Celebrating World Water Day

From rides to slides, water is at the center of everything we do. This year, in honor of World Water Day, we wanted to initiate a conversation around water conservation and sustainability. While water loss cannot be eliminated entirely, smart design can help by requiring less water and preventing splash out. Keep reading to see some of the ways that we work with parks to help reduce water consumption…
How WhiteWater Helps Reduce Water Consumption:

1. Low Water Entry Tubs

All of our vehicle water slides have an innovative entry tub design that requires less water at the start, while still allowing for self-dispatch. This design allows the slide to use less water overall and accommodate a variety of weights to board the tube at once without having water splash outside of the entry tub and go to waste.

2. Proprietary Simulations

Our accurate ride simulations ensure that we specify the actual required pump and energy needs for a slide instead of overcompensating and dialing back. Our simulations tell us where the water might ride high in the ride which allows us to predict in advance where potential issues of water loss may occur and allow for us to plan and mitigate that.

3. ‘Water Capture’ Run Out Lanes

For vehicle slides that terminate in run out lanes, we also provide patent-pending wave catching technology to contain wave splash over and provide guests with safe and convenient exit points. With the use of this technology, the initial wave from the rider coming down the slide is caught and dispersed immediately down the drain rather than spilling out over the runout lane.

4. Minimal Splash Risers

Different riser types are deployed to not only ensure maximum water splash-out containment, but to also provide guests with an even more exhilarating ride. While also maximizing safety for guests, our risers have unique surface features to contain water, redirecting it from splashing further up and over the fiberglass but instead back into the flume and through the slide path.

5. Reduced Water Requirements

Because WhiteWater water slides use less water flow, there is less water to lose to evaporation and fewer pumps and valves required, resulting in lower power consumption and utility costs. The reduced water flow also requires smaller water vaults, which in turn lowers construction and maintenance costs. Less water also means that there is less water to treat so not as many chemicals are needed.

Use Water Only When You Need It with Award-Winning Smart Blast Technology

Always innovating, WhiteWater has also found ways to save parks money when operating their Master Blaster and Mat Blaster slides with our Smart Blast technology, which won the 2016 IAAPA Brass Ring Award for technology. In the past, the jets used to power guests uphill on these rides would have been continuously on, pumping water non-stop, resulting in an inefficient use of power and water. We have solved this uneconomical use of energy by developing our Smart Blast technology which uses variable frequency drives (VFDs) and a proprietary control algorithm to dynamically adjust pump speeds while the ride is in operation. The new system saves significant power by only ramping up motor speed when it needs to drive riders uphill. It also reduces the wear and tear on the mechanical equipment and is more energy efficient because the motor is not constantly running at a set speed.

Sustainability Steps that Parks Can Take

Parks are beginning to implement sustainable practices of their own to reap financial and environmental benefits. Clint Hill, former President for Hawaiian Falls, said about “95 percent of the water used in the Hawaiian Falls water parks is recycled. Water is our business, so everyone in the water park industry is always looking at ways to conserve more. It’s in our best interest to do all we can to help protect the water system,” Hill said.[1]

From slide path engineering to special considerations with construction, we have pulled together a list of different steps that parks can take to increase their sustainability efforts: