Just for Fun: Recreational Hydraulics
Please visit our updated page at hydroschool.org/fun/.
All continuing education resources previously listed at surfacewater.biz have moved to hydroschool.org; going forward, the surfacewater.biz website will be dedicated to drainage-related consulting work only.
Below is the archived page.
To kick off our 2022 webinar series, we changed things up a bit by highlighting applications for hydraulic modelling and design that are “just for fun”. View the recording here:
Additional details on the presenters and links to pdf versions of the presentations are available on the Australian Water School website here:
This page provides additional webinar resources and content involving “Recreational Hydraulics”.
Whitewater Parks
- Blog article highlighting the application of the hydraulic jump and Froude Number in whitewater rafting by Alden Labs’ Orli Gottlieb
- Physical modelling for artificial whitewater course design:
- Calibrating model results for the Rio Olympic whitewater course:
- Boise’s whitewater park
Surf Parks and Wave Pools
- Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch:
- The Science behind Kelly Slater’s surf wave
- Research and development history for Kelly Slater’s surf wave
- Australia’s Surf Lakes:
- Melbourne’s URBNSURF:
- See what happens when waves concentrate in a single point:
Water Slides
- Rotating water slide (with an integrated Archimedian spiral!)
- The Physics of water slides (National Geographic article)
- Building an endless water slide (Power and Motion article)
- Production of the Endless Water Slide that we covered during the webinar (view complete episode on Discovery+)
- Check out our new TikTok channel, including a TikTok challenge for water modellers. Here’s our first challenge winner:
- Here is a preview of the AWS courses and webinars coming up in 2022, including a free webinar on the Froude Number, which got a lot of attention in our “Just for Fun” presentations:
- Learn the underlying principles of open channel flow in our upcoming Hydrology and Hydraulics Essentials course, which is available for registration on the Australian Water School website here:
- Send us your suggestions for other fun applications of hydraulic modelling and design and we’ll post them here!




