The “lazy river” turned into an active river last night at the Associated Students (AS) kick-off event at Splash! water park as Biola students reverted back to their childhood mentalities and let the inner kid shine through while they attacked whatever inner tube got in their way.
The event started at 4:30 p.m. on the lawn behind the La Mirada Youth Center, where AS representatives served burritos from the Mexican food chain Chipotle, tortilla chips, and small bottles of water to the hungry students. The burritos had been cut in half and were available with chicken, steak or vegetarian filling.
“We didn’t want to do full burritos because we knew a lot of times some people can’t finish a whole one,” AS Social Board Chair Royce Santos said. 450 full burritos were ordered, resulting in 900 burritos to be served once they had been cut in half.
Food wasn’t allowed inside of the water park itself, so students ate their burritos on the lawn, enjoying each other’s company and starting small games of volleyball, football and Frisbee while they waited for the water park to open at 5:30 p.m.
A long line formed outside the back entrance to the water park where students waited to get their orange wristbands, which proved they were allowed inside. Once inside, the water fun began.
Three large water slides, a lazy river engulfed in inner tubes, a pirate ship and regular lap pools provided many forms of water recreation for students to take part in. There was also a hot tub that saw its maximum capacity largely overstepped as the evening went on.
AS President Eric Weaver was extremely happy with the event, saying he thought it had the potential to become a tradition for AS kick-off night.
“I’m very pleased,” said Weaver. “I think a lot of people are having fun and it’s a success.”
Many students agreed with Weaver.
“I think this is the best event that Biola has put on in quite a few years,” said junior Jessica Adair. “It’s magnificent – we’re really having a great time.”
Santos said that the original idea behind the Splash! event was to do something different than past years and get Biola students off-campus.
“In the past, AS exposure has been on campus – a concert,” said Santos. “We really wanted to be more involved with the community. We wanted it to be off campus, something different, something new, something close, something affordable and something really good.”
Junior Zach Brogdon enjoyed the event, leaving with only one small complaint.
“I think it’s great; it was a good time,” said Brogdon. “The burritos were a little small, but that’s the only thing we could improve.”
Splash! supervising lifeguards Julia Moegelin and Brandon Zell both admitted to enjoying having the students in the park.
“We’ve only been open for a year, so a lot of our events are with a lot younger age groups, and so it’s a lot different,” said Moegelin. “I mean, almost our full capacity for the water park – 600 students – are here and they’re all adult age, so it’s great to see high energy, older people enjoy the park, not just the younger ones.”
Moegelin and Zell said that this was the first time the park had ever been that full. Wal-Mart rented the park for a company party, said Zell, but it was a much smaller event.
“This is the longest we’ve ever had the slide line go to, so you guys win that award,” Zell said.
Present at the park throughout the entire event were two sheriff deputies and a public safety officer. These city employees are always present at the water park to stop incident before it happens.
“We haven’t had any incidents yet at this facility and we want to keep it that way and that’s why we train so hard,” said Moegelin. “So I think, if anything, we just want safety as our top priority.”
