What the Health Just Happened?
Making Waves Each Martin Aquatic Design at a Time
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this week's episode of what the health just happened we talk about all things health care Community business and life the goods the bad the ups the downs the left the rights and everything in between We're lucky to bring on a variety of guests to bring their perspective on what they find to be healthy or not healthy in all the previous Listed topics one of my favorite topics employee culture, right? What's a healthy culture? What's not a healthy culture? But again, this is probably business related. We'll see if we get to health care or not I'm all about like talking trash about health care. Okay, especially health insurance, right? Josh Martin president and creative director. Yep. That's the title for Martin Aquatic is Blue Mar basins separate entity or like start with Martin Aquatic and then go there. Yeah, absolutely Thanks for having me. So Martin Aquatic. We are a commercial aquatic design and engineering firm So we design water parks resort hospitality Alti acre cruise ship water parks. So any of the cruise of sorrel Caribbean cruise lines We've done all the water slides on board. We did their private out island Blue Mar basins is a sister company that we launched a couple years ago where we make large multi acre aquatic amenities One that's coming out if you'll start to see marketing carnival cruise lines is launching celebration key Their new private destination. We have two blue mar basins on that project. Okay, so right off the bat. We're celebration keys so version key is actually in free port Bahamas so a lot of these cruise lines license or Get their own out islands or parcels of land on a bigger island and create their own private development So the whole marketing is go my cruise ship to go to my destination Yeah, add that to the bucket list track. God. I want to go to all these places already Let's let's start so Martin Aquatic. Yeah, every commercial I see of carnival where they're going down those slides Real Caribbean roll Caribbean. There you go. Yeah, screw you carnival. No, no, my carnival. We work at carnival as well I'm kidding carnival is a great client. We just haven't done their ships We do icon of the seas the brand new biggest ship in the world We did all the water on the ship. So you're like again. How does that work? How are you? Do they find you you find them you're designing? Yeah, what is your team do? So Our our team at Martin Aquatic is made up of a couple different sides of the coin We have a a small group of us that I lead as the creative director of about 10 of us Okay, and our job of our entire staff of about 50 about 10 Our creatives and so we started working with royal Caribbean in 2012 Um, they came to us and said we want to put a water slide on our ship And so we just ideated came up with ideas looked at locations And we built trust with the brand And so when they went to launch a brand new class of ship what became known as icon of the seas Back in 2017 2018. So five years ago a pandemic ago We were doing the design work and so a lot of ideas were thrown out We want the tallest slide at sea or the biggest pool at sea or we want to add something that's ever been seen before so we vetted Ideated created those ideas both from a what's really practical from a creative standpoint of wow This is the team of 10 This is our team of 10 Okay But then our team of 40 that's like the engineers and the people who figure how to make it work makes it real Are really involved even at the concept level because weight and stability in a cruise ship So I would love to do a wave pool on a cruise ship But if the ship's doing this going back and forth Like you're you're gonna create your own waves in a different way. So we have this mix of Creative engineering is kind of what we really like to do. I like that. Um We like to say internally that we create aquatic leisure destinations Say that again. I love these one. I love these tags. Yeah, we um, so uh, we'd like to create aquatic leisure destination So whether that's a resort hospitality poolscape a Multi-family neighborhood area a cruise ship water park. You're going to a leisure destination But we wrap them all around the water. So so team of 10 versus team of 40. Yep, right Who is jobs harder? Um, I actually think the team of boarding's job is harder. They They have to deliver our death line Mac engineering heart science calculations Documentation our job on the creative side is we are very much blue sky We are given a blank sheet of paper sometimes and said come up with an idea We're doing a project with our blue mar basins technology in uh thermal california So thermal is a suburb of palm springs So coachella valley where the coachella music festival is do you go to the festival? I've never been in the festival I've actually never been to palm springs. I met the clients and I would love to go uh, I have a great client there who trust me. Um, he basically gave us a uh, blank 100 plus million dollar check to design An aquatic leisure destination that resulted in being a 16 acre Blue mar basin with an integrated largest artificial surf pool in the world with an adventure cove that's all for 367 residential homes so Oh, tran's quick. So is this is this a type of industry too as? There's just less and less real estate on the waterfront that this type of industry can just keep growing and growing and growing You 100% that's uh, I I remember waking up. I've been here 15 years I will wake it up probably year five. I mean like Are we gonna how how are we gonna keep building this many hotels? Like let's mention too by the way, so we typically record and film the show in jackseville Okay, we're in your office. Yeah in Orlando in general office. Yes, dude. We cannot thank you now Absolutely this office is badass. I can say ass on the radio, right? Yeah, so let me let me mention that So we're in Orlando and you get back to that you're like, how can we we can't build more stuff here? Yeah, you you kind of have this weird thing of like, I mean, we've done every resort We've done all these things like we can renovate them, but then you realize that um, and I I actually think COVID while it hurt our business a ton at the time We were very heavily in the cruise ship market. They shut down for 18 months Very heavily in the theme park world. They all shut down. They saw this stop but coming out of covid I would say the demand for Outdoor recreational activities has skyrocketed for us double triple probably triple Our blue mar basin technology was launched coming out of covid We spent about five years developing it filing our patents getting ready to go to market And so as we've come out of the pandemic and we've soft launched it initially We've seen an incredible uptick of people wanting to do these leisure destinations And so it's more of why i'm gonna build trade at your point. I'm gonna build a hotel I'm gonna build a hotel and i'm gonna create my own ocean and i'm gonna create my own Area so here we have a basin that could have a water park in it We're doing one that has an integrated show fountain So think the bulagio in the middle of a swivelable basin. Yeah, so we're all available waves That's a big one right of a waves is a huge thing um I have the opportunity to go surf in switzerland at an artificial wave pool last year So who would have thought you'd be in the swiss alps surfing? Also really bad surfer, but I still did it. Are you guys hiring any uh, we are hiring guys Yeah, we're grown right now if you not an engineer or maybe i'm not very interested If you're a structural engineer who has a beard wants to have some fun. Give me a call Our website, um, we are we're actually hiring about 10 people right now So so that's that's good to talk about it. This you talk about healthy cultures, right? We do this thing healthy percent out here You walk into this office when we walked in those great. What are your thoughts? Well, it reminds me of a Company I used to work for where it was all open It was funny because there was like 10 or 15 people as we walked in though are like hey But it was nice because it looked like everyone was vibing Everyone was kind of working together whereas you're watching it walk into some spaces It's like a ghost town and people are huddled in their own office to stay in the way from everyone So it was pretty awesome when we entered, you know, what what's unique to um, uh, we this actually a condo building So we own this office And so when oh damn when we decided Look not not the whole tower, but like these three units where you're at where we're at So when we we build it from a raw shell So like I envision this in 2011 Standing kind of in the conference and we're in right now. There was not even a wall here It was just we were figuring out what we were gonna build Um sweet wall by the way. Yeah, they are uh, we really want to knock it down and take the guy next door But they won't call us back. Um, but that's another story. What's his name? And the but we envisioned it to that point We knew we wanted an open office environment are what we do is so collaborative in nature But even where so i'm i'm in an office. Um, I obviously as president company I have to be able to have calls that I can't have the whole company here But my entire office is glass and that was deliberately done Because I wanted the natural light to come in and make it to all the employees And so all of our offices are largely glass. We let all that light come through And it's a little bit of in pun but business in the sunshine We're not doing anything in our private offices that we don't want people to see We're just they there's just different people and people have to understand that Dude, I I mean i'm i've got all the questions for hold on. Let me go go go So You're your dad on the company. Yeah, and and you started what year? I started so I started in oh eight uh perfect time to start uh not realizing the recession that was coming I 2008 like something happened in 2008. Same thing happened 20 like march 2020. Yeah, so I You've hit two big girls. I jokingly So we're we're talking as we started recording. Um, I used to own my own company I've been an entrepreneur since I was 12 years old Uh, my dad reached out to me at one point and he was like, hey, if you ever want to join We're opening this Dubai office. It might be tying to you know come aboard and I the business parts. I had the time we had decided we kind of knew we were going to go our separate way Yeah, so it was time. I decided I sold my interest in that took a job here. Um Few weeks later end of 2008. So november of 2008 Uh, the company downsides for about 18 people at about seven and I went to part time Uh, you were part of the downside. I was part of the downsides even though I just started my dad had brought me in You're fired. I uh, I jokingly tell my dad and our cfo who are here that if they would have shown me the balance sheet I never would have come um just prior to coming prior to me coming Because the company you take it on debt and coming and made some choices. So What came out of the o8 Uh recession Is I'm not an engineer by training. That's not my background. My background is marketing. My background is design My background is growing teams. My background is kind of being that creative visionary creative, but I was able to take a company that was 23ish years old at the time and Have all this history and all of this backup and all of this great foundation And then build a new company The direction I wanted to build it to hire the people that I thought we needed to change our Fortunes or change our fate Um, we used to be very much dependent upon Architects or landscape architects or people to hire us. We were involved subcontrast sub yeah sub consultant way late in the process and The truth is you just make less money when you're further down the food chain You have less say at the table. You have you're just the guy. Um, we we affection call him like a pump guy That's not who we are. We're not a we're not a guy who just gives you a pop and makes your pool work Yeah, we are creatives. We're designers. We a lot of our clients come to us to solve the unsolvable That's why they come hire Martin Aquatic. Is it safe to say that What year are we 2024? That's sad. Yeah, I forget what year is it? Yeah, so that we have kids who run in a business Would you say it's a completely different company that today than it was in 2008 100% are I think we maybe only have we we've got a pretty good client roster I think maybe we have two or three of the same clients So you basically turned over all your business and we went to totally new market sectors. Um, we opened up Obviously the basins the surf. We weren't really doing water parks back then There's like the majority of our work now. We we were doing resorts We're doing I have a project right now that we've got a hundred plus bodies of water on I mean, we're doing massive developments. We're doing a massive theme park inside you're eating outside of the you Oh, so you're outside of the us. Yeah, so we had an office nearby for about a decade. Uh, you just said that Yeah, we're actively working and I think Plus or minus 25 countries right now. So we all the way to Southeast Asia. We're working in uh, South america Obviously the mid east is a big hotbed of new work But we you know, we view the Caribbean is kind of part of north america So but really for the Caribbean. I'm working in we're licensed in 40 plus states So as engineers you have to be licensed so we have engineers our staff who go past those tests So we can sign and seal these drawings in those states. Are you Hunting for business or are you at a point where people are finding you? It's a little bit of a and b um We are very blessed and very fortunate to not be Worrying where our next project's gonna come from we we have done We've had an incredible last couple of years. We've seen some of the best years we've ever had We've been able to grow our staff. Yeah, knock on well, not knock on wood. It's an attribute to you and your team. Yeah with the shout out we uh, we work our team Our our biz dev team and our overall our directors because everybody here is your still representation company does a great job of Continually, we look we walk into a meeting and we go if there's 10 people around the table That's 10 potential new clients. And so our goal is to do repeat work I don't want to go find a hundred plus new clients every year I want to work for 90 of the same ones and pick up a few new ones And so as a company We are very fortunate that we've got more work that we know what to do with right now. We um Continually bid on new projects. We have a massive pipeline that is out there a potential work But we also don't have to take projects that aren't a good fit for us. Like we don't do zoos and aquariums So you're okay saying no to certain We are actors or business. Yeah, that's that's healthy. It's so a healthy person on health. Yeah, it's it's very much a healthy Mindset, um, I don't I think the probably about two and a half years ago three years ago We reached a point where we got to fire some clients and that was my uh, that was my favorite time as I've been in charge Of just people that Like we don't get along. Well, we're we're not a good thing It doesn't it's not me. It's you that whole thing like and we just got to say thank you, but no thanks We don't mean the work. We don't that's good for your people too. Like the ones dealing with them. They're like, thank you Yeah, thank you. I mean I have my team come to me. I had my team company. We're doing a project right now very difficult client um very demanding uh, just One of the unrealistic expectations It's unrealistic expectations and not understanding how long things take We're not just we're not putting a pool in the backyard. We're which does take a while by the way It takes a ton of good luck. Yeah, um We are Because in so in-house we're mechanical engineers meaning Pump's filtration how the water moves we're electrical engineers how the controls all work how you power all that We're structural engineers So how you contain the water and hold all that is a waterproof So if you look at a building An architect designs what the building looks like but then he has a sub that's structure And they have a sub that's MEP that does all your low voltage does your hcc We do all of that for the aquatics. So we're We're taking all those disciplines. So it does it it's not that had a lot add a water to the equation by the way Yeah, and more importantly work in a place like texas that has expansive soils meaning lots of movement. So What people don't realize is like you can't have a pool that does this like it can't then I grows one on the radio It can't break or we got cameras. Okay, but if it starts leaking then we've failed So it's making people understand that like even the error is like oh you've done this a hundred times It's like no actually every project we do in all 99 All 99 of those were different. Yeah, correct every project we look at we are not a copy/paste phone So what's one of the more difficult uh terrains to build in and I mean more on the global scale um honestly texas is some of the worst Um texas has clay or expansive soils and so depending on how far you dig down like in florida We understand our water table is pretty high, but we know how to de-water. We know how to stabilize um texas you get into piles or piers which are deep foundations that hold stuff and so That's one of the things to buy is very difficult because it's all sandy soil and so how you do that um Every locale is different and that's the unique thing and uh quite frankly How we do structure in the Caribbean versus how we do in texas or how we do it in vietnam Are all very different based on the local people Are you flying engineers to go look at this this stuff or they that I mean are they doing this all engineer, right? You would want that uh well they have a local geotech that does a lot of that So they do the projects in texas. They're sending you the information. Yeah, but we're still on site I've got a mark our team. I mean, I've traveled. I'm traveling tomorrow I've traveled every week for the last nine weeks. Where's tomorrow? Uh tomorrow is actually a golf trip Uh, that's okay. Yeah, where's the golf room playing stream zone? I've never been there. Oh, it's great. Yeah, you I just got I just got hooked on golf Okay, after this stupid insurance in the story that I make fun of so what's um What's like one or two projects you did you're like this was badass you know my um You can't have a favorite child, but everybody does My favorite project that I was involved in from start to finish was real Caribbean's perfect day at coke. Okay It was perfect day in what perfect day at coke. Okay. It is oil Private island out island destination. Okay. We have the tallest water slide in north america Um, we've got a almost one acre Blue mar basin swimming pool there. We've got a water park that's about 13 acres We just brought online this past winter The what's called the hideaway or hideaway beach, which is the 21 and up adults only pool That's got a Got a hundred foot long infinity edge. I mean, it's just we've been involved in that project since 2014 So 10 years of my life most of my career here has been working on that project over time That's the client you're talking about. Yeah, right instead of you know A hundred new clients. You want 50 that are reoccurring come back big projects. Yes, and we're very fortunate. We do a lot of work with royal They've been a great client. Um, that project would take your Challenged every part of our business. It's water park. It's basin. It's high in resort It's a private beach club. There's fountains. So everything that our company gets involved in is that Do you test all the waterslides? I have tested a lot of waterslides sometimes Are you hiring a waterslide test? Uh, I I am a very much a waterslide enthusiast So what I travel I actually go to water parks and I ride slides Um, whether it's for work or not if like what I've been in the mid east I used to go to Dubai a lot I've been in every water park over there at the time I like to go ride rides I think the biggest thing about being a creative director and designing these parks is A lot of people I take feedback from have never been to a water park and they tell me what slide to pick And it's like, you know, it's kind of like the whole, you know, you have to be able to ride it and know Why was that a good experience or why it wasn't it and um, my kids Night and six years old They've been riding waterslides since they were four and like my daughter has done Every slide drop slides anything you can imagine. She's done. She's a pro. Uh, yeah My son now tall enough to do everything. It's kind of done everything as well and like they're a part of it And so what do they like I because we're designing for kids. We're designing for parents. We're designed for grandparents Like so how do we do all it's family business? It is Where do you go to be impressed in regards to slides particularly and Like where's like a go-to where you're like, uh, this is our competition here guys um I think a lot of it is Right now it's looking at so here in our lando. We have aquatica by seaworld and volcano bay by universal Two of the most successful parks in the world and volcano bay is you know prop was built for Nearly triple the budget of aquatica and so but you look at them and I I actually prefer Sorry volcano bay as a client. Um, I actually prefer aquatica as a guest Sure, um because I like the layout better. I think that their rides are more dynamic I like what they're doing for me. Um, I'm not really easily impressed by rides There's not a lot of innovation in the slides where I'm impressed by his theming So we're looking at places like hogwarts at harry potter or we're looking at what took you a disney seed Just opened and we're or we're looking at what meow wolves doing from a integrative experience in las vegas So we're looking at how do we take all of those? Storytelling devices and bring it to water parks Are you going on side to these places to be like just walking around taking ideas? What about the new mario land here super nintendo world super nintendo? Um, so our firm was fortunate enough to be involved in the one in japan So we went the very first one that opened i've never been i've yet to go to the one in california Um super excited to go my middle son is obsessed with super mario. That's why okay, okay My uh my son my son is uh very obsessed and very excited for that, but yeah Um, I I think i'm really excited for epic universe. We were not involved in epic. Um, we're not really doing any work out there But as a fan i'm excited to go see this new portal driven immersive experience. I think Universal has done an incredible job. Um diagon alley is probably one of the best themed lands in the world And whereas I do think it's probably better than star wars galaxy's edge I think galaxy's edge is nice, but I think diagon alley is more immersive Last question here before the commercial break would you consider yourself a nerd? No, I'm not I have nerds that work for me. I'm like the yeah, I mean, I'm nerdy about some stuff like forest state football Uh, yeah, we're good to that. I'm saying but you like the way you talk about these parks with such passion exciting Like diagon alley. Yeah, or um the star wars stuff. I i'm a star wars person. I read the harry potter books Like there's certain things that some of you will call nerdy. I'm not like I also hate that word By the way, but I also love it. So I I just call your pointer I call them the results. They know I I've never read the harry potter books I like the star wars movies, but I'll watch any of the tv shows. What I care about those places is world building So I want to go in and feel like i'm in a different place. That's so i'm nerdy about that I'm nerdy about the attention to detail. Okay, man. I again that first half flew by josh martin president and creative director with martin aquatic Um, I'm going to start calling you the psycho path and marketing. I love that That's what the help just happened Welcome back to the second half of what the help just happened If you're catching this on the radio good news is you can catch the first half on your favorite podcast platform Under what the help just happened if you're catching this on the podcast There are no commercials at least not yet until we can get some sponsors Guinness We'll try bourbon companies. We don't care even though that's not healthy Speaking of not healthy like once a day and you know It's up for debates speaking of healthy. Yep, or not healthy. Yeah, okay healthy or not healthy fantasy football Not healthy. Oh my gosh. I'm going healthy. I I think you people get if he comes in obsession What do you mean you people? I know no i'm part of it like lived it. I lived it Okay, healthy or not healthy being a bourbon connoisseur. Oh, that very healthy It's all about mental health there. Health you're not healthy Beards. I would say healthy. I'm so jealous. I can't grow my wife Uh who you met earlier. Yes. We've been together since 2006 has never seen me without a beard One day you should do it. I don't think so. I don't think I'll like what's under here I think i'm just going like I I was young had I had a full head of hair when I grew this like I don't know I love it. The tray's got a beer over there, too I just get on my pants. It's so bad. I look like really creepy health. They're not healthy being a florida state fan. Oh Very not healthy for my for my blood pressure. Um, that is that like your thing that you're just I care too much. Um, and I say that like I We lose a game fortune hasn't happened a few years. Um, like your ruins your it ruins my weekend. Um, we lost Thanksgiving probably got 14 years ago and the gators And like I had to go take like an hour walk around my neighborhood like it was it was a thing I like it's probably the number one sport now Like I grew up a big sports fan But as you get older and you kids get limited on what you can care about and I can I mean I follow recruiting I'm very you're that guy. I'm very invested in for the state. Do you and uh joey janssen bloodheads? Uh seminal to by the way surrounded by gators. I know I I you know I like joey a lot. He made some bad choices in life. That was maybe one of them, but um, you know, he met his wife So I guess it's in shape, but um, you know, like the gators are gonna go. You know two and ten. It's fine Healthier not healthy Being a psychopath and marketing. I think healthy. I think um, yeah, it's lightning around. I won't give a long answer I we'll we'll go to that. Okay. Second year. Uh, you got any health or not healthies? Man, you stole a line with FSU football. I was just gonna say the healthy or not healthy FSU football as a whole currently Oh, very healthy. Okay. Yeah, I'm all in on the mic nor bell era. Well, I'm excited Healthier not healthy adults going down water slides healthy all hundred percent. Yeah, healthier not healthy Uh, martyclotic's culture. I would say very healthy right now I would agree just when we like our perspective. We walk in the vote. They're not healthy Making your own swag Um I would say it's both I think you I think it's really We try to put merchandise out that like our team wants to wear and our team's proud of but also stuff that people want to keep So I think it's very healthy to want to put out good quality. It's unhealthy because we obsess over it We spend a lot of time Researching and figured out the right element that we can do and we spend paralysis by analysis Yeah, I think we you know our our christmas boxes behind you. We have that up here. Um, yeah, let's I was There we did uh, we do a we do a different christmas gift for our clients every year So part of just thanking them. Thank them for trusting prospects also or who you're designing for um Anybody who we issue a proposal to and people we've worked with over the years So you're on the list so if you call us and we give you a proposal whether you hire us or not We still send you a gift If um, we have work through the few years you may come off the list the list grows and it's takes It's very unhealthy to manage it takes a while But uh, so we did this gift last year, which was tiki themed Um, and we created four different glasses Each of them. Yeah, bring bring them over here. Yeah, because you explain it. You were explaining them earlier Yeah, this is how you're this is the creative director here So this is the stuff we we created so uh, this glass is our surf glass So what this showcases is our bloom our base and tack what we're doing with inland surfing And so each glass has a different theme So uh, this is our what we call the martiki logo or the blue martiki our fictitious tiki bar We created that we actually have a neon sign for in the other room that I can show you guys this guy I'm gonna get put into that. Um, and then this is our show fountain glass So once again a different market so we wanted to create what we felt were collectors items And so we some clients got all four some clients got one Uh, it's the first part of a series that we'll do But for us we started playing this gift in june of last year So there was probably four to five months of planning. What we do that i'm super proud of is All the designs are original. This is our own design team. The box is our own design team We packed every one of those glasses in here this inside this box. Yeah. I'm gonna grab it show you guys Let me tell you something right now. We these are in our office This is cool. I know this like this is going on a shelf somewhere not Um, not where they are now This is bad at it. As you can see inside. There's all this like hey Um, this entire conference room that we're recording in it took us like a good two months to back Was this the team attend it was everyone. Yeah, it was back in we have these like swizzle sticks that are custom theme with our hex So for us, oh, I don't know if you saw that and then we did Uh postcards called reading for the martiki. This is it. Let's let's plug more aquatic in here. Like this is a gift. Yeah What about designing your project like this is the thought and effort that goes into this unique stuff By the way, I'm definitely grabbing this. Yeah, that hat. I'm this hat. This you better have another one of these because i'm taking them too Fair enough fair enough like you we love swag. This is nice stuff But this is just an example. This is scratching the surface your creative team puts all this thought and effort into this Yep Imagine That free story pool that your 12 year old goes down. So for all you developers out there Um Who's a good client? Uh great client is we do a lot of work for Walt Disney. We do a lot of work for role Caribbean We do uh, we're doing a lot of projects for um multi-family developers or Um urban mixed use developments some of the names I can't say because their projects are public Um, but we do a lot of that work. Uh, we have they mixed use development. You mean like housing condo Housing condo commercial Shove out in the middle show. So show flash pads things like that Okay, do you believe that you have an an advantage Because of where you're located and i'm referring to Orlando because i'm familiar with the area Eric's from america area Do you almost think Being here gives you an insight to like what's the new hit thing that then you can evolve? You know what to not hit What the word hit? Yeah, it's true It was like, uh, is it giving up or an advantage? I think it I think it helps us. I don't think it gives us an advantage I think it's shaped who we are Um because my dad worked for disney and universal and c-world and merit vacations and all of these destination companies Guest experience and guest focus is in the dna of our company. Yeah, I can design the greatest Water slide in the world, but it's it's a bad arrival sequence or it's hard to get on or the rafts don't work It's a bad guest experience So we argue with clients so much about you can't afford this Because you're going to sacrifice this and so our job is to always put the glasses Or the lens on of the guest and how they go through the process and that's what we care about Do you ever i'm sorry? The average time is spent on so you're talking about the guest experience How much time i'm going to spend in that damn line? Is that a point of conversation of like does this need to be a two line type ride or a three line? Is that a it is? So we get into I never thought about that we get into modeling Um of what type of water slides so like this cup right here This is like a water coaster So this is like what you go down and go up and um some of these are drop slides So like have you guys ever ridden a slide where the floor falls out from? Yeah, it's awesome. Okay, so you want to stop at a waterpark in the way back Do you like them? I like everything man. Okay, so we but we find industry-wide Only about 30 to 35 percent of your guests will actually do it I can see that it is a low participant so the shortest you but so we want to have that balance of The biggest wow that people want like so volcano bay they have three drop slides on the top of the volcano They never have the demand for those lines to be full And their lower slides that are more family friendly or easier to enter have longer lines So it's finding that balance gotcha fair enough man Holy crap, that's a lot because lines are I mean honestly can kill an experience or it can make it thrive What you see a lot of people doing and we're bringing this to water parks to some of our clients is how do we theme the line? How do we make the queue? I can tell you the experience component it is I can tell you what I hate I don't want to pull off my phone and have to play a game like on Toy Story in the line and scan stuff I water parks are meant to not have phones. We're meant to be removed from this digital device like I think VR on water slides is the dumbest thing in the world That's a thing Oh, it's a total thing people put a head that on water and go down a water slide with the VR headset Oh, yeah, I'm not healthy My goal Everyone who comes on this show my goal is for you to start saying we healthy or not healthy you text me randomly one day That's that's what happens on this and that is not healthy. Um, so I think they're horrible because It's we're out. We're in nature. We're riding stuff. Why are we putting this headset on so How do we create a queue line that we put we put time into the theme and into what's that thing up in the corner? What's that little hidden Mickey to borrow a Disney term? How do we do that at water parks? I'll I'll give a free Plug for the Star Wars place here again my I always go back to my kids. I probably shouldn't yeah shout out to my kids We love shoutouts by the way, so go holler at anyone you want Um, we went to the Star Wars price first time ever. Yeah Whatever the ride was the experience going through it. There's like live-action actors. That's the first time I see Um, I came right at us. We got a fast pass and you ride on like a I'm but you're you were doing, um, rise of the resistance. That's it Yeah, I've never I was boiler alert if you guys have not been on the ride where you move multiple scenes and you run into people Yes, incredible that that is the most Memorable ride I've ever been on my life just because of the experience from the second you walk in we had a fast pass Yeah But the whole experience and that like creating that for for slides and oh my gosh Martin Aquatic is the best man. Did you who's on your prospect list that doesn't know about you like let's let's hammer them right now Yeah, thank you. I mean We were fortunate. Um, actually just announced we're doing we're part of the shipyard development in Jacksonville You got to drop a duval for us So we've been a part of that project for a few years, so okay, that's a great development part of um, so yeah, we we We involved in a lot of stuff really early on and so I you know, I know project names That never become the name of the project. Yeah, we've been working under code names for five years What's uh go-to code name like if you had to create a code name a lot of people are in like the Greek alphabet right now We've got gammas and alphas and betas and we've got a lot of that stuff. Um, I'd be like team no beard So like I'm this wall by the time this airs like we have we're like we have two different projects for two different clients that both are using the name project sparrow, so it's super difficult because we'll be talking about a meeting and I'm like Which sparrow is that like yeah, which we've never had that happen. We never had the same code name twice Okay saltwater or question or like chlorine or whatever. What what is so what's more friendly for you guys? Actually, oh all of our stuff is fresh water. Um, recirculated systems. So we can you relation is still part of what you do Yep, so we designed the filtration system using fresh water. We can have salt chlorine generators Okay, but like salt corn here is like 5,000 parts per million the oceans like 300,000 parts per million of salt so it's just a totally different scale but um Ocean salt water is horrible for slides and all the stuff. Oh, yeah I guess don't like it. It stings their eyes You get that foam on you. I got I got a random question and then a topic. I want to address Is there a point in the future has it happened where there is One of a few billionaires that want to build their own Ridiculous, I'm sure Um, I have worked for several billionaires. Um For personal property. No parks at the end for park. That's it. Uh, uh, we just did We did a big indoor water park in the lake city in new jersey called the island at showboat hotel And so, um park blastine who was the developer He is a billionaire and he was the lead guy that was his money and one guy makes the decisions Um, and so listen if you want to sponsor the show or have an answer, um, we we were fortunate to work with tapestock development Um, which is owned by mr. lewis and so i've had personal interaction with, um, mr lewis and doing some projects for him They are great like they are visionaries and they have made their wealth a certain way Um, the expectation of deliverables and timelines they just you know It it is very challenging. Sometimes looking for the corporate company is a little easier like royal cribbing is that owned by one person Yeah, owned by stockholders and they execute the vision. So so in those instances, that's good I even think about this is a topic before because I really want to talk about artificial waves and wave Yes, because i'm fascinated by him So the the the let's say incredibly wealthy people in the states. Yeah, i'm sure it happens outside the country do buy Saudi Arabia you mentioned but Their their projects are for their properties And they're they're more demanding than a corporate area that has a team of people I think so. I think that um, you know, listen the the corporate companies are plenty demanding. Yeah, um Sometimes it's very hard to Reason with people who um aren't used to being told no And we're not yeah telling them no not in a bad way in a bad way where We are hired because we're experts and like you're paying my fees To take the knowledge I have but the 40 plus years of our company knowledge to guide you on your journey And a lot of times when you run into people who are like, nope, i'm doing it this way It's really hard because you're like, but why did you hire me like I have an opinion and I know i'll be first Say my opinion's not always right, but i'm telling you what I see other people do I'm trying to guide you to make the best decision that's going to make the project successful. Yep Man That's a whole dialogue there. You got anything before I switch topics here Uh, this is maybe a silly question, but like what is the evolution of your industry On the experience side, but then also on the ride side itself Because that because you did mention like you can go crazy with it, but then you have less riders that are actually into it So yeah, um to borrow the words of like captain marble my higher faster stronger whatever she said like people are building bigger They're trying to do faster rides. Um, the tallest water slide in the world presently is in Qatar Um, and they have an elevator that takes you up 265 feet to come down a family raft slide So the ride itself is taking components off the shelf and putting together this new ride But the advent of an elevator and the thematic experience in going up it and having that journey of five to eight minutes down Is a totally different experience than our traditional water slide. Yeah, so it's the evolution Not everybody's gonna be doing that. I think the evolution is Immersion in dwell time. How are we gonna build a water park indoor or outside? How are we gonna build a basin that I can keep people there For more time the longer I hold you there the more money you spend the more revenue I make the more I'm in demand So when we do a show fountain How do we design that to where we're gonna play a three-minute song? Every 15 minutes and how do we flip tables and how do we charge for those tables and what's dynamic and what's the viewing angles? That's all Hard of it. Yeah, so this is a good transition to by the trap. I'm putting this on blue mar basins You know shows in the water. I want to talk about wave pools because I'm obsessed with them I don't know which way to go like what looking out What excites you the most in your industry because you got you got this is different than the other stuff you've been doing, right? Correct. So blue mar basins represents two things It is a water treatment technology that we've developed and patented Meaning how we filter treat modern the water is very different than commercial pools Is it because of the size? Yes, it's the scale and the size and how do we do it economically? If I tried to take five acres and build it like a pool, it would cost a hundred million dollars So how do you do it in an economical scale through new technologies and different equipment We've taken that same water treatment tech and brought it to surf So we're building artificial surfing lagoons that are three to five acres In scale that will give you i'm working on several that One way will give you a 24 to 26 second ride Um on the greatest way to be very written and so what is it called? I'm just curious because I like I've yeah I think crazy sometimes. I'm like I did there are things that I want to do and they cost money What does it cost to build a weight pool like that all in um? You're going to spend somewhere and so this is a hard number because it's what's the other development around it Are you doing a hotel or are you doing a restaurant just the wave pool probably 45 to 15 million dollars So then you have to develop that scale we can do them smaller in the 25 to 30 million So for a chill rambling wave, so let's be clear. So you we were talking earlier. There is a stationary wave Which is a true surfboard in kind of a box. So maybe it's 30 to 50 feet wide That's that's a jet that proposed that's the jet. So it's like a river wave if you've ever if you've served a river wave at all like um yanea Or uh isamboc in germany. It's a river wave. So you're kind of going against the current Whereas there's traveling waves which are more expensive where you actually ride the wave. Yeah Yeah So I got a lot more money to save up. Yep, or find some great investors. I mean Entrepreneur I go and people listen the radio show you want to build a surfing wave and do ball Let's go. There's a lot of play. Look, we actually have waves there But days there aren't waves and you the other thing too. Like how do you how do you make money? That's just the reality of every industry if you don't if you're not creating revenue You can't you can't build a project like that. Um, you know, the great part about surfing is It is water parks and surfing. The big difference is water parks are entertainment. I go. I ride slides. There's no Skill involved to ride a water slide surfing is a repeatable sport. It's aspirational I I am not a surfer even though I designed surf pools I'm not a surfer, but I surfed last year on two different artificial waves And I got off those waves and said I really want to do that again I really because I felt like I progressed. I felt like I snowboard. I know how to do board sports I felt like after taking 20 years off of surfing. I was like, oh, I'm back to being able to surf And so immediately I would have spent more money to get back in the water to have another session And it's the cleanest wave Yeah, there's a lot of wave techs, but for what our involvement is is martin aquatic We're doing the structure. We're doing the water treatment The biggest thing is you don't want people to get sick in this water. You don't want to estimate the water treatment Yeah, here in forda. We have amoebas that can grow In lakes and we're all familiar with that growing up. It gets too hot in the summer Don't go in a leg. Don't say anything happens in an artificial wave If you're not treating the water and being you know careful about it, you can create an environment that could cause Health issues, so it's very unhealthy to not treat surfing again. This is not healthy to not treat Yeah, that's a t-shirt. We love being attached not healthy to not treat Um We got about four minutes here last any shout outs. We love shout outs Um, you know, I will uh selfish out shout out my wife, uh, carry Help set up this whole event helped you guys. Um, so I will shout out to kara She was incredible. Yeah, she is um very much The the rock in our family and relationship. We are a husband wife who runs the company Um, she Um She has sacrificed so much. I travel way too much and i'm god and miss a lot of events and somehow You know, I think as a husband a lot of time to take for granted that she's moving the kids to and from school And they're going to after school activities and they're she's actually building good quality humans You know, not a little tiny ball of alcoholics like i'm becoming Man, uh, I got to say hi mom every episode. Love you mom Anyone else Um I'll have to think about it when you know the team the team Right, I would say the team all also you're hiring 10 people currently. Yeah, we're uh, we're definitely hiring Uh, when this airs it's somewhere between eight and 12. We'll call it that we engineers Uh all types. We have some positions for creative for project management engineering. Well, um, if you sent us a link we could put this Yeah, absolutely. It's on our I'll be here in Orlando. So our website is martin aquatic.com. You can go there We do not do residential for those of you who have listened this long. We don't do a lot of backyard pools Um, unless you have enough money to build a giant commercial pool We're not good guys. Yeah Move our base. I got you saying that Um What do I miss in man? We got a couple minutes here. Look dude. That's I'm just jealous. You get to basically have fun all day I want to know. I'm sure this day actually what's like what's stressful because you I got to tell you I've really enjoyed this conversation This is the most we've talked high energy smart charismatic. What stresses you out? Um We have built a brand of Responsiveness of client services of trying to always be better than we were the day before So I get stressed when we stumble if we don't deliver something the way we should have if something takes too long Me personally, I'm busier than I've ever been So where I used to respond to an email within a couple hours, it may take me eight hours Which is still normal for a lot of people. That's not how I'm wired. I'm wired to Client services most of my clients are my cell phone number. They call me. They they know I'll text them Um, I'm in meetings all day long, but I am very much a multitasker. I'm on my Mac I'm I'm messaging half my clients Um, so I get stressed when I feel like we're not doing a good service for our clients And so at the end of the day where engineers are creative We are in the business of keeping our clients happy You walk out of these doors can't say you're wife and kids what brings you joy or like I can't wait to do this Um golfing. I love to go. I love watching forestate football. Um, it sounds like that doesn't bring you much joy by the way It brings me a ton of joy. Uh, I will say this. Uh, we talked about healthy Um, my wife knows this story Happiest moment of my life to this point was not when my kids are born because it's much scarier than people realize A lot of stuff can go wrong. True Was being in the being in the stadium in 2013 when we won the national title out in the Rose Bowl That was the happiest when we were there for that. I was there for that. What an epic That was the last national championship. It was into the bcs. We book ended it Uh, what's what's his name? My wife went to Auburn jayboo jaymus James put the receiver II through to those six foot five. Yeah, okay b. Yeah, um now, but still Oh, we could have dude. We could talk about so much stuff. We'll do we'll do we'll do a part two It'll be all fantasy football It'll be all it'll be all I'll come back that started the season um May at josh martin president creative director martin aquatic. I had a blast Mark my words. You're gonna start saying healthy or not healthy. Okay. Um, that's what the help just happened