Wet'n'Wild Palm Springs

Wet'n'Wild Palm Springs is a defunct water park located in Palm Springs, California. The park operated under Cedar Fair's ownership as Knott's Soak City until 2013 when CNL Lifestyle Properties acquired it. The park plans to reopen in 2022 after a complete renovation of the property.

History

Wet'n'Wild Palm Springs officially opened as Oasis Water Park by Waterpark Associates in 1986. By 2001, Oasis Water Park spanned of a property, featured 20 attractions and had a seasonal attendance of 200,000 people. In May 2001, Cedar Fair entered into an agreement to acquire the park. The deal was finalised one month later for $9.1 million. The park was immediately branded Knott's Oasis Water Park, with additional advertising driving revenues for the remainder of the year. At the conclusion of the 2001 season Cedar Fair reported the park was down 13% at the time of acquisition, however, this was turned around to a 13% increase by the end of the season under the park's new owners.

In the 2001-2002 winter off-season, Cedar Fair invested $2 million into refurbishing and rebranding the park into a Knott's Soak City park, joining other locations in Chula Vista and Buena Park. The refurbishment included the park's gas chlorine sanitation system being replaced by a liquid chlorine equivalent, as well as the repainting and renaming of all slides to match the other Soak City parks. A Rain Fortress aqua play area by WhiteWater West was also added to the park, which reopened in March 2002. The renovation of the park saw increases in attendance and revenue of "about 40%" in the 2002 season.

On August 14, 2013, Cedar Fair announced it had sold its Palm Springs Soak City to CNL Lifestyle Properties. The park was allowed to operate under the Soak City name for the until the conclusion of the 2013 season. In November 2013, CNL Lifestyle Properties completed their acquisition of the ownership and operational rights of Wet'n'Wild Hawaii and Wet'n'Wild Phoenix. As part of the transaction with Australian firm, Village Roadshow Theme Parks, CNL also acquired rights to the Wet'n'Wild brand in the United States. In December 2013, CNL announced the Palm Springs water park would operate as Wet'n'Wild Palm Springs from the 2014 season.

In popular culture

The opening scenes of the 1987 film "North Shore" were filmed at the Oasis Water Park wave tank. In the film, the wave tank location where the surf contest takes place was actually depicted as Arizona. Actor Matt Adler portrays Arizona surfer Rick Kane who wins the state surfing competition and uses his contest winnings to travel to Hawaii's North Shore. The film also starred Nia Peeples, John Philbin, Gerry Lopez, and Gregory Harrison - though none of these actors appear in any of the film's opening sequences.

In June 2019, shortly before demolition commenced at Wet'n'Wild Palm Springs, professional skateboarders including Lizzie Armanto, Omar Hassan, Riley Hawk, Tony Hawk, Aaron Homoki, Kevin Kowalski, Torey Pudwill and Daewon Song spent a week filming in the closed park to create a nine-minute viral video for Thrasher Magazine entitled "High 'N' Dry".

In June 2020, YouTuber Casey Neistat uploaded a YouTube video where he surfed on the wave simulator at the park after being invited, presumably by the owners of the waterpark.

References

External links

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{{Amusement parks in California

1986 establishments in California
Water parks in California
Buildings and structures in Palm Springs, California
Tourist attractions in Palm Springs, California