Wave of innovation

Ramaker designs unique pool for Mt. Olympus

The wave pool Ramaker & Associates Inc. built at Mt. Olympus Water and Theme Park in Wisconsin Dells isn’t entirely unique, but it is one of only eight in the world.

Poseidon’s Rage, a 48,000-square-foot pool, which holds 1.3 million gallons of water and 4,000 swimmers, is one of only a few pools to use a flush-tank design to generate waves.

Most wave pools use compressed air to generate swells. Poseidon’s Rage collects 120,000 gallons of water in a tank behind the pool and releases it in an instant. The rush of water creates ocean-like waves that aren’t possible with typical air compressors.

“It’s a short ride,” said Daryl Matzke, a Ramaker architect who oversaw construction of the pool, “but do you want a short ride in Wisconsin or fly out to the coast?”

One challenge Ramaker faced when building Poseidon’s Rage was the time line.

Owner Nick Laskaris decided to go forward with the $7 million project in December 2006 with the hope of opening by Memorial Day. That meant breaking ground and pouring 5,000 cubic yards of concrete in the middle of winter.

The Memorial Day time line was too aggressive, but Matzke said Ramaker brought the project together, complete with state inspections, by the Fourth of July.

The seven-month turnaround is remarkable given how few flush-tank design pools there are in the world. Disney World’s Typhoon Lagoon was the last to be built in the United States in the late 1980s.

“That’s how rarely pools of this size are built,” Matzke said. “The most recent one built was 15 to 20 years old.”

Ramaker served as the construction manager, engineer and architect on the project.

“We didn’t just do the aquatics,” Matzke said. “We did everything.”

He added that Ramaker is using Poseidon’s Rage as a marketing tool and wants to land another wave pool project.

“It was a unique project,” Matzke said. “Hopefully, we get to do it again.”

— Dustin Block