Sunriver Adds Water Play Floatables for Summer of Fun
Sunriver Adds Water Play Floatables for Summer of Fun
Photo Credit: Brooke Snavely
Three years ago, the Sunriver Owners Association opened the SHARC aquatic and recreation center, which includes indoor and outdoor pools, a leisure pool with a zero entry area, two slides, lazy river, water play elements, spa and kiddie pool.
When SHARC opened, the owners association purchased water play equipment from Soft Play, a global provider of unique, interactive indoor, outdoor and water play areas and playground equipment. Three years later, it came time to update some of the equipment and add new pieces, and the association called Soft Play again.
“Those floatables get ridden hard,” said Matt Catanzaro, SHARC aquatics operations manager. “That’s why we went back to Soft Play. The quality of their products is outstanding. Kids and adults play on these things and they withstand a lot of abuse. The Soft Play products are durable.”
SHARC purchased seven new floatables for the 2015 season: five new lily pads for the water walk, a new log to replace an existing one and a floating shark that replaced a floating trout.
According to Darren Squier, SHARC facilities manager, the new shark is the most popular amenity this year.
“The shark has a really wide base so it can’t be flipped despite the kids’ best efforts. They simply cannot flip that thing,” Squier said. “Kids try to surf the shark and we have daily games of King of the Shark because of the stability.”
Squier said Soft Play customized the shark to match the SHARC’s logo.
“Soft Play was willing to do whatever we asked them to do. They sent us pictures of a tiger shark, hammerhead and others but we didn’t want the colors they showed us, so we asked them to customize the colors. They said, ‘Yes, we can do that. We’ll take care of it.’ They even painted a smile on the shark because we wanted it to match our logo. We didn’t want a menacing shark.”
Both Catanzaro and Squier said they are impressed with the new Soft Play products.
“I’m amazed. The way that shark is ridden; that thing is tough,” said Catanzaro. “I have seen eight teenagers on that at once. It’s buoyant.”
About SHARC: In addition to the aquatic facilities, the center also includes a sand play area, cafe, picnic area, playground, basketball court, bocce ball court, year-round tubing hill, picnic pavilion and an outdoor amphitheater. On an annual basis, SHARC attracts an average of 250,000 Sunriver residents, summer visitors and day use visits from people in Bend and La Pine and visitors.