Nemesis Nick at Swansea LC Water Park August 2012

Date: Sunday 12 August 2012
Venue: Swansea LC Water Park
Who Went: Just me.

Introduction

Officially this was the final day of RCCGB Mega-Glow-Mania weekend 2012. After the Club visited Oakwood Theme Park on Friday 10 August and Folly Farm on Saturday 11 August, some members chose to spend Sunday at Heatherton World of Activities. Although I attended both Oakwood and Folly Farm the previous two days, I gave Heatherton a miss for various reasons. Whilst planning my Sunday train travel, I discovered that by leaving Tenby at 11:14am, I could reach Swansea around 1:15pm, and thus enjoy an afternoon session water sliding at Swansea LC Water Park during the rest of the afternoon before resuming my train journey home to Bath in the evening.

Welcome To Swansea LC

I finally reached the LC reception just after 2pm. My only concern was how many lockers I would require to store all my luggage. Thankfully I managed to find a tall locker big enough to contain my large holdall, rucksack and laptop bag.

Background Information

The old Swansea Leisure Centre opened in 1977 and closed in 2003. During 2007 the building was gutted out and rebuilt internally at a cost of £32 million. In March 2008, the current LC opened on the site of the old Leisure Centre, and it's completely different to what it used to be inside. I know, I went to the fun pool and slides at the old Swansea Leisure Centre during my week long Swansea holiday in June 2000. The current LC has commonly been known as LC2 (even I've called it that), since the wave logo which appears after the initials LC resembles a 2, but officially it is LC. Logically though, one could say the current LC is the second leisure centre to be housed within the same building shell. This was my second visit to the LC Water Park in its current form, having previously been there early September 2008.

Swansea LC Water Park Features

The water park boasts several features, outlined below.

Aqua Tube

A narrow twisting closed tube water slide, which lands in a catch tray.

Aqua Slide

This water slide is open top all the way down. There's a u-bend to the right just after the start, followed by a straight bit, a bend to the right, a straight bit, u-bend to the left and finally land in a catch tray.

Master Blaster

You need an inflatable tyre to ride this roller coaster water slide. There are several places where it goes up as well as down. If the RCCGB decided to do an organised visit here (e.g. outside the coaster season) this would be the one for us to have an ERS on.

The Aqua Tube, Aqua Slide and Master Blaster were made by Aqua Leisure International, but I don't know the heights of the slides.

Wave Pool

A funny shaped fun pool with wave machine. It's not on continuously, but the wave sessions are quite frequent.

Lazy River

This spurs off the Wave Pool. You swim around clockwise with the flow.

Boardrider

A surf facility which you have to wear a surf suit and helmet for. I think you have to pay extra for it; anyhow I gave this a miss.

All of the above have been there since the place opened in 2008.

Volcano Bay

According to this article, Volcano Bay opened in summer 2010. Looking at that said article, it's a mock-up of a volcano with a slide descending from it. I didn't bother with this during my visit.

The only extra Swansea LC Water Park could do with is a space bowl. Every good water park should have one. Strangely enough, the old Swansea Leisure Centre actually had a space bowl.

My Session In The Water Park

Having changed I handed my key to an attendant in exchange for a wristband. The session was officially due to last about two hours. At the end of my session my wristband colour would be called, telling me and everyone else with the same coloured wristband to leave.

I began with four goes on the Aqua Tube. Its queue was very short on my first go but was longer by my fourth go. Next I enjoyed three goes on the Aqua Slide. The waiting time for that was longer. After that the waves happened to be on, so I went in the wave pool for a few minutes to enjoy the waves. Once the waves subsided I swam four laps of the Lazy River.

As a RCCGB member, I was determined to go on the roller coaster water slide Master Blaster, so I went to get a tyre. The queue for tyres was really long, I had to wait what seemed like ages to get a tyre. Once I finally had one I went up the stairs and joined another fairly long queue. When I finally reached the front, the lifeguard asked if I'd been on this before. I said I'd been on it in September 2008, and had since been on a similar slide at Butlins Skegness and Minehead, as well as Blackpool Water Park, thus I knew what to do. Seated on my tyre, I set off on the Master Blaster around much of the water park, taking in uphill as well as downhill sections. A mega fun ride which was all over too soon. Sadly this was my only go on this all afternoon as I didn't want to wait ages queuing again for it.

Next I returned to the Aqua Tube. Its queue was now longer than I'd have liked, but nonetheless I enjoyed another four goes. After that I found the Aqua Slide queue even longer, so limited myself to just two goes.

Just after 4pm I asked a lifeguard how much longer I had before my wristband colour would be called. He said they weren't busy enough this afternoon to need to call colours out; they only do that when it's busy. I was surprised to hear that as the place seemed quite busy to me; the queues seemed quite long (particularly for the Master Blaster). Anyway, he said I could stay in as long as I wanted. Obviously I wanted to allow myself adequate time to get a meal between leaving the LC and going to the station for the train I was booked to catch.

During the remainder of the session I enjoyed 6 goes on the Aqua Tube. Its queue gradually got shorter in that time. So did the queue for the Aqua Slide, so to finish off I had one final go on Aqua Slide before leaving the pool area at 4:45pm. Having dried myself and dressed, I finally left the LC around 5pm.

Summary of my sliding in actual order:

Aqua Tube 4
Aqua Slide 3
Waves + 4 laps of river ride
Master Blaster 1
Aqua Tube 4
Aqua Slide 2
Aqua Tube 6
Aqua Slide 1

Cumulative summary of slides:

Slide	Total
Aqua Slide	6
Aqua Tube	14
Master Blaster	1
TOTAL	21

Plus 4 laps of river ride

Outro

Highlights

Sliding the Aqua Tube and Aqua Slide.
My one go on Master Blaster roller coaster water slide.

Lowlights

Slide queues longer than I would have liked, particularly for the Master Blaster (both its tyre collection point and launch point)
Only having time for one go on Master Blaster, it's a pity there wasn't time for more.

Summing Up

A fun afternoon at Swansea LC Water Park to round off Mega-Glow-Mania weekend. It was great to slide the Aqua Tube, Aqua Slide and Master Blaster again having been on them during my previous visit here early September 2008. The Master Blaster roller coaster water slide is definitely the best of the three, it's a pity I didn't have time for more than just one go on it.