How Wave Pools Work! Behind the Scenes of the World Waterpark Wave Pool - Best Edmonton Mall
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- Опубліковано 28 тра 2024
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World Waterpark: Making Waves is a behind the scenes look at what was once the world's largest wave pool: West Edmonton Mall's Blue Thunder Wave Pool at the WWP, and how it makes waves.
If you've ever wondered how wave pools work, this is sure to answer your questions! The World Waterpark Wave pool has been in operation for over thirty years, and the Blue Thunder wave pool - North America's largest wave pool - is still sending them out strong!
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One of your fans shared this with me. Awesome video!
Thank you! :)
(Now, can you share it with your fans? XD )
Never expected to see your comment here, wave generation is a great topic for a future video btw, would love to see you create a model
Oh hi
@@BestEdmontonMall I had to send it to him. It's totally up his alley!
Here from Tom Scotts newsletter! Keep it up 🎉
What the... please help me understand if Tom Scott actually mentioned my content. 😳
@@BestEdmontonMall not in a video; tom scott's website has a newsletter you can subscribe to where he posts links to cool things across the web (as well as whatever he uploads that week), and he linked your channel in the latest one! here's what he said about your channel verbatim:
Recently, I was sent a video idea about the world's largest wave pool. (Thank you, Nick W!) It looked like a great story - a strange, one-off, intimidating mechanism, indoors in a shopping mall. Big physical infrastructure. Interesting history. But then I found that the perfect video about it has already been made. I can't beat that! It's got behind the scenes footage, animations, and a great explanation, and I watched every second of it.
And then to follow it up: the mall also had an actual submarine ride inside?! With genuine submarines, not like the fake ones at Disney Land? And somehow, this channel was able to put a camera inside the old pool to see how it's faring years after being shut down!
And then the mall waterpark also had what looks like one of the best rapids rides ever made? And the channel's filming in the old, dry, decaying flumes, presumably with permission? This channel is called "Best Edmonton Mall", and it's been quite a while since I've been this impressed by a small channel. I recommend all three of those videos.
- Tom Scott
@@SuperFromND Holy crap!! I'm speechless... jeez, that's incredibly humbling to hear. Just wow. Many thanks for checking out my channel!
Me too!
Yep here from the Newsletter as well! 🙂
Straight up terrifying
Sure is
Something about wave generating machines is just unsettling. I hate going anywhere near those dark openings. It’s strange too because I do a lot of SCUBA diving and never get scared of dark tunnels or endless drops.
Ur not scared of the dark openings ur feeling uneasy because you know there's powerful machinery back there and you know that if you go there it would just crush you
@@kukumbagumba2264 exactly I'm like that too ..
Thlassaphobia! I have that to!
bro u know Zhan
@@XanaxBlackOut24 it’s probably submechanophobia
The old twelve panel days, the right side of the pool was deadliest!! I am a good swimmer, but I almost drowned!!
Those side waves were huge!!!
The main problem with the right (deep) side is it is the return path for the waves pushed to the shallow end. There is a very strong current towards the deep end on the right side of the pool when the wave machines are running, so it is counter-productive to try to have a set of panels forcing waves against the return path current.
@@citation9199 - For my ten year old self at the time - I actually had to get pulled to a ladder by the lifeguard!!
Nevermind the cannonball slide with the evil pool of death!!!
Lol!!!
Me too!! It was too much!
When I was there, the lifeguard was always there telling people to stay away from the ~10 or 15 ft near that wall. And the left wall was fine except you had to be careful to not let the waves smash you across the features like the ladders and rails, even though they are set into the wall.
But I loved that you had a wider area to enjoy the waves. I like, but disagree with the explanation in the video here, now everyone just crowds into the small area the waves break and smash into each other. It's counterintuitive and I feel like I'm getting ripped off a little in the wave pool lol.
@@LakeNipissing Isn't that basically a rip tide?
9:46 I just love how it says "Hydraulics" and then shows a fan LOL
For a smaller channel this content is absolutely amazing! Keep up the great work
Hey, thanks so much!
Yes indeed
The siren for the waves used to scare me 😂
Ikr
LoL @ the dinosaur 2:22
Lol I noticed that too 😁
I work for Bosch Rexroth which used to be Basic Hydraulics in Canada that originally designed and installed this system. It was done before I was born, but the older people at the company have told me all about it. I've never gotten to see it though, and that old computer makes me happy it's still there. Thanks so much for this.
I thought Stan Smuga-Otto worked on the mechanical for it.
As someone with submechanophobia, seeing that panel moving in the water is straight nightmare fuel.
Same tho
Super special thanks to Lake Nipissing for the inspiration and help with this video! And to WEM for allowing me to get this footage!
8:25 OHHH that’s why the sides are so weak 🤯
*Glad to help out... Blue Thunder is awesome!!*
How strange your video is not a suggested video from my video, and vise versa... UA-cam is strange.
Best Edmonton Mall I was at WEM and the Swing of the century is gone can you make a video on it
@@theunknownteen5180 Listed as routine maintenance Mar 1 - Apr 20
It's gone??
That was still there at the beginning of February!
Was always told as a kid the waves were made when people flushed the toilet in the fantasyland hotel.
Also here from Tom Scott's newsletter. Have to playfully say that I was a little saddened the fog horn wasn't included in your video, that nice iconic sound that brings back so many childhood memories.
I know! How did I miss including that?!
why am i so scared of the dark part of the pool where the waves are formed lol
thalassaphobia check
They do that on purpose so you don't try to go in there
it was one of my biggest childhood fears ngl
The wave generation area, and the drain at the bottom of a pool. My two biggest fears.
@@twizz420 thank god im not the only one with those irrational fears
I love having a high quality UA-cam channel on something right in my own city!
Izey Fro same
If you're here because of BJ Penn, 3:00 is the type of wave machine he's talking about.
Thank you!!
Wow 😂👍🏻
Haha yes!
No way 😂
When I was 1-5 years old, I went to WEMs Daycare centre Horizon Daycare. They took us to the attractions as "field Trips" we went to the waterpark often. One time we were all along the "beach" as we were the older kids. But I was small for my age, the undercurrent of the wave pool dragged me in.. .. not far but I was small so it seemed far. it reall was my first life or death feeling. I guess now I know why the force was so strong.
By the way - Tom Scott said the following about you and your channel in his recent Newsletter:
"Recently, I was sent a video idea about the world's largest wave pool. (Thank you, Nick W!) It looked like a great story - a strange, one-off, intimidating mechanism, indoors in a shopping mall. Big physical infrastructure. Interesting history. But then I found that the perfect video about it has already been made. I can't beat that! It's got behind the scenes footage, animations, and a great explanation, and I watched every second of it.
And then to follow it up: the mall also had an actual submarine ride inside?! With genuine submarines, not like the fake ones at Disney Land? And somehow, this channel was able to put a camera inside the old pool to see how it's faring years after being shut down!
And then the mall waterpark also had what looks like one of the best rapids rides ever made? And the channel's filming in the old, dry, decaying flumes, presumably with permission? This channel is called "Best Edmonton Mall", and it's been quite a while since I've been this impressed by a small channel. I recommend all three of those videos"
I was just thinking about this... Very good video! (anyone else hate getting too close to the cavernous chambers?)
When surfing with the surf club, you have to hang onto the nets right in front of the bays to wait your turn. It is not uncommon for surfers to be bounced around, fall off the surfboard, have it go under the net and swim inside to retrieve it. Kind of eerie while the panels are moving.
@UNIX Man You can't get inside. There are grates. Unfortunately, that's not always enough. A guy in Germany lost a leg in the 80's when his leg was crushed between a panel and the safety grate. In that pool the space between the grating was like 7 inches or so.
@UNIX Man Ah. Those a pretty safe. You can actually stand inside the chamber when they are running.
@UNIX Man Not even close. I've been in one in Sweden and they are just incredibly noisy and make your ears pop. There's actually a video on youtube where a woman is showing one.
Here it is.
ua-cam.com/video/T6ou-yV0wNU/v-deo.html
James McGuckin I’m or scared
As a fan of old tech, I find it absolutely amazing that wave pools can actually be operated by an MS-DOS Computer!
That's so cool you got footage behind the scenes
The front of the wave pool where the waves are made scares the shit out of me I always imagine getting sucked into the machinery
BJ penn an MMA fighter was sucked into the machine. He miraculously survived
was just reading his instagram post, hence why im here lol
@@juansamir8406 same lmfao
Same
@@georgefloydsinhellwbreonna5330 same
Yeah I was there. All those swimming lessons my mom made me take paid off that day... But barely. It was touch and go for a few minutes when I had to hold the rail on the wall for dear life for a couple minutes. I seem to remember the life guard telling me something about the current being stronger by the wall, but it was years before I was back in that deep end when the waves were out.
Still it was super fun!
Thank you for another informative west Edmonton mall video. Brings me back to when I was a kid and sent people flying off their tubes. If you timed the waves right , you could launch them in the air. Got a free inner tube from it 🤣🤣🤣🤣. Naw , it was all in good fun.
Nothing got hurt
Old comment I know, but I smiled when I read this because I did that too. Oh, to be 10.
Had to come check this out after hearing about BJ Penn. Crazy
I saw a video from Gavin and Dan at the SlowMo Guys where they went to a scientific testing wave pool that used a hydraulic plate-pusher system like this, really fascinating footage and one of my favorite things to see in any water park or amusement space.
I am so happy that you let me know that the wave makers are off. I honestly thought I was remembering wrong when I went in 1987. The waves were way more fun then. Thank you.
The wave pool in my local swimming place has an alarm that goes off followed by some pretty big waves for at least 5 minutes then it’s calm for probably 10-15 minutes then it starts again. I like the alarm like a buzzing sound followed by cop car sirens makes it fun and exciting
At our pool they ring a bell like a ship bell
I visited my cousins in Edmonton when I was in my early teens, back in the early 90s. I remember going to the WEM and swimming in the wave pool, though I have no idea if that was the 12-panel system or the 8-panel system. Lots of fun, though! Makes me sad that I haven't been back since! Great video!
This just makes me shutter at the fact I was about 10 feet away from these things before being pulled out by a lifeguard
Getting pulled into that machinery is my worst fear
Holy- jear desus I would die of a heart attack first
*Shudder
I lived near there in 1989-1990 for a year, about a block east, used to visit the water park with a year pass, and walked across the pedestrian bridge on the eastern side. I also remember the Nintendo World Championships (Or was it the precursor, Nintendo Challenge Championship) being held in the parking lot North of the Fantasyland/Themepark section of the parking lot. Nice to see this video explaining how the wave pool is setup.
This is absolutely the coolest wave pool I’ve ever seen. I think every kid who has ever been to a wave pool wants this!! 😄
Omg! When you showed the close up of the panels going I literally was freaking out of craziness because it was so cool! And I never knew those grid panels in the sky flyer zip line was near there.
Yes this is awesome! I have always looked for a more in depth video on the wave pool, thanks!
As a little kid, i was almost killed by such a machine, they opened a new one and i went there with my father, they had massive bars to protect you from getting sucked in. The problem with that was that the bars weren't spaced correctly, so my leg got sucked in and stuck, my head was under water and i passed out luckily the lifeguard pulled me out and i got away. But sadly a kid who was my age passed away a few weeks later because of that same reason. The pool got closed and they now have a mesh in front of it. I still don't go in these kinds of pools to this day.
@WaterishDog yes, most of them do, but they didn't have one there
@@tazzy3503 where
I have always wanted to know how this system worked! The excellent footage and information confirm my assumptions. Thank you so much.
So that wave pool was filled during Soundwave (EDM Concert) where I watched people spill drinks, throw up, leave trash, etc in the pool. That concert went on until 2 am, and the wave pool was open THE NEXT MORNING. That's insane. They must just pump chlorine into it.
Hundreds of people pee in the wave pool every day... what are they going to do aside from chlorination?
Lake Nipissing Yeah that's true. Just kind of makes you think, you know?
Bro you’re the best. Edmonton for life!!!
So I was there at that waterpark probably about two weeks ago and I was curious on how the waves work now that I know it’s freaking awesome. Thank you for sharing.
O ya I remember when all the panels were operating in the 80s that was pretty wild ! 😊😊😊 Haven't been back there since ! ☃️☃️☃️ It's 2023
This is amazing stuff, keep up the great content!
that zipline shot in the end in AWESOME!
Thanks to you and WEM for the behind the scenes look! It's great that WEM is actually giving you all this access to the place!
These videos are quite nostalgic. It brings back 1 of my earliest memories of peeing in this pool. Those were the days....
Relax, Ive actually never been here.
i would bet close to 50% of people pee in the wave pool... likely one of the reasons they added the new restrooms which are much closer to the wave pool and waterslides this year.
Awesome video. Thank you for such a great explanation.
I see they painted the pool floor I guess it’s no longer the brow thunder wave pool
It looks GREAT now
Best Edmonton Mall yes much better
Thanks for uploading.
When I was 5, my family went to the Waterpark in wem. Me and my dad were going on one of the tube slides, then after we got off the slide, we heard the sirens that go off when the waves are gonna start. And then when the waves started, I fell of my tube and a girl jumped onto MY tube then I was under the girl. But at the time j lost my dad, then right when I was under that girl, losing my breath. SWOOSH! my dad grabs the tube and sends that kid flying and my dad saved my life. Its crazy that if my dad didn't find me, I wouldn't be here today. I love my dad.
So your dad killed another child by drowning her to save you?
Awesome video man. Very cool and well put together.
Ha! I knew the waves were stronger back in the day. I thought they felt weaker now because I'm not a little kid anymore. Used to be able to body surf on the sides of the pool. Cool behind the scenes look!
Absolutely fantastic! 😊
Love your content so much thank you!!!!
Great content as always. Very educational video!
Great video this wave pool looks really nice. The water park looks fun too. I might go here someday
They must be a barrier, I can imagine some numpty getting trapped, looks cools as fuck tho
So cool! Great stuff! Now I know what dwells in the haunting darkness of the end of the wave pool LOL
Pretty neat I worked for the shop that did the rebuild of the cylinders and pumps and controls was cool to work on but is cooler to see it all set up 👌
Thanks for the video👍🏼
Very nice explanation, I desperately needed to know, thanks!❤️❤️❤️
Well, that dinosaur skeleton was giving me chills and goosebumps, I don't know why!!?? 🤯
as a millwright it was pretty cool to see behind the wall, thanks for the video.
Great video! So well done!
That’s an old Omron PLC controlling that. Also seen an Omron touch panel. We have them where I work in automotive. Neat to see other uses for Omron PLCs other than automotive.
This is best video of the topic in UA-cam today, congratulations, hope the views goes up
I’ve always wondered how this worked!
Great video. I learned some cool stuff. 👍
I love watching these videos
Before I watch your videos I immediately like the video first.
You got some very incredible shots of that wave machine very impressive
Thanks! Yes, I was super lucky to be able to get all those shots!
Ang ganda ng pagkakagawa ng resort na to its reall it accodates more people
Bro, this is gold!
What 😲☝️👍🏼An incredible bit of history . It is too Bad they took the few out what a shame and memory of historic proportions☝️👍🏼😎👌✅Bravo on the great 👍🏼 video very cool sounding commentary & Very Informative.🥰Loved it very heart felt & emotional how thing were and now. Wow can you even imagine a machine generating a wave 🌊 that Big😲😲😱😨😰😳😳! I can only imagine.Well done ✅ definitely looking forward to seeing more of your wonderful Videos.
Yes! Always wondered how it worked!
You should do a video on the abounded rapids ride!
I knew those waves were bigger when I was younger! 🌊🧐
1:43 and 8:11 was the real deal!!
Thanks Tom, it was indeed a good video
I really thought that was the standard and not the outlier for wave pools. It just makes the most sense to me. Push big flat panel get wave.
i wanna go there now
So awesome! Thank you for this video! The only thing you didnt cover is the horn,where is it? How big?
I've been going there since 1986, and this remains a mystery I still do not know...
Great video
I always thought it was concrete blocks moving up and down
I miss the days of dropping alot of acid and E and splashing around those electric blue waves
Agreed! When you are looking in from the wave pool, it looks like something is moving up and down. I guess that was just the water moving up and down in the darkness.
This is super cool do you think we can get one on the mind bender anytime?
As a mechanic and I went there as a Kid This is a Very interesting video
Thank you!
you should look into the wave pools that were at Wet N wild in Ca. though the part is not there anymore i believe but i would like to know what system they were using
I miss this place so much, but it's now a 15 hour drive away from where I live.
I’m going to Edmonton tomorrow
When the surfing went on with the local snowboard/skateboard/SUP shop (EASY RIDER) I think they upped the power of the waves. They definitely weren't that small when surfing/SUPping but they were still kinda small. Luckily there's the Flow Rider now, but it's not the same.
I went there once and I remember how sore I was the next day lol but so worth it
Well now I’m gonna start looking for jobs at west Edmonton mall as a mechanic for that system!
Well did ya do it?
I watched Lake Nippising’s video a couple months back, but you’ve certainly put way more detail! How do you get so much information on the mall? You seem to amaze me every time!
Lake did it first! He was the inspiration for this video and helped me a lot. He was one of my sources of info for this video!
@@BestEdmontonMalllake got rid of his wave pool video, 😭 sad
Wow ive wanted to see how that worked for years
I went seeking out this information in hopes it would help with my irrational fear of wave machines.
Thank you for explaining it so well, I am still fucking terrified.
I was born in Edmonton but live in red deer but I haven’t been to the water park ever i havent been too the mall in years
Thanks for showing us how pool waves are made. Some days ago I visited Siam Park in Tenerife, Spain, and I was thinking on how the waves were created, but you just covered that kind of wave-pool in the video, so thanks again.
2:30 okay I get this is why we came to the video, but that dino skeleton is probably worth a lot more.
8:15 . . . The yellow and gray air mattresses they had in the late 1980s before the tubes!! How many people got beamed in the face and ended up with a nose bleed!! Ah, the reckless, amazing 1980s!!! We used to get so mad being hit in the head with those air mattresses, we would swim underneath them and pull the air valves and watch them deflate under the person and sink!! :)
Lake Nipissing I remember those mattresses too! I was nailed in the back of the head by someone's arm as they surfed passed me, it nearly knocked me out.
This newsletter rocks.
Does someone know more about the go kart track coming to the mall
This is an awesome video, I've always wanted to know this! I was there in late 1980's also. Was like 13 or 14. I remember on the river ride a staff member told me the story of how the waves could be huge and flooded the changerooms. I too noticed the waves are smaller. Bummer! The least they could do for the large admission fee we still pay for, is allow certain times of the day or week for the full set of waves and then the other times for smaller kids etc. I didn't notice people getting hurt much. I think now is worse because everyone tends to crowd around the only one spot the wave breaks and then people crash into each other, it seems worse and counterintuitive now, and I'm bigger and stronger than I was before.
But either way, I'm glad the waterpark exists, I go every few years if I can.
I'm more impressed that it's not standing room only in the pool. Lets get a video showing how they pulled that off!
I remember going a long time ago (2007), there was an older variant of the blue bullet, but the next time I went (2008), it was completely different. Whatever happened to it?