WhiteWater West
WhiteWater West is a manufacturing company based in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. It was established in 1980 and manufactures a variety of products for water parks including water slides and water play areas. The company also owns FlowRider, which produces a line of surf simulators, and Vantage, a guest engagement and operational optimization platform.
History
In 1980, WhiteWater West was established by Geoff Chutter, a former accountant. The company's first project was the WhiteWater Waterslide and Recreation Complex in Penticton, Canada.In 1982, WhiteWater West acquired WhiteWater Composites. This was followed by the merger with Brookside Engineering in 1985 and Barr & Wray in 1987.
In 1998, the company entered into a limited license agreement to manufacture FlowRiders.
In 2002, WhiteWater acquired Prime Play.
In 2014, WhiteWater acquired Wave Loch's FlowRider line of products and IP.
In 2015 and 2016, Canada named WhiteWater Best Managed Company.
In 2018, WhiteWater launched Vantage, a guest engagement and operational optimization platform, which was the recipient of an IAAPA Brass Ring Award in 2018 and a WWA Leading Edge Award in 2019.
In 2019, the company announced a deal with Wiegand-Maelzer to acquire exclusive rights to the award-winning SlideWheel.
WhiteWater West has completed over 5,000 projects worldwide and has a workforce of over 600 employees. Some notable installations include:
- AquaDuck on the Disney Dream and the Disney Fantasy cruise ships
- Disney's Typhoon Lagoon in Orlando, FL is home to one of the world's largest surf wave pools, built by WhiteWater.
- Sunway Lagoon in Malaysia features WhiteWater products such as a Boomerango, Abyss, AquaLoop, and AquaPlay.
- Wet'n'Wild Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia.
- Wet'n'Wild Las Vegas in Las Vegas, NV.
- Ramayana Water Park in Pattaya, Thailand.
- Shanghai Haichang Ocean Park in Shanghai, China, is home to the world's longest Spinning Rapids Ride.
Products
Water Slides
Iconic Slides- Boomerango - a type of half-pipe water slide where riders are sent down a steep drop and up a steep hill on the other side, before sliding backwards down another path to the end of the slide. The standard Boomerango caters for riders in two-person inline tubes while the Family Boomerango caters for riders in larger circular rafts.
- Abyss - a funnel water slide where riders drop from inside a tunnel out into the ride's main element shaped like a funnel on its side. Riders oscillate from one side to the other until they exit through the back of the funnel and into a splash pool.
- Manta - a slide modelled after the wings of a Manta Ray, delivering drops and an impressive visual.
- Master Blaster - a water coaster where the slide mimics a roller coaster by providing not only descents, but ascents as well. Current WhiteWater West Blasters use water jets to propel riders. The Master Blaster features riders in an inline raft.
- Tailspin - a slide featuring a circular, bowl with a rapid descent flume that spirals downwards.
- SlideWheel - the world's first rotating water slide, inspired by the Ferris Wheel. Rafts are launched into the perpetually spinning wheel where they're propelled partly by gravity and partly by the momentum of the rotating flume.
- Bowls - a bowl water slide where riders descend a steep drop into a round bowl which they then circle before exiting the ride. The company manufactures their bowls in a variety of sizes to account for four-person rafts, two-person inline tubes and body slides.
- AquaDrop - a launch capsule start with a trapdoor free-fall drop.
- AquaLoop - a looping water slide where riders are released from a trap-door and plummet down a near-vertical descent at speeds of up to. Riders experience 2.5 Gs in less than 2 seconds. The whole ride is over within 7 seconds. This product is licensed from Aquarena.
- AquaTube - a water slide that can be configured with a wide range of slopes and slide paths to thread through a slide complex with no additional footprint.
- Kids' Slides - a variety of smaller slides specifically designed for children and water play areas.
- Multi-Lane Mat Racer - a multi-lane racer water slide where riders dive head-first onto a mat and down a slide with dips and/or enclosed sections.
- Whizzard - a multi-lane racing slide that starts with high-speed AquaTubes that bend alongside each other through multiple lanes of twists, turns, and a 360-degree loop before a drop into open lanes.
- Mat Blaster - part multi-lane racer and part water coaster, it is an uphill mat racing water slide.
- Slideboarding - a gamified water slide on which guests have to hit the right buttons as they ride down, activating as many dynamic targets as they can. This ride won a Thea Award in 2017.
Interactive Water Play
- Adventure Play - unique attractions that allow children and adults to play together, combining fun, exploration and physical challenges.
- Multi-level Play Structures - play structures that feature a large amount of interactive water elements such as cannons, tipping buckets and waterfalls. These are coupled with a collection of water slides and fusion water slides.
- Splash Pad Features - the individual interactive elements that make up an AquaCourse or AquaPlay area. These include cannons, tipping buckets and waterfalls.
Water Rides
- Spinning Rapids Ride - family-sized rafts are propelled into spins, turns, drops and river rapids without riders getting completely soaked. This ride was awarded a Thea Award in 2001.
- Super Flume - the larger cousin of the ever-popular Log Flume, with extras like turntables and backwards drops for a more varied journey.
- Log Flume - an industry classic that features a big drop and huge splash.
- Shoot the Chute - a centerpiece at most theme and amusement parks globally, it offers a heart-pumping drop followed by an iconic splash.
- River Raft Ride - WhiteWater engineered the water flow to simulate a genuine river rapids rafting experience to create this ride.
- Raft Battle - inspired by water battles, this ride combines water play with a traditional river raft ride.
Surf & Wave Pools
- FlowRider - a collection of sheet wave simulated surfing attractions invented by Wave Loch and acquired by WhiteWater West in 2012. Includes FlowRider, FlowBarrel, FlowCurl, Wave-in-a-Box and WaveOz.Lock in new agreement">
- Wave pools - surf wave pools, dual wave pools, family waves pools and children's wave pools that feature wave making technology capable of generating waves large enough for surfing.
- Wave Rivers - extreme rivers, wave rivers and lazy rivers that generate waves to move guests around parks.