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6B I MONDAY, JULY 9, 2007 <br />CAMERA <br />"This season is very good for recreational boaters because it's a long <br />season to build up your skills, and we're actually on the tail end of that. <br />Already, some of the water levels are dropping. Typically, one of the neat <br />things about boater parks is you can get on them very early, and it's a great <br />way to tune up your skills in early spring." <br />Monday morning chat <br />With Scott Shipley <br />By Zak Brown <br />Get Out Editor <br />GO: Are you in the process of <br />building any parks right now? <br />SS: The biggest project for me <br />right now is called the "Wave Yard," <br />and it's in Phoenix, Ariz., and it's big <br />like the Charlotte (N.C.) park. <br />There's no natural river. We're <br />going to pump water from a swim- <br />ming pool to a higher swimming <br />pool and let it run around through a <br />mile of channels. <br />G0: In the middle of the desert? Is <br />that an engineering challenge for <br />you at all? <br />SS: It's a tremendous challenge. <br />The first one we did like that was in <br />Charlotte, where we basically sort <br />of invented the wheel there, and it <br />was very successful. So we've been <br />asked to do that in several places. <br />G0: With designing these parks <br />all the time you're pretty busy, but <br />do you still get to go out on the <br />water a lot? <br />SS: Absolutely. I have five boats <br />on the car right now. We'll be pad- <br />dling six times this weekend and we <br />just stay busy with that. As it turns <br />out, almost all of our clients are <br />kayaking enthusiasts, so they're all <br />excited to paddle with us. So on a lot <br />of these trips I can go and paddle on <br />the river and take a tour on it and <br />come back and make a design that <br />hopefully makes that paddle a little <br />more fun the next time. <br />G0: Is that kind of important or <br />critical for you to get a feel for the <br />water and get a feel for what it's like <br />outthere? <br />SS: It depends on the project. <br />Some of our projects are like <br />Charlotte — just creations out of <br />nothing. Even on a natural river if <br />there is a dam there or something <br />like that. it's not that important to us <br />Camera File Photo <br />Extended Get Out! events calendar at dailycamera. com <br />