BNZ Waitakere Business Awards 08
West Wave Aquatic Centre
Tuesday, 11 November 2008
Winner: Drake International Employer of Choice Award West Wave is one of Australasia’s finest integrated “Lifestyle Centres”. It was purpose built for the 1990 Commonwealth Games, after hosting which it proudly became New Zealand’s premier Aquatic Centre.
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| Chris Hanford from Drake International with Justin Leydesorff and Mark Blake. |
The Centre still boasts competition dive and 50m pool, and now incorporates the latest in water recreation and play facilities, and swim school as well as a modern fitness centre, swim shop and recreation centre. West Wave is also accessible for people with disabilities.
Operated by the Waitakere City Council, West Wave is able to focus not only on the community through lap swimming, leisure swimming, children’s recreational activities, learn-to-swim classes and a fitness service, but also on niche and sporting groups. It provides recreation services for the community as well as club, regional and national sporting bodies. In addition to this, it is a venue for major international events.
The original developers created what was regarded as among the fastest competition pools in the world. They had also, so they thought, future-proofed the facility with a moveable bulkhead and a “raisable” floor. The combination of these two features enabled the operators to create two pools out of one, and to create a “shallow end” and a “deep end” or a toddlers’ pool or any one of a number of variations on a theme.
With more than one million visitors in 2007, West Wave continues to be the Waitakere region’s most visited attraction.
