THUNDER BAY – With the Splish Splash Water Park, playground and mini putt, Boulevard Lake is the place to be this summer.
Jerry Champagne, owner of Splish Splash Water Park, said everyone will be sure to have a blast and they will be open all summer.
“It's like a bouncy castle on the water. There are slides, jumps, trampolines, balance beams. All kinds of stuff like that,” he said.
Champagne said they have cement anchors at the bottom of the lake.
“We bring the park out and we attach it to the anchors and then make sure that it's tight enough.”
Champagne said on windy days the inflatable park doesn't get blown around too much.
“It's always kind of moving because you can't have it real tight . . . but it stays in place on really high windy days.
“We might deflate the bigger units, but that's got to be 50 or 60 kilometre an hour winds before we do that,” he said.
Day passes are sold for one hour, an hour and a half, and two hours, Champagne said.
“For example, the two hour is $24, that's $12 an hour.
“If you get a day pass, you're good for eight hours for $32. It works out to $4 an hour.”
They also have evening passes for $20 which is from 4 until 8:15 p.m., he said. That's probably the best bang for your buck.
“When you start making the schedule a week and a half in advance, you're looking at the weather and everybody in Thunder Bay knows it changes daily. So, I have four lifeguards on today,” Champagne said.
The capacity on the park is 100 people, he said. If there was 100, they would have two lifeguards and there's always one or two on shore as well.
“There's a rope that runs from the park to shore. You can walk almost halfway to three quarters of the way out and you just grab the rope and pull yourself out or swim,” he said.
This is the third year of having the Splish Splash Water Park in Thunder Bay.
“The last two years have been really good. It's always weather dependent and we lost quite a few days to rain last year.
“I'm just hoping that sooner or later we'll get a summer full of sun,” Champagne said.
The park will see 250 to 500 people on a typical day, he said
“We are open seven days a week from 12 to 8:15 p.m.”
Champagne reminded everyone to check their Facebook if the day looks “iffy.”
“Even if you're not on Facebook, look at Splish Splash Water Park Thunder Bay and it will be posted on there to say closed for today or closed for half the day.”
Due to insurance purposes, all children wanting to play on the water park must be at least 42 inches tall.
Champagne said he purchased the mini putt last year and changed all the greens.
“We changed all the trim on the wood because it was rotten.
“This year we're adding interactive games throughout the mini put. For example, there's going to be an axe throw. It's a plastic axe you throw, and if you hit the red, you'll be putting from the red line.
They have bocce ball, where somebody rolls a white ball, and everybody rolls on their turn. Whoever gets closest to the hole starts from there.
“We have a bean bag toss. We have rolling the dice to see where you start. There's all kinds of interactive activity.”
Mini putt is from 12 to 8 p.m. every day except on Sundays when it's 12 to 5 p.m.
“We have probably about 15 birthdays booked this year, where you can do mini putt and water park and depending on the size of the group, we can work you a deal.
“If you just send an email and let me know what day you want to come down, we can do a private party from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. where a minimum of 15 people is required.”
“We can also just set aside some picnic tables for you and set you up with a great pizza deal from Pizza Hut and go from there,” Champagne said.
