Minnedosa splash park hopes to rebound

The inflatable water park at Minnedosa Lake will introduce two new structures this year as a way to keep things fresh, the owner told the Sun.

A gladiator balance beam with two pugil sticks, and a figure-eight slide are being added to Splish Splash Minnedosa, owner Gerry Champagne said in a recent interview. The pieces will give rise to a new layout at the park, which is currently being planned, he said.

“The main reason is that the kids that are coming here, year after year, get to see a new park,” Champagne said. “I just think of going to restaurants: when they change it up, it makes it a little bit more exciting.”

“We just want to keep it fresh and renewed.”

The two pieces will substitute out equipment used last year. Champagne said he did not know which existing pieces will be replaced to make room for the new equipment, but he is planning to keep the park the same size. The designs are still being produced on the new layout for the park, he said.

The figure-eight piece is 19 feet long, Champagne said; he believes the gladiator balance beam will be the same size. The two items cost roughly US$4,200 combined.

The figure eight piece includes an overpass that is “challenging going up and down, so it’ll be fun for the kids,” Champagne said. The balance beam tasks kids with getting across, which is “just another different adventure … a different challenge,” he said.

Splish Splash Minnedosa is hoping to rebound from a slower than normal 2025 season. Minnedosa Lake was one of many warned in a blue-green algae advisory ahead of the August long weekend last year; the park closed as a result for the first time due to algae, visitation slowed through the end of summer, and Splish Splash experienced a significant loss in sales.

“There’s a couple of days shortly after the warning hit the internet, where it was 25 degrees and there was nobody there, like, literally nobody,” Champagne said last year.

While there was algae in the lake for a few weeks, the provincial government’s test results showed zero toxins in the water. The update did not bring the public back to the park in the typical numbers, however. Sales rebounded to roughly 50 per cent of normal for the rest of the year, and the park had to lay off all four part-time staff to cope with lack of visitation.

A local lake stewardship group called Friends of Lake Minnedosa has been studying different ways to address silt build up in the lake, which contributes to algae blooms. According to a spokesperson for the group, the algae issue in Minnedosa resulted from a number of factors, including silt, a lack of rain and a leaky spillway. The Town of Minnedosa also recently committed $50,000 to study silt mitigation.

Following last year’s algae issue, and with other inputs making it more expensive to run the park, fees will still hold for 2026, Champagne said in May.

“We’re not increasing our prices, even though costs have gone way up,” he said. “We figure the world’s getting tortured enough with higher prices, so we … decided to just stick with the same prices.”

It is the third or fourth year holding the same pricing structure, Champagne said — the team plans to analyze the pricing structure at the end of the year.

Splish Splash Minnedosa is working on growing its social media presence as a way to improve business. Champagne said a better social media profile will help the team update the public about the park’s open and closed status, as well as updates to the park’s equipment.

“Maybe we should advertise it more, so people know we are changing,” he said. “That’s what our bigger presence on social media is going to be this year: just updates, more information, telling people more about the park, and creating excitement.”

The main platform is the Facebook page “Splish Splash Minnedosa.”

The local waterpark is entering its eighth year of business in at Minnedosa Lake. It is located beside Minnedosa Beach, and the Minnedosa Beach Campground.

Opening day is June 27.

»cmcdowell@brandonsun.com