I caught waves at Edinburgh's incredible new Lost Shore surf resort that looks like it's from another planet

I speed towards the edge of the wave pool, faster - I imagine - than a jet ski. Then, suddenly, I tip, and a few pints of water go shooting up my nose. Wipe out!

I’m getting a taste of Lost Shore Surf Resort, which opens on November 11.

The £60 million attraction - Europe’s largest inland surfing resort - has been over a decade in the making and was the concept of founder Andy Hadden.

“It’s astounding to see what we’ve created,” he says. Indeed. That’s an understatement.

The piece de resistance is Europe’s largest and most advanced wave pool. My mind was blown when I rounded a corner, after getting the bus to Ratho - “I’ve never heard of Lost Shore,” said the number 70 driver, who presumably won’t remain naive for much longer - and the destination came into view.

There’s something otherworldly about the resort. 

Waves without tides, via their high-tech Wavegarden Cove, seem like magic. I feel like the Victorians must have felt when they saw the first horseless carriages.

The silvery pool is three times the size of Wembley Stadium’s pitch, and can generate up to 1,000 customisable waves per hour. The backdrop at this former quarry is gray flinty-looking stone, which makes me think of the volcanic rock that surrounds the Blue Lagoon in Iceland.

According to Paul Spence, Lost Shore’s visitor experience manager, this material was once transported along the canal to make the cobbles on the Royal Mile.

The water in the pool is treated and tamed - lightly chlorinated, so there are no bugs. It is not, however, heated. I don’t know why this idiot imagined that it might be. Expect it to be close to the temperature of the Scottish sea. 

Our instructors, all wearing yellow T-shirts, are very encouraging, and keen to tell us novices how safe it is. Indeed, there’s even a lifeguard tower, in the centre of the space.