Q1: Adventure Park Insider: WHAT KEY ASPECTS OF THE AERIAL PARK BUSINESS MOST NEED ADDRESSING?
GERHARD: A basic understanding of what an adventure park is. If you list the aerial attractions in the genre, you will have terms like zip line tour and canopy tour, which is a misnomer, because a true canopy tour is up in the crowns of trees. Then you have challenge courses and ropes courses, which are often very similar. Those four are all guided attractions, typically with a guide or two and four to eight people.
A true adventure park is self-guided. You go at your own pace, staff monitors that everything is OK, but you are not in a group, there’s nobody talking you through, there is no peer pressure, you have to motivate yourself. So it becomes an entirely different experience.
And it needs a different design. You really need to understand how to design an adventure park that is safe. If you build an adventure park that’s similar to a challenge course, you could be creating an unsafe attraction.
DAVE: Safety. With the introduction of smart belay systems, we have seen parks cut back on staff and training. While these devices help with guest safety, they play a small role in the many aspects of safety.
Proper staff training is the foundation of operating a safe and successful aerial adventure park. For that reason, we have developed a rigorous four-day classroom and on-course training camp. Certified instructors teach our rescue guide candidates how to ascend and descend from a fixed point, tie a variety of knots, and perform rescue techniques for a variety of situations that may occur: platform rescue, mid game rescue, unconscious rescue, zip line rescue, as well as ladder and net rescues. At the end of the training camp, all rescue guide applicants must pass both a written and practical exam before being certified for the position.
The need for training applies equally to staff operational training. The inside staff who are the first point of contact with the park’s guests also play a critical role in running a safe AAP.
KEITH: Construction and inspection standards. You have lots of organizations building their own courses, sometimes just by copying others. Some lack engineering and permits and violate additional standards. It’s not always easy to keep track of the standards, and that points to a second issue: understanding the different standards, and when and where they apply. A third issue is understanding the constantly changing regulatory arena—that is, what is regulated where, and when will it change. Because it will change. Operational standards also need attention.
CLOE: For me, it’s key staff. They need ongoing training, because they always need to be on top of two things, safety and customer service, in that order. People come out and pay a lot of money to do an awesome activity. It should be fun. But it’s still a risky activity if you don’t follow the rules. The new equipment makes that easier; guests cannot be unclipped from the life line, they can’t fall off a platform. Still, all staff need to be on top of their game.
BAHMAN: Training, training, training. It’s most important that everybody get the correct training. Over the years, we have developed a three-day training program with two instructors. We go through written as well as a practical training.
We cover both safety and operations aspects. We have two different levels of trained staff, one that is appropriate for harnessing and monitoring in the park, and another level that is trained to assist and perform rescues. The operations aspect is very important, too, because if you want those clients to come back, you want to make sure you take care of them.
Most accidents happen because of human error. Whether it’s the person doing the assist, or the person actually climbing. So our biggest goal is to eliminate as much of the error factor as possible.
From a safety standpoint, I feel that we are in a very precarious place right now in the industry. With so many parks being built, accidents are going to happen, it’s only a matter of time. And then we are going to be hit with regulations. So, we need to be proactive in developing standards and do whatever we can to be as safe as possible.
KEN: The big issue is inherent risk and standard of care. That’s a gray area when it comes to self-navigating courses, as opposed to amusement parks where customers expect that nothing bad can happen. But adventure parks involve some choices and active experiences in which people are engaged with you. These two worlds have different standards of care. We’re trying to create an activity that feels active, you’re engaged, but where the risk is more perceived than real. We’re trying to take care of the things that actually create a threat or risk.
SHAWN: Safety standards, operating efficiency and product selection. Parks need to ensure participant safety. As we all understand, the concept behind aerial parks is to create an environment that offers thrills and pushes the comfort levels of guests while minimizing the chances of injury. These parks can and should be interactive. They can and should test the emotional and physical limits of the guests, as this equates to a memorable, satisfying and potentially transformative experience. However, if serious injury results due to a systems oversight, the entire industry is at risk. Although labors of love in most cases, these parks and zip lines are businesses, and maximizing layout and throughput are essential. The right product selection is instrumental and wholly integrated with safety and efficiency.
