Big Surf Waterpark

I’ve lived in the valley since 1994 and surprisingly, never been to Big Surf until yesterday. I found a great deal on Groupon for $ 13 per person, so I couldn’t pass it up. In the past, we’ve always gone to Wet & Wild and the kids have occasionally gone to Sun Splash with their friends. Finances are tight this year so I figured Big Surf is better than nothing and worth a shot!
First, I love that PARKING IS FREE. Huge perk. I planned to spend $ 8-​$ 10 on parking so that was $$$ saved. Plus I found a nice shady space pretty close to the gate. The line to get in was not very long and moved pretty quickly. We settled in, found a table in a shady area, and put our stuff down. We also rented a locker for $ 7 that fit all of our valuables and it was easy enough to use that my 11 year old could work it. Settled in and off to ride some slides!
I noticed right away that the park is very old and in disrepair. It could use a fresh coat of paint and some upgrades. You can see the entire park from the entrance, as it’s not very large. They don’t have very many slides and one of the extreme slides was broken. HUGE PERK is the water feature on the sidewalks so your feet don’t burn. One disadvantage is no misters on the staircases or ramada areas. We went on a couple of slides, they were ok. Nothing exciting enough that I wanted to go back on for a second ride. The younger kids (11 year olds) of course had a blast. They rode them over and over again and spent a lot of time in the wave pool.
The wave pool was also just okay. It would be nice it they had consistent waves and also time without any waves. A large wave every couple of minutes smashing everyone into everyone else was not something I considered fun. Again, the 11 years olds enjoyed it. The teenagers and myself, not too much.
Food was reasonably priced. Surprisingly in fact. We were able to get a large one topping pizza for $ 18 and split between 5 of us (plus a bird who stole a slice). I noticed other meals ranged $ 7 – 9, not too bad. The pizza was also very good, so worth the money. They allow unopened water bottles in the park, so we brought our own water to save on drinks.
The teenagers were bored after about two hours, and we ended up spending most of our time in the kiddie pool under the shade. A lazy river would have been perfect at that point because we just wanted to relax in the water, but couldn’t. If you lean against a wall the lifeguards yell at you (and not in the nicest of ways) and if you sit on the bench in the water under the shade, kids jump and literally climb on you. I was dying for a lazy river to relax in and so bummed they didn’t have one. It was too hot to lay out.
The only other thing that we noticed was the staff’s unhappiness in their jobs. I am comparing them to the lifeguards at Wet & Wild, who joke and play and smile with the guests. I hadn’t said anything to my 16 year old but when she said «Geez. It seems like everyone here HATES their job,» she confirmed what I was noticing. Even adult supervisors walked around looking mad and irritated, and when you smiled at them they wouldn’t smile back. I even tried to joke with a couple of the life guards and they didn’t even smile, just looked annoyed. It was actually kind of sad because it made me wonder how Big Surf treats their employees to make them so unhappy.
Overall opinion, if you have young ones (under 12) and live in the area, it’s worth the discounted rate. Young ones will have fun but teenagers and adults, not so much as there isn’t anything thrilling or relaxing for older guests to do. It would be great if the owners could invest a little money into a classic water park, add some fresh paint, add a thrilling ride or two, and please make a lazy river or at least a specific spot for older guests (13+ maybe) to relax. Lounge chairs in the pool maybe? A no splash zone? Swim up bar? Something FUN or relaxing.
We will likely not be returning unless they do some rehab. Wet & Wild is more money but worth it, because staff is friendly, you have more thrilling rides that you don’t mind waiting in line for and want to go on over and over again, and they have a relaxing lazy river when you just want to chill. That being said — it is a great park for those with younger kids. Less crowded. Smaller lines. More affordable.

Went there yesterday for the first time. We had a blast! It was on a monday and we arrived shortly before the the gates opened at 10:00am. The park was very clean and tons of staff and lifeguards were on hand. As soon as we entered, we decided to pick our lounge area, get a locker, and then hit the water slides. We were able to hit most of the slides with no waiting in lines. Some slides we needed to have tubes to ride down (single person or double person) but those were provided at each slide for no fee. Some slides didn’t require a tube at all. Be advised that many slides and the wave pool have a height restriction and lifeguards are eagerly standing at the ready with a measuring stick. After we had gotten our fill of the water slides (after maybe an hour) we decided to try the big wave pool. I must say that this wave pool was the highlight of the day and we no longer cared about the water slides. We ended up spending 90% of our visit right there in the wave pool. The park and wave pool got busier and more crowded as the day went on and I did see a couple of kids get taken to first aid after colliding with other wave riders. We rented these inflatable rafts that are a blast to use in the wave pool only, great for catching waves and riding far. Only swimmers and these rental rafts are allowed in the wave pool. I saw a number of people bring their own boogie boards, but those are only allowed in the pool from 11:30 — 12:00 and again from 2:30−3:00 (boards are available to rent as well) and during those times only boogie boarders are allowed in the pool, all other swimmers and rafters are told to exit out of the pool. We had a great time and can’t wait to go back.

Me and my 11 year old daughter went here yesterday. The lockers gave us a lot of grief, but customer service helped us out (with minimal attitude). I was pleasantly surprised to see the food was affordable enough, and they refill waters for free (thank you!). We had fun, but got our butts kicked in the wave pool (maybe you all should have a swimmer only time during the day? getting knocked out by all the rafts can suck).
My daughter has some special needs. And she was too scared to do any of the slides (I was so disappointed). The only thing she was interested in was the rainbow slides that are only for little kids. So I got up some courage, and went to customer service to ask for special permission for her to use those slides. They gave us a special braclet that allowed her to go on the little kid slides! I was so relieved and grateful. Our day wouldn’t be a waste after all.
So she had a blast with that. We enjoyed our day. Before we left, we headed back for one last slide on the rainbow slides. That’s when we encountered an overzealous life guard who refused to let her slide. I won’t describe the entire encounter, but it was humiliating. He really wasn’t nice.
We grabbed our things and headed towards home. I dropped by the main office on our way out to tell them about the problem. Somehow this ended up with me crying and the manager listening (I really didn’t mean to break down over some goofy rainbow slides). He was SO nice and understanding. He promised to educate the lifeguard and the lifeguard supervisor. He gave us info for an upcoming autism event. He was just so kind, when it really wasn’t all that necessary.
All in all, I am very impressed with the park and how they were willing to accommodate us. They took a bad experience and immediately turned it around. I will definitely return. :)

Love the wave pool. Good slides too less busy than wet n wild. However the rafts to use in the wave pool cost money. There are times the waves will knock you over and your raft away. The pathetic — no morals people steal your raft. (Adults and kids) You are able to get a replacement but now you have an overabundance of rafts and cannot enjoy the wave pool. Why doesn’t management enforce the wrist band? I paid for 4 rafts and had to get 3 replacements. There were so many people who had rafts and wasn’t wearing a wrist band. Easy to spot so they should have the guards not allow them to enter with a stolen raft. If it was another family members the have that family member escort them to the wave pool entrance.

My first time at Big Surf and we had a blast. There is something to do for all ages. My group consisted of my daughter, her husband and three kids (9, 5 & 3) and she is pregnant with #4, my other 2 daughters (5 & 12) and me. We got there at about 11am and stayed until closing at 6pm. I swear we were the last family walking out the gate. I appreciated the cleanliness of the entire facility. Food was good and not overly expensive. There are lots of places to sit in the sun or shade. An abundance of lockers to stash stuff. Free wave rafts and lots of life guards. My son-​in-​law enjoyed a couple beers in the cantina. I love the «Aloha» atmosphere with surfboard signs and thatched roofed umbrellas. Yesterday was our first time and we will be regulars from now on!
Pros: Wave Pool, Water Slides that aren’t death defying, french fries, whole pepperoni pizza and free parking
Cons:The bathroom was too far… lets say the grass got watered on our journey to the bathroom. My 3yr old granddaughter knows to get out of the pool but the walk was a bit to far for her.

I am sure there are those of us who remember the scorching sand that was that strip of no mans land between the shade and the wave pool. Those days are long gone, Big Surf is now a beautiful, safe, clean haven! My family rented cabana #1 over Memorial day (that is the one that is closest to the front of the park) for a mere 100.00 you get a home base. A safe place for all your stuff plus shade. It is guarded and I feel very comfortable leaving my phone, keys and camera bag there. The number one reason why I love this place and will never go anywhere else is the level of cleanliness. The staff works overtime to make sure the kids are not only safe but no diapers are drooping or laying around. CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN! I don’t think I can say enough positive compliments about the Big Surf staff– From booking our spot to a guided walk to it, I am deeply impressed with these people. Thank you again, we had a blast and will be back soon.

Decent water park if you do not spend full price for admission. Limited rides & no lazy river. Other than that it was a great place to spend an afternoon!

Great place to take the family. Recommend looking up discounts via groupon. If possible arrive approx 15 min prior to opening in order to get seats and shade. Would definately return.

This water park was pretty fun! Although you go through the rides fairly quickly which can be seen as a good or a bad thing, it is very enjoyable. Definitely need to back, just hate my sunburn! Lol.

It’s an older Park the great for younger children the slides aren’t too terribly frightening took my twin five-​year-​old granddaughters there was a couple of things ride on you must be 48 inches or taller to get on everything 43 inches is the next height for most things we had a good time but take plenty of bug spray the mosquitoes were horrid anytime we sat we were chewed up by them I took plenty of sunscreen but never thought about taking bug spray

My first time here. Went on a Sunday. Slides were fun and lines were very short. Sometimes, there were not any lines. Also, not crowded which is a plus! Lockers are available. They are accessed via touchscreen computer that asked for your own personal code. 7 dollars for a medium and 10 for a large. My advice: just share one. I’ll be back for sure. Check out my tip below!

Was visiting from out of town and found a groupon for by surf! Bought two and checked their website hours. Get there and it’s closed. Why would you post that your season stared 3 days ago and then closed. We felt like the Griswold’s when they tried to go to Wally World. Highly disappointed!!!

My review is going to be pretty biased because I come here when they shut down the whole park for just the company employees and their family. It might not be as big and have as many slides as other water parks in the valley but I always have a good time when coming here. The slides that they do have are entertaining but to me the best part is their wave pool, nothing beats a big wave rushing towards you.

This water park is older & not flowing with giant (modern) slides, but it’s so perfect for my kids under 12 years old! It’s smaller & you don’t have to deal with the crazy crowds that the other parks have! I can usually see my kids no matter where they are. I love that they offer two sessions of boogie boarding everyday. Season passes are the best!!!
I should add that I think their rule about no outside food or drinks is completely ridiculous though. It’s a long day when you don’t have snack for a hungry toddler.

I give it 4 because it is a good price but don’t forget you get what you pay for. It is a little out dated but what do you expect its one of the older ones they could work on updating some of the things and maybe offer different family or group packages I know they have some but just update them and possible hold some different events or theme nights for a percentage off.

So cool! Just wished that I could of used a real board but that because I’m from florida lol

I grew up in Oklahoma with White Water Bay, so everything is based on those previous experiences. That said, this like a mini– White Water.
The prices are typical amusement park prices. Check out Costco for a good deal; you can purchase a ticket that is 19.99 and includes entry + $ 10 at the snack bar. Groupon had a deal in spring of ’15 for a $ 39 season pass — not too bad! Certain days of the week are cheaper.
Parking is free but can get packed. The ice rink next door allows parking, or so it seems.
People cannot bring in any food/​drinks, except for water. Many families pack coolers and leave for a bit to snack on their own foods. Snack bar prices are high but as expected. Lockers are $ 7 for a day rental.
The park could have done a better job considering the hot cement. There are some areas where one has to walk to/​from on burning hot cement. There are other areas with little water pools to ease hot feet.
Towards end of summer, the park only is open on weekends, and they are insanely busy.

I would recommend (and have several times) recommended this place. Heads above all the other water parks in AZ. Free parking, good food at reasonable prices, SUPER friendly staff, very alert life guards (they are on top of it!) and HUGE waves on the wave pool. Great water slides and the music over the speakers is a wide range from Red Hot Chili Peppers to Taylor Swift to Foreigner.
Get there at opening (10am) for two reasons: shade for parking car and shade for loungers. Keeps the sandals & towels from feeling like fire. Plus, when you want to chill after being the water the sun isn’t beating down in you.
You can bring bottled water from stores — that is it (not thermos, water bottles etc. I found that out the hard way). I usually pack a cooler, in the van, full of sodas, extra water and lots of snacks. When we leave everyone grabs what they want, click the seat belts, and leave.
If you plan to purchase food there the best time to avoid ridiculously LONG lines if the first warning for when they countdown for «surfers time». They say, «Three waves left and then everyone out for the surfers.» «Two waves left then everyone out for the surfers,» then one wave, then everyone out. I have the kids kind of trained for heading over to me when they hear «three waves left». By the time we get our money, food coupons, and wait then order then get the food — EVERYONE is kicked out of the wave pool and heading over to slides and food court. IT IS INSANE. LOLOL!
We (our family) always do the rafts. It’s a blast! I think the raft is a «you like or you don’t like it» type of thing. They have new ones this year that are the best they have ever replace last years by far.
They just opened a bar to serve alcohol. I haven’t tried it yet. Of course my hubby did and he said they did a job. Same as any other bar out there complete with a/​c, televisions with the game on, and music. Plenty of windows to look out.

I like that u don’t have to do crazy amounts of walking. Yeah, the park is outdated, but I’m not really looking for pizzaz. We got the Groupon which is a great deal for season passes. I just didn’t realize my first time there, I would fall only while trying to walk into the wave pool. I’m not clumsy. I’ve never fallen before. It was slippery and there’s no matts when entering. I really should have brought it up to management, but after bleeding from my tush and hands and a huge back bruise and hurting my spine, I just wanted to get out of there. Don’t forget there’s still risks associated with these places, and don’t assume they’re looking out for you…

This place was awesome. We ordered our tickets online and I think there was a groupon deal which made the trip even better. It was obviously hot in Arizona so we wanted to take our kids somewhere fun, other than the normal museums and typical tourist attractions. We Unilocaled this place and it had pretty good reviews so we decided to try this place out. There were 3 other families with us so we were a pretty good sized group. The place was easy to find right off of the freeway. We’re from California so it wasn’t our home and it was easy to locate.
We arrived in the parking lot and there was a ton of parking. There just isn’t a ton of shade. Be warned, if you have leather seats, your car will be very hot and your seats even hotter. We tried to guesstimate where the sun would move to face our cars away from it so that the cars would be a tad bit cooler.
After parking, we headed to the line. It wasn’t that difficult. You have to pay for everyone. Babies aren’t free. Please take note of that. They do go in the pools after all. Also, they only allow water bottles. This is pretty typical of any «amusement» type park. They check everything so be prepared to open your bags and empty out your strollers. Getting in wasn’t too much of a hassle especially with such a large group like ours. After getting through the front gate, we were well on our way.
This water park has something for everyone. It isn’t a large water park. The wave pool takes most of the room but it’s a definite must try when you are in the park. The best feature about this park are the slides for the kids. Most parks cater only to adults and big kids or at least kids that aren’t afraid of large slides and big pools. This water park has more than just 1 slide for little kids like mine. They have about 4 or 5. Then there’s pool that they can swim in and just walk around and/​or play in. There’s also a baby pool but that’s clear on the other side of the water park.
There’s a snack bar too but of course it’s pretty expensive. There are little meal deals that they offer but of course, you should either eat little small snacks and meals before the water park, order small snacks at the water park, and/​or eat a large meal after the water park. We did all of the above and saved a ton of money especially for our big bunch.
There’s a small little shop off to the side after the entrance gate if you forgot something like sunglasses, water undies for the little one, sunblock, etc. The prices aren’t actually outrageous so that was a definite plus in my book, especially with my 4 boys eating me out of house and home.
When in Arizona, we will definitely be back here.

Updated review as of Aug 2, 2014.
My rating earlier this summer was a solid 4. I am lowering it to a 3.
1. This morning half of the slides were closed. The staff, including guest relations kept quoting different times that they would open. Finally, a supervisor told me that 7 of the life guards (mostly high school/​college kids) called in sick at the last minute. It took them about 90 minutes to get replacements and open all the slides.
I understand what happened but they lacked a plan for communicating this issue to the paying customers. Signs at the entrance would have helped. Prepping the staff for how to answer guest questions also would have helped. I think most people would be understanding.
The interior of several of their pools have greatly deteriorated over the summer.
They also seem to have a lot less inner tubes than earlier in the summer. Many of them left are losing air. That doesn’t leave enough tubes for us to use. Nobody want to wait 10 – 15 minutes for a tube.
Today alone, I saw 7 children get pummeled by rafters in the wave pool. It is disappointing to see adults not even check to see if the kids they just hit are ok. I suggest rafts and boogie boards get their own timeslot and not be allowed with swimmers.
Team Big Surf — you can do better than this! After 45 years we expect more!