the big holes at the back of wave pools

[simon8899]

In germany those holes have to be covered with a fine metal mesh barrier - you're not able to even push your thumb into the mesh. This is yearly checked by independent engineers as wave engines have to be TÜV tested and approved here.

[drwpweb]

You're talking about two different things. The wave chambers (caissons) may look scary, but they can't pin you down there, nor can they disembowel you. Any water they suck in ends up being blown right back out again; there's nowhere else for it to go.

 

Pool drains are another thing entirely, and are tied to the pumps feeding the filtration system or in some cases to the pumps feeding the waterslides. Older drains and filtration systems unfortunately have been tied to some of the tragic cases that have been cited above.

 

So I wouldn't worry too much about the consequences of getting too close to the back wall grates of a pneumatic (forced-air) wave pool, but I still would respect the park's rules of staying away. If nothing else, during a wave cycle you're likely to get repeatedly slammed up against the back wall if you get too close, and that would be uncomfortable.

 

As a waterpark maintenance person of 9 years now, I'd like to offer my two sense on this:

 

Dj snow as I quoted above from a while back is pretty much right on the head. Air is brought into a chamber (called the plenum) through fans. From there the plenum has a number of stainless pipes exiting it. The number of pipes depends on the number of "holes in the back of the pool" (called caissons Pronounced Case-on). Each pipe handles 2 cassions. The pipe in the plenum in split into 2 sides with each side going to one of the cassions in the pool. From there a pneumatic actuating cyclinder is connected to a door and is controlled via a solenoid that's connected to the wave machine computer. The computer sends a signal depending upon the wave patten needed. The wave pattern can be programmed, and it's up to the park to determine which waves are used in their pool. Basically the computer send the signal to the solenoid which then opens or closes the door which releases the air from the plenum into the caisson, creating a wave out in the pool.

 

There is a little suction back on the caissons but not enough to suck you to it for an extended period of time as there isn't even constant suction on the system. The ropes are there as the waves are generally the strongest/violent at the that part in the pool. The rope is there as a safety measure.

 

The thing other people have mentioned with the deaths of being sucked to a pool grate are from pools that have direct suction. Direct suction is something that isn't really possible in modern well-designed parks. Commercial pools generally feed from the grates in the pool to a seperate tank, often called a surge tank. (The flow from the pool grates to the surge tanks is via gravity.) The suction from the pumps is then on the surge tank. Customers don't have access to the surge tanks as they are in the fenced off areas with the pumps. In older pools and many, many home pools and spas, direct suction on the pools grates is and still is a common problem. In 2008 the US passed what's known as the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act (VGBA). It addresses the issue and required waterparks with and without direct suction to install other devices such as different curved or funny looking pool grates, or devices to kill a pump when it detects suction on the line. If you're wondering why parks had to comply even if there was no possible way for this issue to occur in their park (meaning they had the gravity surge tank system as described above), it's because it's just the way the law was written. In many parks it required a ton of modification to their pools to prevent a problem that wasn't even possible in the first place. It is actually against the law for a park to operate without being compliant with the VGBA laws at this point in time.

[Vinnie]

As I happend to come across this page again, As for getting near to the pneumatic wave machine's chambers while it is running. I have spotted a kid doing little dives off the wave machine's ledge in front of the chambers making the waves. He managed not get injured as result of his behaviour in the swimming pool as he did go under head 1st in front of the powerful chamber.

 

I thought doing that is qutie stupid in sense. This pool doesnt mind people being near to the wave machine while it is running.

[Vinnie]

drwpweb, there are plenty of wave machine videos on youtube and dailymotion.com. I have been in to the plant room for Windsor, Letchworth and Swindon. Letchworth was filmed unattended because it's vintage system it uses and the blower room is pressurised. Swindon I managed to film when the machine started up.

 

My previous wave machine videos were on youtube till I deleted my youtube account in anger over lot of issues that was not related to the wave machine. My wave machine plantroom videos are on dailymotion.com

 

I have felt the tempory suction of returning water which is very breifly till it pushes out the water you can get away from the machine's bars. Letchworth pool actually ropes it off but it being making a fountain and hoping to film it doing that again 1 time.

[Vinnie]

Having worked at a six flags water park i can say that the caissons are in no way dangerous, in fact I've swam down to them many times while the machine was running just for the thrill of be thrown back and forth against the grates (call me crazy). The rope is really just so no one bumps into the side of the pool to hard and hurts themselves.

 

 

I done the same thing as you, thats how I learned about them. Grab the Bars tightly keep arms streight and no problems. Even my camera has survived the cassions.

[gamste]

Having worked at a six flags water park i can say that the caissons are in no way dangerous, in fact I've swam down to them many times while the machine was running just for the thrill of be thrown back and forth against the grates (call me crazy). The rope is really just so no one bumps into the side of the pool to hard and hurts themselves.

...or stupid.

 

Keep striving. That Darwin Award is within reach!

 

 

Its fun, what the point of living if you cant do something a little dangerous every once and a while.

[Ccron10]

Having worked at a six flags water park i can say that the caissons are in no way dangerous, in fact I've swam down to them many times while the machine was running just for the thrill of be thrown back and forth against the grates (call me crazy). The rope is really just so no one bumps into the side of the pool to hard and hurts themselves.

...or stupid.

 

Keep striving. That Darwin Award is within reach!

 

 

Its fun, what the point of living if you cant do something a little dangerous every once and a while.

 

 

My advice? If you do that just to live a little on the edge, then don't even step foot into a water park and put yourself and the lifeguards who would try to rescue you because of your stupidity, at risk!

Just another reason why I hate the phrase YOLO.

 

I remember when I was young, I was afraid of the drains on the bottom of a normal pool and of possibly being sucked into one of the wavemaking machines. I am still leary of the machines and usually keep a good ten foot distance from the ropes.

[Vinnie]

My advice? If you do that just to live a little on the edge, then don't even step foot into a water park and put yourself and the lifeguards who would try to rescue you because of your stupidity, at risk!

Just another reason why I hate the phrase YOLO.

 

I remember when I was young, I was afraid of the drains on the bottom of a normal pool and of possibly being sucked into one of the wavemaking machines. I am still leary of the machines and usually keep a good ten foot distance from the ropes.

 

 

I don't do YOLO myself. I certainly don't make a habbit of swimming down to the bars with the machine running. I find the chamber is more powerful towards the middle compared to the sides. Unless it throws water out of the swimming pool like my local one does. The water affect seems to be greater if you stood at the chamber's middle part. My local pool ropes off the machine most of the time due to health and safety with the lack of lifeguards but I have placed a camera inside the caissons before to observe what it does in the wave making one, the camera is thrown about.

 

That Kid I saw diving in front of the Chamber was probley doing YOLO as I was sitting next to him as this pool allowed people to sit on ledge above the wave machine when it is running. I probley would of freaked out if I saw him get injured by the machine. Force of the water is best not played around with a simple mistake can put a person in hospital.

[Vinnie]

Has anyone who dealt with a wave machine system of this type. This is an old Interesting system I am trying to get its technical information for it such as blue prints.

 

There is a Patent for a wave machine which appear to be similar only difference is location of a blower room and air is not introduced underwater unlike this machine.

http://www.google.com/patents/US3629877

 

This pool is a 3 chamber system and its nearly 40 years old. Here is the picture of it's chambers

 

 

This is the blower room behind this wave machine.

 

 

This blower room is highly pressurised. Unlike Modern wave machine it doesnt have a large pipe for plenum.

 

This picture will show the pendulum/clapper or pivot valve system

 

 

Just Above the Valve appears to have a glass looking thing I have no clue what it is for but I seen similar in a beer celler

 

 

These are pipes inside the Caissons from looking through the bars

 

The Valve points to 1 of these pipes which is found in a corner of a caission. The Middle chamber has 2 pipes where the outer has 1 and they are found next to the divider wall as the valve actually sits right behind it. These pipes terminates in to the ceiling of the chamber so what is above the ceiling is not seen.

 

This pool usually ropes the deep end off 1 when using the wave machine or 2 when there is not enough lifeguards to watch the deep end.

[alwaysairtime14]

This is the scariest thread on TPR.

[DJeXeL]

Behind the scenes look at the wave pool at Typhoon Lagoon.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txVTKxYT1d0

[Schrecken]

I remember that there was a fatal accident a couple of decades ago at what is now SFA, where a child somehow drowned in one of these wave pools. This was back when the park was Wild World (I think; it happened back in the early 90's I believe). No idea what kind of pool they had back then but I remember that the child got trapped at the back of the wave pool and couldn't surface. So apparently some of these pools could be dangerous back in those days back when they were first being installed. I remember going to SFA (this was when it was Adventure World, in the late 90's) and when I was in the wave pool I made sure I stayed far away from the very back of it because I remembered that accident. I'm sure it was upgraded or re-built right after the accident but I didn't want to take any chances.

[RandallDuell]

This is the scariest thread on TPR.

 

There is something very creepy about this thread to me...I don't know if it's the old/foggy photos, the strange obsession, or maybe both.

[cal1br3tto]

This is the scariest thread on TPR.

This. Thanks for posting what I always think when this topic comes up.

 

Tragedy aside, this is way more horrifying to me than the Jersey fire thread.

[Vinnie]

This is the scariest thread on TPR.

 

There is something very creepy about this thread to me...I don't know if it's the old/foggy photos, the strange obsession, or maybe both.

 

The Term Strange Obsession comes out of a brainwashed person who doesn't think outside of a societal box and these people may consider you as strange too. Each interest is considered as Unique in people who comes from many walks of life. However on this thread this seems to talk about that wave machine caisson being bad as a pool drain with strength of suction that probley makes it creepy and the injuries often talked about as result of people messing around at the pool.

[Dailey Enterprizes]

^ To me it's more a fear of water in general. I go swimming in a natural lake that our family has a cottage on and I have a phobia of the deep water. The lake itself goes 80 feet deep which provides a home for musky which the lake is known for having. We are fortunate enough to have a pretty shallow sandbar that goes out 30 yards from our dock to the deep end. Fittingly enough what separates the sandbar from the deep end is this nasty orange seaweed. I avoid it at all costs with the fear of my foot getting tangled in it or encountering a creature like a water snake, big turtle or musky. Otherwise the lake is harmless for the most part and no reported deaths as far as I know.

 

As for wave pools I was only in the Geauga Lake wave pool which still exists I think. I remember the pool being packed and I couldn't get down past the middle even if I wanted to. Wave pools to me are kind of disgusting... just a place for people to crash into one another. I guess consider me Kyle from Southpark where his phobia is... pee!

[KingRCT3]

I though I was the only one to be afraid of these things. I really enjoy waterparks, but I avoid swimming next to every underwater grid or holes, and seeing a dried wave pool is kind of scary! If you're Voldemort and I'm Harry Potter, put a horcrux into a wave pool hole, I'll never go here.

[Briggy]

I used to be a lifeguard at a well known Dutch vacation park, loved my job. Had to quit unfortunately, now I am studying to be a nurse. Strange fact: I almost drowned once as a child and since then, I was/am still afraid of wave pools, deep water etc. I know, not exactly good characteristics to be a lifeguard right?

 

Well, one of the jobs (listen to and shudder) was to clean the wave pool. Which sometimes included, removing part of the bars, diving through and surfacing in the chamber. There you had to remove leaves and other things from the underwater pool drain (suction for the water slides).

 

You can breathe because not the whole room is flooded. But it feels very scary because of the pressure in the chamber. The first time I dived together with another collegue, because we were together I didn't feel scared. But some time after that I had to go in alone, and got a panic attack in there, I didn't go underwater, I just grabbed a plastic cup floating on the water and got the hell out of there. Luckily that was the only time I had to do that. Good too, because else there would be countless water slide errors because of the pool drain being clogged.

 

There were safety measures when somebody had to dive in there. At the lifeguard post the waves were turned off, and the emergency stop button is in use. And there is somebody waiting at the other side of the bars. In the case they felt it took too long for you to come out, they would come and get you.

The wave pool at the swimming pool I worked at. We had to dive through the right bars.

[Vinnie]

Hey all

 

I checked on here to see if there was any more recent talks about the wave machine chambers. My local pool had to be drained due to a burst pipe so I managed to get pics of inside the wave machine's chamber. Regarding the guy above feeling the pressure inside the chamber apparantly people who used to swim in there in 1980's time through a broken bar was able to feel similar. This is a 1980's wave machine the pool opened in 1982 so it contains old features such as pipes inside the chambers.

This swimming will have many stories of people swimming inside the chambers 1 guy who told me about it wanted to go in there again.

 

The wave machine chambers this pool and one at Great Yarmouth (Marina) are designed the exactly same way

 

 

This is inside the chambers I will only show the middle chamber.

 

 

Top of the Pipe - These pipes connect to the blower and are present in all of the chambers the middle one will have one on both sides. These pipes are found near the 2 walls in the middle on both side. The pipes at the divide wall on right side connects to working blower valve. This side is only side makes the waves as the other side is dead and been dead for a while. Although one at Great Yarmouth is 1 year older and still works fully.

 

[canadianparkfan]

In regards to people getting sucked in, never heard anything about wave pools, but here in Canada, about 8 years ago, it happened on a waterslide.

 

News article:

http://www.canada.com/story_print.html?id=bad15ca4-9dea-4024-92d7-cbc2fa1cb352&sponsor=

 

Real scary stuff. Was traumatized more and the whole thing was made even worse, due to the fact that I was still in elementary school at the time this happened (I believe the kid in the accident was only a few years younger than I at the time), and the fact that I was actually on a family vacation at a massive water park the day the incident happened.

[WFChris]

The scariest thread on TPR returns!

[Midgetman82]

^Hands down, no argument there. Should probably change the thread's description to match, lol.

[RandallDuell]

This is the scariest thread on TPR.

 

There is something very creepy about this thread to me...I don't know if it's the old/foggy photos, the strange obsession, or maybe both.

 

The Term Strange Obsession comes out of a brainwashed person who doesn't think outside of a societal box and these people may consider you as strange too. Each interest is considered as Unique in people who comes from many walks of life. However on this thread this seems to talk about that wave machine caisson being bad as a pool drain with strength of suction that probley makes it creepy and the injuries often talked about as result of people messing around at the pool.

 

This is a bit late, but I wanted to note that this post didn't help to change my opinion on this thread LOL

[Vinnie]

This is the scariest thread on TPR.

 

There is something very creepy about this thread to me...I don't know if it's the old/foggy photos, the strange obsession, or maybe both.

 

The Term Strange Obsession comes out of a brainwashed person who doesn't think outside of a societal box and these people may consider you as strange too. Each interest is considered as Unique in people who comes from many walks of life. However on this thread this seems to talk about that wave machine caisson being bad as a pool drain with strength of suction that probley makes it creepy and the injuries often talked about as result of people messing around at the pool.

 

This is a bit late, but I wanted to note that this post didn't help to change my opinion on this thread LOL

 

Yes you are a bit late.

 

Social Engineering has been my latest topic recently.

 

Just because you think this is a creepy thread because people with the so-called strange hobbies or interest does not make a person stupid/dumb or anything like that. Just because you don't approve of it does not make it so for you to go judging people on their interests.

 

Waveywonder infact has started this thread and there are many other people who have interests with this kind of stuff. I am aware of many people having interests with the wave pool stuff including some socially acceptable people are just as curious.

 

There is no such thing as normal in life by the way.

So if you think people with interest of this kind are not normal, I think you are not normal for reading such threads that is beyond your interests.

 

When you report people being strange and creepy, I think you are strange for allowing yourself to be socially engineered in to liking only things in a box called the social norms. That can be sex, getting drunk, party and etc.

I think people are strange for being so obsessed with socially acceptable stuff and conforming to the stupid norms of being very stupid especially in name of YOLO. This includes the boy that dived infront of a wave machine chamber when it was making waves.

 

Im sure many people like other theme park related stuff including the machines and probley want to know how they work. It is not a crime to have interests of this kind.

 

If you think this thread is creepy, I find you very creepy.

[Midgetman82]

I find it's totally acceptable to have an interest in the mechanics of wave machines. Normally those who know the parts of the machine can fear them less than those who don't. It's almost parallel to us being okay with hopping on some knock-off roller coaster in a third world country, or any given carnival ride, knowing how the ride operates while the GP would have second thoughts.

 

I think a lot of us find that the creepiness of this thread stems off of the reports of people injuring themselves from the machines (likely from doing something they shouldn't have, or playing/swimming too close to an old system). I think this thread was cleaned of them, but there were a lot of other darker reports that were previously posted on here (and frankly do not need to be reposted).