sPLASH AQUAPARK
reopens Summer 2025
The Splash Aquapark is an inflatable floating obstacle course that will challenge participants to run, jump, climb, and slide from start to finish!
Participants must be at least 7 years old.
Current Splash Passholders: $5
Non Passholders – $5 PLUS THE PURCHASE OF A DAY PASS FROM THE FRONT WINDOW
Nonparticipating adults accompanying participants under the age of 14, must purchase a guardian pass from the front window to enter the facility.
To maximize your time on the aquapark, purchase your Park Pass here online and plan to arrive a few minutes early to pick up your wristband at the front gate.
Walk up registration and payment at the front window are welcome when space is available.
All participants must wear a US Coast Guard Approved life vest, which is included with admission or you may bring your own from home. Basic swimming skills are required.
The park is in water that is 7 feet deep or greater.
Do not wear jewelry or other sharp items that could puncture the inflatable structures. No hats, goggles, or sunglasses are allowed.
Splash Aquapark Rules
All guests must enter the obstacle course on the step-up system, if you fall off you must swim around to the closest loading zone and climb on.
Never swim or play under the floating obstacle course.
All guests must go around the obstacle course in a clockwise pattern.
No rough housing is allowed on the obstacle course.
Feet first entry into the water off of the obstacles.
One person on the slide at a time.
Guests should assist one another to get through some of the obstacles.
Use the nearest ladder to exit the pool.
Lifeguards have the authority to enforce any unwritten rules at their discretion.
Most importantly we want guests to have fun!
As seen in the news...
Sonoma Index-Tribune | Page A06 Wednesday, 4 September 2024
Summertime swimming in Sonoma Valley
By BILL LYNCH
INDEX-TRIBUNE SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
For those of us who always started school after Labor Day, it is hard to believe that Sonoma Valley school kids were back in class on Aug. 12. But that change also reminded me of another dramatic change that I intended to write about but didn’t get to it in time, and that is how great this summer’s swimming program at the Sonoma Valley High School Aquatic Center was.
They called it Splash Aqua Park, and it gave local youngsters a chance to run, jump, climb and slide in connection with the marvelous pool that is now a part of our high school campus. It was open every day this summer and may continue on weekends for a while longer.
The program included obstacle courses and many other activities to keep local children occupied and cool during the hottest part of our summer. The fact that local kids have a great new place to swim and have fun is a credit to many local people who worked for nearly 20 years to get a new pool at the high school after the old one was bulldozed under in 2005. The current, bigger and nicer version was finally completed in the fall of 2022 after many attempts to build a new pool between 2005 and 2022 failed.
During the first half of the 20th century, our Valley of the Moon had many swimming resorts, including those centered around the natural hot mineral waters of Boyes Springs, Fetters Springs and Aqua Caliente. These resorts attracted many summer vacation and weekend visitors to our community. In fact, Sonoma Valley became the favorite summer resort for many San Francisco and Oakland residents.
Fortunately, most were also open to local residents, for a fee.
The Boyes Hot Springs Bath House, located on the north side of Boyes Boulevard just before the bridge, was the biggest. The large main pool was indoors in a pavilion-like building with a very high ceiling. There was also an arcade area with pinball machines, and next to that was a dance hall and roller rink.
For kids that lived in the Springs and El Verano, the Bath House was in a perfect location. They could walk or ride bikes there. The kids that lived in Sonoma had a much longer walk or bike ride. There was also the matter of the cost. It was not an affordable daily expense for many families.
That said, the community donated to an ongoing Red Cross-sponsored swimming lessons program every spring and early summer. It was free. Many of my childhood friends and classmates learned to swim at the Bath House Red Cross swimming program.
The Bath House and other valley swimming resorts were private businesses; they had no room, or time, to host swimming meets for the high school or any other youth sports entity.
That didn’t stop many of us from spending as much time as our parents would allow swimming and having fun at the Bath House and other places.
My dad, Robert Lynch, editor of the Index-Tribune for more than 50 years, had been a competitive swimmer in high school and college and felt local kids should have swimming opportunities comparable to other Sonoma County communities. In 1956, he started a campaign for a community pool.
Four years of editorials, musings columns and arm-twisting resulted in 1960 with the formation of a Sonoma Community Swimming Pool Project Committee. SVHS athletic director and longtime football coach, Clarence A. Edsall, was named chairman of the subscription committee to raise $50,000 to build the pool at Sonoma Valley High School.
Dad led the effort to enlist the support of every service organization in the valley. Early supporters included the Kiwanis Club, Sonoma Valley Business and Professional Women’s Club, Rotary Club, and the local chapter of the Red Cross.
The pool opened in 1967. It had taken 10 years, hundreds of volunteers and financial support from almost every service club in the valley to build it, but it lasted for nearly 40 years. It was a good thing too, because the Boyes Springs Bath House burned down in1969, never to be reopened.
But, in 2005, the school district bulldozed our only remaining community pool out of existence. That drought lasted for nearly 20 years. It is back now, and this summer’s program demonstrated it is better than ever.
