Getting Started:

We are the industry leading in-channel Whitewater Park Team

At Recreation Engineering and Planning (REP) we receive calls on a daily basis from people looking for information on how to start a park in their community.  Hopefully this page will give you all of the information that you need to get a project rolling. Our partner firm, S2Odesign can provide information about Super-Parks and other pumped whitewater attractions.

Is it Possible to Create a Park in Your Town?

The most important question is, does your town have a river with sufficient drop and flow to create a whitewater park?  REP has created parks on rivers with as little as 100 cfs and only three feet of drop.  Ideal flows are much higher, however, and depend largely on the width of the river.  There are no real guidelines on the amount of drop required for this type of park.  Many of our structures require only 1.5 feet of drop per play feature, and some of our most successful parks, like Steamboat Springs, CO have only one or two drop structures.  The Steamboat Springs park has only one drop structure yet still hosts major national level rodeo events and festivals.  Imagine having that ideal play feature in the center of your town.  On the other hand, cities like Sydney, Australia and Charlotte, NC have built recirculating courses that are entirely fabricated out of cement channels.  These parks don't even use an existing riverbed and the water is pumped around the channel.

Getting Started

100 percent of our jobs completed thus far are funded by local municipalities.  The costs of these courses is measured in tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars (see our lists of projects for more info).  The next step in getting the park built is to provide your local government with the information they need to make an informed decision on funding a park.  Do not be intimidated by this process.  These parks have created such a tourist attraction for the towns and cities in which they have been built that they have created a significant impact on the local economy.  The small town of Golden, Colorado built a park for less than $200,000 that was later cited by an independent economic impact study for creating millions of dollars of economic income for the local community every year.  These are the kinds of numbers that can raise eyebrows at City Hall. 

Recreation Engineering and Planning often takes an assisting role in this step by visiting your town to do a site analysis and host a town meeting and information session.  Often we are able to complete a Preliminary Design and provide conceptual drawings that help local leaders and citizens understand the look, feel, and functionality as well as some of the general costs and requirements of the project.

Business Planning

Business planning is a large part of the Super-Park design process.  The Business Plan and Operations Plan give the owner a sense of the viability of the project as well as set the constraints that drive the project.  The National Whitewater Center is a good example of this process.  The business plan created a clearly defined goal of a less than 9 year payback period.  Once all the numbers had been run, this translated to a capacity of 50 rafts per session on summer weekends.  This metric, and others like it, drove the design process to create the world's most efficient and profitable whitewater park.  Operations planning allowed designers and architects to create the office, storage, and building space for the host of employees, visitors, and competitors that would be arriving on the site on a daily basis.  Clearly a good plan on paper translates to a good park in the end. 

Design

Once funding has been secured the design process is ready to begin.  At REP we believe that design is a mixture of careful on-site measurement, public meetings, and sound engineering.  We try to mix our engineering background and whitewater design experience with local input to tailor a course that meets the needs and desires of the local community.  Typically this stage includes public meetings both before and after the design process in order to carefully communicate the design to the community before the construction process begins.

Permitting

Next to high water nothing has more potential for delay than the permitting process.  Recreation Engineering and Planning has vast experience in this process and we recommend that your Town or City begin the permit application process soon after deciding that a whitewater park is feasible.  REP will gather the necessary information and make a permit application in the name of your Town or City and will follow the process through issuance.

Construction

For us here at REP nothing is more exciting than the construction process.  We oversee the construction of all of the in-stream structures that we build and carefully monitor riverbank improvements.  This oversight ensures that our courses are built to our exacting standards.  This process can take anywhere from two weeks to several months depending on the size of the course.  Typically construction is scheduled to occur when rivers are at their lowest to allow for a minimum of water control. 

Completion!

There is no greater feeling than taking that first ride on your own hometown play wave.  REP has attended the grand opening of every course we've built so far and our reward has been all of the happy faces we see on the water.  These parks are fantastic and the grand opening is a great time to bring the community together to celebrate their new gathering point.