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Every summer, the Raging Waters and Ocean Oasis waterparks pack ’em in. Located at Morey’s Piers in Wildwood, New Jersey, on the legendary Jersey Shore, these facilities wow sunbaked visitors with their refreshing water and tube slides, 1,100-foot-long “Endless River,” and mix of family and children’s pools.
Keeping all this water clean and in motion is no simple task. “Each park holds about 750,000 gallons of water in its various attractions,” says George Rohman, Morey’s Piers’ operations manager. “This requires a vast array of pumps, holding tanks, and filtration systems—all of which must be working to keep us in business.”
When fall arrives, Morey’s Piers shuts down for the season. At Raging Waters/Ocean Oasis, the closure requires more than just turning off the pumps and waiting for spring to arrive. In fact, proper offseason preparations and maintenance are key to ensuring the survival of the waterparks’ infrastructure, and preserving the millions of dollars invested in them from year to year.
Maintenance Never Stops, Especially During Summer
The offseason is arguably the most challenging time for a waterpark, due to cold temperatures, stormy weather, and low staffing levels. But the regular season comes with its own maintenance demands, and they are never-ending.
Consider this: A waterpark such as Raging Waters has thousands of feet of PVC piping, ranging in diameter from one to six inches. These are connected to heavy-duty industrial pumps; low-maintenance, water-saving filtration systems such as the Neptune-Benson Defender; and wastewater outlets/ freshwater intakes.
The same kind of demanding infrastructure can be found at Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari in Santa Claus, Indiana, which features the “Wildebeest” water coaster, numerous family water rides and slides, two wave pools, two lazy rivers, two interactive play structures, and two children’s waterplay areas. Mike Kamp, the park’s general manager of guest experience, says it takes a total of 3 million gallons of water—filtered continuously—to fill all of these attractions. In addition, 350,000 gallons must be added daily to the pools to make up for evaporation and splash-out.
To keep its waterpark topped off, Splashin’ Safari has a 500,000-gallon elevated water storage tank that provides at least a one-day supply of operating capacity. All attractions, pools, and slides have high-rate sand filters except for Safari Sam’s SplashLand, which uses a Neptune-Benson Defender system. “The Neptune-Benson Defender was installed as new technology for the attraction in order to improve water quality, reduce the amount of backwash water, and reduce operation costs,” Kamp says, noting the Defender does come with a higher price tag concurrent with its significantly advanced technology.
The maintenance demands placed on outdoor waterparks during the summer months are experienced by indoor waterparks year-round. Take Great Wolf Lodge’s 11 indoor waterparks: “Because we have indoor attractions, we don’t have the luxury of shutting down for a few months for repairs and upgrades,” says Jason Arthur, one of the company’s regional directors of aquatics. “So we fit in whatever we can— impeller servicing, bearing replacements on the pumps—in the overnight hours.”
Once a year, each Great Wolf Lodge waterpark does shut down for a week or two to allow larger repairs and upgrades. But that’s the most downtime they get.
 The Offseason Challenge
Outdoor waterparks such as Raging Waters/Ocean Oasis and Splashin’ Safari shut down for a very good reason each year: The areas they are located in become very cold during the winter months, with lots of snow and below-freezing temperatures.
Without a doubt, freezing temperatures are the worst threat any waterpark can face. If allowed to freeze, water will shatter pipes, pumps, and pools. Millions of dollars of infrastructure will be destroyed driving the waterpark into financial ruin. This is why these outdoor waterparks take offseason preparations very, very seriously. In fact, “Water systems are designed and constructed to be drained for freezing weather that occurs October through March,” says Kamp.
“In mid-December, we evacuate all of the water from our pipes, pumps, and pools,” adds Rohman. “But we don’t just drain the system, because water can get left behind in pockets where it could potentially freeze and cause damage. To prevent this, we blast compressed air throughout the piping system, to get the rest of the moisture out. We also suck it out using vacuums to ensure that all of the water is gone.”
This still isn’t enough: To protect Raging Waters/Ocean Oasis from even the possibility of freezing damage, the park’s staff floods critical components with antifreeze. “We put about 2,000 gallons of antifreeze into our pumps and anything else that is vulnerable,” Rohman tells Funworld. “We then cover any exposed machinery with tarps and do whatever we can to protect any other elements from snow load and ice.”
Freezing freshwater isn’t the only threat Raging Waters/ Ocean Oasis faces. Saltwater blown in from the Atlantic Ocean corrodes the slides’ metal support structures and damages the concrete surfaces around the attractions. These are problems that have to be endured during the winter months, and then dealt with before the waterparks reopen for the next season. “We spend a lot of time removing rust, repairing fiberglass, and repainting each spring,” says Rohman.
Finally, the fact that the waterparks are closed, and thus undermanned compared to summer staffing levels, means there are fewer eyes watching out for trouble. This is why preventative offseason preparation is so important. Once the snow falls and the mercury falls below freezing, it’s too late to prevent any remaining water from freezing.
Getting Ready for Summer
When spring returns to New Jersey and Indiana, the crews at Raging Waters/Ocean Oasis and Splashin’ Safari open the pumping systems and start looking for winter damage. If they are lucky, the pipes, pumps, and pools will make it through the winter unscathed. In this instance, any antifreeze is drained, mechanical parts are lubricated and resealed, and the piping network is flushed to ensure that only clean water reaches the waterparks’ clients.
If damage has occurred, repairs must be done quickly. The biggest disaster would be a burst underground pipe, especially one buried under concrete or some similarly inaccessible surface. But damaged pumps and filters can be equally as problematic, particularly if the damaged equipment is older and replacement parts are hard to come by.
In addition, all of the pools have to be checked to ensure they are still watertight. The slides have to be checked for cracks and repaired/replaced, and the metal structures have to be repainted and restored back to a “like-new” appearance.
“There is a lot to do getting a waterpark ready for the new season,” reflects Rohman. “This is why off-season maintenance is so important. If you don’t design and then prepare your waterpark for winter, the damage you’ll suffer will come back to haunt you when the snow melts. That’s something you don’t want to happen.”
James Careless is an experienced freelance writer with credits at Business Week, NBC News, and NPR. Despite claims to the contrary, he does not yelp like a terrified beagle on roller coasters— unless they are very fast.
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