For our third and final installment of the 2018 Leaders in Aquatic Design series, we had the special pleasure of speaking with two leaders in the field, Douglass Whiteaker, Principal, and President of Water Technology, Inc (WTI) and Jen Gerber, Senior Business Development Coordinator.
Leaders in Aquatic Design: Cloward H20
In the second installment of this year’s series, we had the pleasure of connecting with Allen Clawson, Managing Partner & Principal of Cloward H2O. Clawson has twenty five years of global engineering, project management, design and planning of aquatic systems and facilities experience. (x)
Leaders in Aquatic Design: Aquatic Design & Engineering
Last year, as part of our architect and designer series, we sat down with three major firms in the aquatic design industry. Josh Martin, the President and Creative Director of Aquatic Design & Engineering (ADE), was kind enough to share his perspective in the first installment of this year’s series.
National Parks and Rec Month: Project Spotlight
Happy National Parks and Recreation Month!
Municipal spaces, near and dear to our hearts, are something we love to explore and talk about. In previous blogs, we’ve discussed The 10 Minute Walk To a Park Initiative [x] and our work to standardize splash pad safety [x]. We’ve especially taken joy in sharing the public splash pads we’ve designed through the years: Bloomington, MN [x], Westfield, NY [x] Clarksville, TN [x].
This July we’re celebrating three municipal projects that embody the importance of Parks and Recreation.
LIFE FLOOR + WHITEWATER PARTNERSHIP
Bringing non-slip cushioned surfaces to the world WhiteWater is very pleased to have entered an exclusive distribution agreement with Life Floor for the global water park market. Life Floor’s patented foam-rubber flooring system significantly reduces slips and falls, the #1 cause of water park injuries. However, with Life Floor, when a fall does occur, bumps and bruises are minimized. This is a game-changing product for the water park industry because as every owner and operator knows, the majority of water park injuries occur in this category.
“The partnership further confirms WhiteWater’s designs and product offerings as the safest in the industry,”
DELIVERING FUN - SAFELY
Jonathan Keller, Life Floor’s CEO, sums up the announcement of this new partnership, “Working with WhiteWater, the market leader, was an obvious choice to access a wider market, but we’ve also found that the missions which drive our companies are very aligned. Both companies are single-minded about delivering fun safely with the highest quality products available. I think I can speak for all of us when I say that we are excited by the opportunities that this agreement represents.”
Chris Biancofiore, the Product Manager for WhiteWater’s wide range of interactive water play products and attractions, commented, “On Life Floor, kids feel safer and freer to push their boundaries without the fear of getting hurt…simply put, they play differently. The forgiving surface isn’t abrasive, so it’s soft on bare feet and won’t skin knees. As a result, the only tears will come from when they’re told it’s time to leave the park.”
MORE THAN JUST SAFETY
Life Floor is longer-lasting and stays cleaner. While Life Floor’s non-slip ‘soft fall’ is its biggest benefit, its quality manufacturing also makes it incredibly durable. The completely waterproof tiles will not absorb water or other liquids and last as long underwater as they do above water. Its closed-cell construction does not support the growth of microbes.
Virtually impossible to stain, its more resistant to chlorine and UV exposure than other rubber composite products on the market, making Life Floor not just a safety choice, but an economical one as well.
About WhiteWater
WhiteWater, The Water Parks and Attractions Company, is the leading global designer and manufacturer of innovative water park products and active family attractions for world-class clients. We specialize in water slides, multi-level water play structures, wave-generating equipment, FlowRider® stationary surfing machines, harnessed attractions, interactive play, and water rides. WhiteWater is dedicated to providing the ultimate WOW experiences to our clients and their guests by delivering projects on time, on budget, and to the industry’s highest quality and safety standards. Our industry-leading innovation is driven by a team of 600 extremely talented employees in eight offices around the world working together to complete over 5,000 projects since 1980. Recently, WhiteWater was awarded Canada’s Best Managed Companies designation for its excellence in management and business practices.
Una de Boer | Director of Marketing
+1.604.249.3432 | una.deboer@whitewaterwest.com
whitewaterwest.com
About Life Floor
Life Floor manufactures Life Floor tiles, a foam-rubber flooring system designed for use in wet areas with barefoot traffic. Created as an alternative to concrete and other conventional materials, Life Floor is the only safety surface specifically designed and engineered to perform in aquatic environments. Life Floor combines award-winning safety with unparalleled design capabilities, delivered by an expert team committed to a world-class experience for everyone who interacts with our products. All over the world, people trust Life Floor to make their aquatic environments look and feel extraordinary. Life Floor was founded in 2011, and has served the biggest names in water parks, including Carnival Cruise Line, LEGOLAND, Cedar Fair, and Great Wolf Lodge. In 2016, Life Floor became the only surfacing company ever to win the World Waterpark Association's prestigious Kelly Ogle Memorial Safety Award.
Gwen Ruehle | Vice President, Business Development
+1.612.405.2718 | gwen.ruehle@lifefloor.com
lifefloor.com
FAQS
Who is WhiteWater West Industries (WWI)?
The Original Waterpark Company! Founded in 1980, WWI helped start the World Waterpark Association and are the oldest manufacturer of fiberglass water slides. They are also the largest supplier of equipment (slides, wave pools, surfing machines, play structures) in the entire world, in fact their business is as large as all of their competitors combined. They have done over 6000 projects in the 38 years they have been in business. To get a sense of scale, if they were to install Life Floor around all of their previous projects, that would require more than 60 million square feet of Life Floor.
At this point, WWI does everything from designing, specifying, planning, supplying, managing projects, and helping maintain waterparks and theme parks all over the world. Their largest markets are China, the United States, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East, and they complete from 170-220 projects per year.
What does this partnership mean for Life Floor?
Life Floor is now WWI’s recommended safety surface. Soon, Life Floor will be included in all designs for water park Multi-Level Play Structure (MLP) equipment, as well as on applications such as slide towers, wave pools, and around FlowRiders and slide pads.
How did this partnership happen?
WWI and Life Floor both value safety, and the partnership is focused on safety first and foremost. We believe that bringing the leader in aquatic safety surfacing design and manufacture in partnership with the leader in water park design and manufacture will create safer aquatic recreation experiences for potentially millions of people.
How will this partnership work for customers?
New water park customers interested in purchasing and installing MLPs can obtain Life Floor for their facility by working exclusively through WWI.
If you are a water park customer with a preexisting relationship with Life Floor, you may contact either Life Floor or WWI directly for MLPs and other projects.
If your park does not have WhiteWater equipment, you can still buy from Life Floor directly.
What about splash pads?
Given our commitment to splash pad safety via our work with NSF-50, Life Floor will still be selling splash pad surfacing directly to clients.
Has WWI purchased Life Floor?
WWI has not purchased Life Floor. Life Floor remains an independent company, and we look forward to seeing how this partnership will serve the waterpark industry going forward.
If you have any questions about how this partnership affects you, or how to best obtain Life Floor for a project, please contact solutions@lifefloor.com.
Water Safety Month: Slip-Resistance
The Sand Paper: Shortage, Supply, & Safety
At Life Floor, we've seen a lot of sand in and around water parks, other aquatic installations, and in other human-made environments. That may not be a good thing. To paraphrase a philosopher, "We don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere." (seen here) Digging into the problem a little deeper, we realized that trucking sand into these places from mines, beaches, and riverbeds isn't just annoying, it's potentially dangerous. Here are a few reasons we think the aquatic recreation industry, and any industry, should rethink sand usage:
Life Floor Product Line Announcement
Aquatic Concussions: Anecdotal Problem or Widespread Issue?
The Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA) uses March as part of their awareness campaign to educate and expand the conversation around traumatic brain injuries, including helping the general public understand both the incidence rate of brain injuries, as well as how to support the brain community and their families.
A Fount of Possibilities
Society has an interesting history with the concept of public fountains. Depending on current technology and culture, fountains have been designed as drinking water dispensers for urban populations, markers of courtly love locked in cloisters, elaborate Persian floating gardens, and elaborate works of lasting art and architectural prowess.
10 Minute Walk To A Park
One of the great joys of living in Minnesota (Life Floor headquarters are located in Minneapolis, MN, which at the time of writing this, is a balmy -4F) is the emphasis on parks, green spaces and natural landscapes. We’re a land of 10,000 lakes, and just about every single one of our lakes has a park attached, usually with a playground, a well-maintained trail, and (our favorite) splash pads. As people who have grown up with beautiful parks, and who are raising our children to enjoy these parks, we cannot be more thankful that we live in a part of the country that treasures park and recreation programs.
2018 Trends: Accessibility
In writing this 2018 Trends series, we noticed an overarching theme: water parks are designing, renovating, and building their attractions to reach larger and more diverse audiences. This week we're discussing how both established parks and new parks are also focusing on making parks accessible to accommodate guests of all abilities.
2018 Trends: Sensing A Theme
2018 Trends Series: Asian Expansion
Worth The Wait
Americans spend a cumulative total of 37 billion hours waiting in line per year. Nobody loves standing in line, especially at a water park, but a bad queue doesn't just bore guests: it leaves them frustrated and ready to leave.
Use the following tips to make any water park line worth waiting in:
Cedarcrest Part Two: Why Design Matters
Last week we discussed the Research and Development that went into the Cedarcrest Park splash pad this past summer. Life Floor makes splash pads safer, with non-abrasive slip resistance and impact cushioning, but when it comes to splash pad design, we've also found that something doesn’t have to spray water in order to be a feature.
Ripple 2.0: The Best Just Got Even Better
Filtering Through Splash Pad Concerns
There are likely somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 splash pads in the U.S., a number that is growing by an estimated 5-10 percent per year. A few seasons ago, we wrote a blog about how to design a splash pad and the best ways to make sure your splash pad, splash deck, spray ground, aquatic play pad, rain deck, spray deck, spray pad, spray pool, and spray zone stands out above the crowd.
Deep Dive: Lifeguards
There is no question that lifeguards vastly reduce swimming casualties. The United States Lifesaving Association (USLA) has calculated that the chances a swimmer may drown attending a beach protected by USLA affiliated lifeguards at 1 in 18 million. According to the International Life Saving Federation (ILSF) “Most drownings happen in environments and during activities unsupervised by lifeguards. And the great majority of drownings occur in circumstances where the victim has no intention of going into the water.” [x]
The Great Indoors
Since 1985, when developers built the world’s first indoor waterpark at West Edmonton Mall in Alberta, Canada, the indoor waterpark market has enjoyed steady growth. According to Hotel & Leisure Advisors, indoor waterpark resorts, while not seeing the same boom in expansion as outdoor facilities, have had continued to increase in both the municipal and private segments. Europe built Blackpool in 1986, and Wisconsin Dells’ Polynesian Resort Hotel opened in 1994.