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Case Study: The Wake Island Story

Pleasant Grove, California

When Noel Carter realized he had gotten what he paid for, he knew he would have to do something — and fast. As the owner of Wake Island — the largest watersports park on the west coast — Carter realized the giant inflatables from a generic manufacturer in China were substandard. That’s when he turned to Commercial Recreation Specialists to transform Wake Island into a more thrilling, more appealing and more memorable experience.

With the confusion created by imitation products from manufacturers in China and other countries, CRS President Ron Romens knows the importance of educating customers. That’s why CRS provides comprehensive instruction and training to facility owners who want to operate a best-in-class aquatics Sports Park. (Scroll to continue…)

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With their ever-evolving waterplay environment, Wake Island has maximized their ROI and has become a leader in the aquatics sports park category.

Carter likes to describe the Wake Island aquapark as a “visually intense” experience. And that it is, with more than 50 giant blue and green structures that form challenging modular obstacle courses on the water — slides, towers, wiggle bridges, ramps, trampolines, water totters, balance beams, tunnels, monkey bars, hurdles, domes, swings … well, you get the idea … it is intense!

“Wake Island is definitely a leader in this emerging category, and we’re proud to be part of it,” says Romens. That ‘emerging category’ of Water-Based Family Entertainment Centers™ (WBFEC) pioneered by CRS is proving to be more than a trend. The WBFEC™ market will only get bigger, according to Romens.

“People don’t forget this type of recreation. It encourages active play and social interaction on the water with exciting, but safe, experiences. It’s really like nothing else in the marketplace.” And that’s what Noel Carter sought to bring to Wake Island — an experience like nothing else.

To get things right, Carter consulted with the experts at CRS, describing his business goals and looking for a tailored plan to meet those goals. CRS devised a comprehensive plan that featured a strategy focused on creating easy entry points and exits, varying degrees of challenge, and differing rotations of play that would encourage repeat visits. Drawing upon CRS’s engineering and technical know-how, the resulting Sports Park at Wake Island was built for success by creating a self-directed experience that keeps guests coming back for more. But, the consultative approach with CRS reached well beyond the water for Carter. Like many CRS customers, he also leaned on their expertise every step of the way in seeking advice for promoting business growth — how to improve hours of operation, usage fees, throughput, waiver information, the check-in process, etc.

Wake Island's amped up H2Whoa! Zone features dozens of inflatables, SUPs, wakeboard tow lines and beachfront.

“You have a professional with you from the very beginning,” says Carter. “A partnership like the one between CRS and Wake Island is extremely important in our business. You can learn so much, so fast. It might cost you more initially, but you save a lot in the end.” Robert Cirjak, Wibit’s Germany-based CEO, says that many of his customers around the world have replaced what he calls substandard, unsafe and noncompliant equipment with Wibit products. “Wibit has customers in 70 countries,” he says. “We receive a lot of calls from people in the United States saying, ‘We made the wrong decision.’ So our relationship with CRS really benefits everyone.”

“We are a solutions provider,” says Romens. “Our primary objective is to help make our customers’ businesses wildly successful. We preserve what they have already created by proposing solutions that make operations more efficient and fresher. We look to increase their per capita revenues while at the same time minimizing their owner risk, liability, downtime and staffing needs. When we’re successful helping our customers be successful, we know we have delivered value.”

“The kind of support we got from CRS is huge for people entering this market,” says Carter. “They made our buying process at Wake Island easy and brought the expertise we needed. There’s definitely an added value to working with someone who speaks the same language, literally and figuratively. We highly recommend CRS, because it needs to be done right.”