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| Photo by Ryan Morrill Swimmers get drenched by a giant bucket in the Kiddie Play Structure. |
When husband and wife Chris and Julie Mesanko opened Thundering Surf Waterpark on Long Beach Island in 1977, there were no real plans to grow the Beach Haven business outside its four slides, which were all made of concrete. But 40 summers later, New Jersey’s first-ever waterpark is still in existence, and it’s continuing to expand.
“The year we started I just thought it was the coolest thing to be in the amusement business, and, honestly, it gave me an opportunity to go surfing because I could open for 100 days, make my money, pack it up, and then I could go to Hawaii and surf for the next 200 days,” said Chris Mesanko, who was inducted into the World Waterpark Association Hall of Fame this past October. “I never thought anything beyond the water slide. There wasn’t anything to think of, honestly. It grew.”
Construction will begin this fall on a new, giant racer speed slide.
“It’s head-first. It’s really cool,” Mesanko said.
An activity area with a pool and cabanas for adults to sit and cool off is also being constructed.
“If you’re an adult and your kids are on a water slide, you don’t want to just sit there. Now I’m going to give them a place to go,” said Mesanko, who has pioneered many of the industry’s standard attractions of today.
The park’s 36-hole, multilevel, adventure miniature golf course, which is 28 years old, will also be revamped. Mesanko had originally seen the design at the International Association of Amusement Parks’ annual show in Orlando, Fla. The adventure golf course at Thundering Surf was the first in New Jersey and one of the first in the world.
“The waterpark industry has grown incrementally with somebody coming up with a bright idea and then everybody in the world quickly does it because you need variety,” said Mesanko, adding that he always meets with the original architect of each of his park’s additions.
Next summer, Thundering Surf’s park passes will include three-hour or all-day options, rather than the current two- or three-hour options.
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| Photo by Ryan Morrill A young boy enjoys a slippery ride down one of the park's winding water slides. |
“I want to give people more time here,” Mesanko stated, noting prices may increase slightly.
“We’ve held the same price since (Superstorm) Sandy because we wanted to do the right thing and not jack it up based on everybody’s misery, because everybody’s suffering a little bit,” he remarked.
Mesanko has been honored by the WWA for his imaginative, revolutionary technology and concentration on innovation as well as for bringing many firsts to the industry, including play structures and the Lazy Crazy River featuring interactives in and out of the river.
Fresh out of college at 22 years old, Mesanko first saw the now-defunct Water Boggan water slide in Myrtle Beach, S.C., while traveling along the East Coast as a representative of Lightning Bolt Surf Co., originally started by world-famous surfer Gerry Lopez.
“I saw it and I thought, ‘Wow, that thing is amazing,’” Mesanko remembered. “It was at the end of the summer, and it was just packed. There was a line around the block.”
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| Photo by Ryan Morrill Kids wait for their turn on the Flow Rider. |
The following year, Mesanko saw two water slides in Myrtle Beach as well as one in Wrightsville Beach, N.C., and another in Virginia Beach. It was then, he said, he knew this was something he needed to bring to his home state.
“I immediately say, after seeing the fourth one, ‘Oh my God, this is going to be a trend. This is what I got to do,’” Mesanko recalled. “It was a crazy, crazy, crazy success. Right from the second I opened the door it was crazy.
“Those other four slides that came before me, they’re out of business now. That makes me the oldest guy in the business, continuously, in the world,” he added. “To be around for 40 years is special. I’m proud of it because there’s not many businesses that last 40 years.”
Julie Mesanko, who decided not to pursue a career as a health and physical education teacher to instead focus on the seasonal waterpark business, said she “can’t believe it’s been that many years.”
“It’s allowed us to travel, if we could, whereas if I was a teacher, I really couldn’t do that,” she said. “I’m involved every summer pretty much 100 percent. It’s been quite an adventure watching it grow. It’s pretty exciting that it’s been that long. Time flies.”
The same year they opened Thundering Surf, the Mesankos opened Rainbow Rapids Waterpark, which also included four concrete flume slides, in Chris’s hometown of Seaside Heights. But while the Seaside Heights waterpark closed in 1990, Thundering Surf kept growing.
By that time, Thundering Surf’s concrete slides had just been torn down and rebuilt at the back of the property out of fiberglass, which became available in the late ’80s. The park’s mini golf course, along with an ice cream shop that later included other food, was built in the slides’ former place.
“It was a clean demolition of the property,” Chris Mesanko said, noting the fiberglass slides were a priority since people often hurt themselves on the concrete. At that time, there were no regulations since it was a brand-new ride, he noted, adding that, thankfully, no one ever sued the park.
“Every day maybe 10 people (got hurt on the concrete slides). It was crazy; it was so dangerous,” said Mesanko. “Nobody ever saw a water slide in New Jersey. Nobody looked at my drawings. I just built it. People would bang their eyes on the concrete, and they’d get stitches. They’d bang their teeth and break them out. (The water slides were) painted, so it would chip and go under their toenails. Everybody had scraped elbows. It was a mess.”
During the following years the park continued to expand. Two slides were added as well as a kiddie play structure, which was redone this past winter. The children’s area includes nine slides with interactive water play activities and three giant tipping buckets. The structure arrived in March from Guadalajara, Mexico, and installation took place until the season opened on June 18.
Batting cages – which were quickly taken out because Mesanko “wanted it to be a waterpark” – as well as a toddler area, Lazy Crazy River and a Flow House were also built. The $1.5 million Flow House attraction was designed a few years ago by Dan Sprague of Stafford Township, the park’s overall manager.
“In this business you have to change and keep adding. You have to grow,” said Mesanko.
The Mesankos, who have been together for 50 years, plan to continue running the park with their two kids, Brooke, 36, and Devin, 33, who are general managers there, though Chris Mesanko noted his son plans to pursue a career as a doctor. Both Brooke and Devin have worked at the park since they were 14 years old.
“They were born into it,” Mesanko stated. “They were playing at the water slide as babies. It was a natural kind of thing. We sell fun; that’s what we’re selling. It’s pretty hard not to like the fun.
“I’m 64 and I’m just as enthusiastic as the first day, and I love the business,” he added. “I have no thoughts of retiring. I’ll be here as long as I’m having fun and am able to, as is my wife. It’s not work when you enjoy what you’re doing. I could see myself doing it for at least 15 more years, God willing.”
— Kelley Anne Essinger
This article was published in The SandPaper.
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