As the weather gets warmer and hopefully things start re-opening again, two friends have created a floating water park centered on a giant inflatable and custom-made unicorn for people in the Halifax region to use this summer.
The water park will be located on First Lake in Lower Sackville, N.S. and has been named Splashifax.
“There’s hundreds (of giant inflatables) around the world and there’s a dozen and a half in Canada … And so (my friend Jon) had actually visited one and said that he had such a fun time. He had never laughed so much,” said Dave Wolpin, co-owner of Splashifax, in an interview with Global News Morning on Wednesday.
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Wolpin said he wasn’t on board with the idea in the beginning, but the idea for a floating waterpark grew on him after he thought about it for a couple of weeks.
He said on the same day that the first case of COVID-19 was announced in Canada, the deposit for the waterpark was paid and the venture was delayed until 2021.
“On social media, we were well received and that’s the majority of the response. But naturally, with any new business, especially something that’s new to a city that people maybe haven’t experienced before, there’s going to be concerned residents,” said Wolpin.
As a result, the co-owners met with residents who live on and close to First Lake on Zoom late on Tuesday to answer their questions.
Wolpin said the lake is 202 acres. The park is just under an acre, “so it takes up 0.4 per cent of the lake.”
He said there were mainly concerned questions about noise at the meeting.
“There’s no noise at night. During the day, there’s no music. There’ll be laughter and laughing and screaming adults and children hopefully,” said Wolpin.
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When he and his friend researched about their project a year ago, Wolpin said there were no specific permits for it because it was on private land.
“There’s no permanent infrastructure. We’re not we’re not doing anything to the shoreline. It’s just a ramp from the shore down to a dock. The dock takes people out to deep water,” he noted.
However, they’ve now been in touch with regulatory bodies to make sure if there are any permits they need and if the information they got a year and a half ago was incorrect.
If all goes as planned, Wolpin said the waterpark will open sometimes in June.