[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 9]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 13596]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     RECOGNIZING BIG SURF WATERPARK

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                          HON. KYRSTEN SINEMA

                               of arizona

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 12, 2013

  Ms. SINEMA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask that my colleagues join 
me in recognizing Big Surf Waterpark, a beloved institution of Tempe, 
Arizona for the past 44 years, for their designation as a Historical 
Mechanical Engineering Landmark by the Arizona delegation of the 
American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
  No other amusement or water park has received this honor, and Big 
Surf is just the third landmark designated in Arizona by the ASME. It 
is easy to forget how innovative the design of Big Surf's Waikiki Beach 
Wave Pool was at the park's opening in 1969. Phil Dexter invented the 
wave generation process after a 1965 trip to the California coast. He 
sought to recreate ocean waves, first building a tabletop prototype for 
which he applied for patent rights in 1966, and then a 1,000-gallon, 
40-foot by 30-foot prototype in an abandoned billiard hall. The Big 
Surf pool is an exact replica of the model and was built, designed, and 
engineered by John Hauskins, then a 19-year-old student at the 
University of Arizona, at the scale of 2.5 million gallons of re-
circulating water within a span of 2.5 acres. To this day, children 
enjoy the same original components for generating waves as they did in 
1969, and Mr. Hauskins continues to serve our county in innovative ways 
as director of transportation.
  The innovations at Big Surf have come to define the waterpark 
industry and signify, then and now, the spirit of industry prevalent in 
Arizona's Ninth District. I am proud to congratulate Big Surf 
Waterpark, Phil Dexter, and John Hauskins on their honor conferred by 
ASME, and I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing their 
accomplishment.

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