Community members gathered at Alamitos Beach on Saturday morning to celebrate the opening of Long Beach’s second Wibit—a flotational water playground that sits anchored about 50 feet off the coast.
Lifeguards on paddleboards flanked the inflatable water park, which is configured in a figure-eight shape to connect multiple floating play structures. The structures include a springboard, bouncer, monkey bars and a variety of diving boards, among other features.
“This inflatable water playground is the second of its kind in the city, and it will help further activate our beaches,” Vice Mayor Rex Richardson said. “We know that when we activate our beaches and we activate our parks, we have safer and healthier parks.”
Children began to line up for their chance on the Wibit around noon. At 1:25 p.m., lifeguards blew their whistles and children clamored into the waves to swim out to the bright yellow, green and blue inflatable.
Councilmember Cindy Allen said she swam out to the Wibit on Friday and called it “hard.”
“Anyone that gets through this entire course without falling needs to contact me because I have something special for you guys, I have some special recognition,” Allen said.
The City has three more Wibits that will be installed at various beachfront locations in Long Beach, according to Brent Dennis, director of Long Beach’s Parks, Recreation and Marine Department. The first Wibit was installed in Alamitos Bay near the Leeway Sailing and Aquatics Center.
Children under the age of 14 must be supervised when playing on the structure. Lifeguards allow 30 swimmers at a time to play on the inflatable, each of whom are allowed 15 minutes of playtime.
The Wibit at Alamitos Beach will be staffed with lifeguards from 9:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. every day up until Sept. 2, the Friday before Labor Day. Dennis said his department might extend the time if there’s popular demand.
“This is doing the ocean, the beachfront, the Long Beach way,” Richardson said.
Richard H. Grant and Emma DiMaggio contributed to this report.
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