Open to Question
Rick Hunter, ProSlide
InterPark: What was your career before ProSlide and what inspired you to found the company? Rick Hunter: Before ProSlide, I was involved in competitive alpine skiing – professional dual and dual giant slalom at the World pro series. Since then, my career has always been sports oriented. What inspired me to found the company ended up being a business situation through a dry slide company, Alpine Slide, who I had worked with for a number of years. Having spent the time with them learning slide technology, I knew my passion for ski racing gave me a unique angle in this business. I have been truly passionate about growing the industry from the beginning. IP: What was the company’s first attraction and where was it installed? RH: ProSlide was founded in 1986 and our first large jobs were in 1987 at Six Flags America (formerly Adventure World Theme Park) in Upper Marlboro, MD, which opened four large TWISTER™ body slides
58 InterPark January–February 2015
and a small KIDZ Zone. Another notable installation was with one of our neighbouring ski resorts, Mont St. Saveur in Quebec, Canada. We took the Disney executives to ride their TWISTER™ bodyslides while they were researching for their Typhoon Lagoon park in the late 80s. To this day they would tell you those were the best bodyslides they have ever been on.
IP: What do you feel are the key aspects that should be considered when building a waterpark from scratch? RH: Build your waterpark for the long run. Develop a menu of attractions and infrastructure that matches that of your market – kids of all ages. When you start with a critical mass of balanced attractions that initial phase will be strong enough to entertain families for the whole day. Plan for the phased development, phases two to three will allow you to add a few passive attractions once your park has some momentum.
Rick Hunter
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