400 con-struction jobs and 600permanent jobs. On sus-tainability, Palko said, thefacility would use nativelandscaping to keep itswater use around “one-eighth of the water of agolf course in the samearea.”

For visitors, prices atNLand in Austin include$60 for a lagoon session of“just under an hour,” $85for a 1.5-hour adult grouplesson and $150 for a pri-vate 1.5-hour lesson. En-try to that park is $5 fornon-surfers.

Developers have notyet submitted proposalsto the city’s planningcommission or council,but Indio Mayor ElaineHolmes confirmed that

Honokea has been talkingto city staff for months.Holmes said she was “su-per, super excited at thisopportunity.”

Palko said Honokeawas aware of a previousproposal for a surf parkin the desert, but hadn’theard anything about thatproject in several yearsand assumed it “had gonecold.”

But it hasn’t yet, PalmDesert city staff and thedeveloper said.

In September 2014,Quiksilver Hotels and Re-sorts — a developmentgroup licensing the nameof the decades-old surf-ing and sportswear brand— began negotiations topurchase 79 acres of landjust south of Desert Wil-low Golf Resort in PalmDesert.

The land belonged tothe successor agency toPalm Desert’s redevelop-ment agency. Funding for

the deal was provided byMatteson Capital.

At present, however,Quiksilver is not affiliat-ed with the project. Mat-teson Capital is now “ne-gotiating with severalbrands,” CEO Scot Matte-son said in a statement.

In August 2016, thesuccessor agency voted5-0 to enter into anamended exclusive rightto negotiate agreementwith Matteson Capital forthe proposed resort, mod-ifying an agreementreached in 2014.

Martin Alvarez, PalmDesert’s director of eco-nomic development, saidMatteson has not yet pur-chased the land. CityCouncil expects to reviewrevised plans from Mat-teson Capital in mid-April. At that time, coun-cil members can decidewhether to continue thecity’s relationship withthe developer.

In a statement, Matte-son called the project a“surf and action sportsresort” that would bring“thousands of permanentjobs” to Palm Desert.Features of the proposedproject would includethree hotels, spas and res-taurants, wakeboarding,paddleboarding, kayak-ing, water slides, a skatearena and sand volleyballcourts, among other at-tractions.

“We are excited to getthis project going as weenter the final phases ofsubmitting our reportsand studies to the city,”Matteson wrote.

Luff, the consultant,said that while surfing inpools isn’t new, the prolif-eration of interest in surfparks is. While some pro-posals are “pipe dreams”— he paused to point outhis own pun — he believesthose groups that com-bine industry knowledgeand real estate expertisecould make their splashyrenderings reality.

“There’s been a lot ofnew technology develop-ing, and the global con-sumer landscape movingmore toward the experi-ence economy — thosetwo things combined aremaking man-made surf-ing destinations attrac-tive and sustainable inthe commercial realm,”Luff said.

Rosalie Murphy coversreal estate and businessat The Desert Sun. Reachher at rosalie.murphy@desertsun.com or onTwitter @rozmurph.

SurfContinued from 1A

PHOTO PROVIDED BY HONOKEA SURF VILLAGES AND RESORTS

An artist’s rendering of Honokea Surf Resort, a real estate development that developers want to build in Indio.

PHOTO PROVIDED BY MATTESON CAPITAL

A rendering for Matteson Capital’s proposed “surf and action sports resort” in Palm Desert. Matteson is due to present updatesabout the project to City Council in April.

“We want to usethese kinds ofsports to inspirepeople to livehealthierlifestyles.”JANOS PALKOHonokea Surf

Villages and Resorts