/ Acquapark has been on the market for over 30 years with products that today, as in the past, are highly sought after and have an excellent reputation. We reveal some of the ‘secrets’ of their long life /

What makes a waterslide, a water playground or any other water game a good product? The quality of its materials, you might say, structural solidity and how much and how it fulfils individual and collective safety requirements. While this is certainly true, alongside these characteristics, however, there are at least 2 other no less decisive factors that more directly involve the senses of those who use the product. These are aesthetics and playability, which when well developed create a magic-like feeling between user and attraction; a desire for the guest of the waterpark, resort or other location where the game is installed to try it again and again, each time enjoying a meaningful experience which both satisfies them and stimulates them to explore it more in depth. 

Aesthetics today means design, shapes and detailed theming. Playability today means fun, interactivity, action, socialisation and sharing. Acquapark from Calcinato (Brescia) are only all too aware of this, as when designing and then building their waterslides, spray parks and water playgrounds, these aspects are focused on to the same extent as the engineering requirements.

The Galeone Magico installed at Jesolo International Club Camping at the beginning of summer is proof of this. The existing children’s pool has become a hub for fun and an iconic element at the campsite, thanks to this majestic water attraction, 23m long and 11m high, which reproduces a 3-mast galleon in the style of the ‘Serenissima Repubblica’ of Venice (the province where the campsite is situated). The galvanised stainless steel supporting structure is covered on the outside in fiberglass, specially processed and painted to create the effect of a hull made from wooden beams, when seen from a distance. There is also a figurehead on the bow, a hold, cannons, ropes, hoisted sails, banners and everything else needed to make the reproduction seem perfectly real.

However, the ship is also a multifaceted water game that demands action and active participation: from the hull, 3 mini slides and a 2-lane multi-lane slide run down into the pool, while hoisted on the main mast is a tipping barrel that empties water at regular intervals onto the heads of those who are passing by below. Children and teenagers can also play with the ship’s rudder, pretending to be pirates, with the magical hold that is ready to be discovered and with many cannons shooting out jets of water in all directions.

The Arlecchino Slide, installed at the Riovalli waterpark, on the Verona side of Lake Garda, is also, albeit in a different way to the Galeone, rich in terms of aesthetics and playability. Here it is the bright colours combined with…

Continue reading Games & Parks Industry September 2021, page 38

Photos Courtesy: TOGO Media

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