And the winner is…
the world’s first looping waterslide
Aqua-structures and spraygrounds just keep getting bigger, better and as Dan McEwen reports, ever more popular with the cool-down crowd – in and out of waterparks
WhiteWater continues to lead the industry with award-winning products and innovations.
LIFE is good for the “Dynamic Duo” of the waterplay industry, a.k.a. the aqua-structure and the sprayground. First they became de rigueur in all the best waterparks – and still are. Now they’re making themselves comfortable in vacation resorts and hotels, campgrounds, golf clubs, municipal parks and playgrounds, even zoo’s and malls. So what is it these two have been doing so right for so long to make themselves so popular? Right from the start aqua-structures have been the “Oh Wow!” showpieces of the
waterplay business. Indeed, so much so today that Julie Zakus at slide manufacturer WhiteWater West Industries thinks waterplay structures have actually evolved into fully themed waterparks in their own right. And she has a point. Up to four stories high, themed like big-budget movie sets, bristling with tubes, tunnels, nets, slides and countless interactive water toys, all ingeniously arrayed within the splash radius of the inevitable tipping bucket, these fantastic Rube Goldberg contraptions can make even the prettiest sand beach seem dull. Hardly surprising then that some do double duty as the central icon at many waterparks.
Case in point: every Great Wolf Lodge has a water play structure as one of its signature elements. Why? Because as Franceen Gonzales, vice-president of risk management for Great Wolf Resorts explains: “When people think of a Great Wolf Lodge, they think of the huge tipping bucket and kids screaming in delight as it splashes them!” Although aqua structures come in a galaxy of sizes, features and configurations,
manufacturers, operators and customers all agree - bigger is better - especially the tipping bucket. Splashers bucket at the Atlantis Resort dumps 320 gallons on squealing guests. Not to be outdone, Cedar Point’s Castaway Bay in Sandusky, Ohio, dumps 1,000 gallons a tip. One state over in Pennsylvania, HersheyPark’s East Coast Waterworks boasts nearly 600 interactive water toys alone with seven slides and two tunnels. For Sohret Pakis, whose company Polin Waterparks & Pool Systems of Istanbul, Turkey,
has been building water play structures for over 30 years, there are three, very basic reasons why aqua-structures are enjoying such a boom.
Tel: +1 604 273 1068 •
www.whitewaterwest.com The Waterpark Company
whitewater@whitewaterwest.com Licensed by AquaRena 20
Image courtesy of Whitewater West Industries
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