If your favorite waterpark ride wasn’t created directly by ProSlide Technology, there’s a good chance its conception was influenced by something that ProSlide developed. As vice president of sales, Jeff Janovich is part of the creative team bringing “the next big thing” to market. Signature designs he’s had a hand in include many of the bowl-style attractions and family raft-ride concepts.
“We try to take what we know from previous types of rides and adapt them into something new,” he says.
Janovich got his start with the company working on an installation for the very first ProSlide Mammoth River prototype in 1989, during the early days of the Ottawa, Ontario, Canada-based company. Prior to that, he installed the original water rides at Cascades d’eau de Piedmont waterpark in Saint-Sauveur, Quebec.
Since then, Janovich has supplied cutting-edge rides to some of the nation’s leading operations, including Walt Disney World Resort’s Blizzard Beach, many of the Six Flags waterparks and all the Great Wolf Resort properties. This year ProSlide will install its first RideHOUSE interactive water-play structure in Beijing’s Olympic Water Cube.
It’s that kind of influence which keeps Janovich in the business, along with the fact that “we are selling fun,” as he puts it.
A graduate of Concordia University in Montreal, Janovich’s industry experience also includes park operations and marketing. He spent four years in maintenance and operations at Cascades d’eau de Piedmont waterpark and 11/2 years in marketing for Mont St-Sauveur International.
In terms of ride development, it was his experience in another form of recreation that contributed to the creation of many signature ProSlide attractions. Previously, Janovich was an experienced alpine ski instructor and racer, as was ProSlide founder Rick Hunter.
“Our skiing backgrounds have been the inspiration for many of our ride concepts,” Janovich says. “Rick and I are trying to recreate some of these same ski experiences with our water rides.”
