Velocity Island Park — Attraction in Woodland

A HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE. Yesterday I took my grandson to the park to learn how to wakeboard. I informed the staff this was his first time and asked what was available. The young man suggested a private lesson which was $90 dollars. I explained my grandson was athletic snow skies, etc. I asked if they had anything else and he said they had a 2.0 cable which was slower for beginners. The price was $61 for an hour so I purchased. He instructed me to go to the far end of park after getting equipment. As we walked I didn't see no one at the far end cable so we stopped as the main cable. My grandson got in line. As he moved up to cable operator I asked if this was the 2.0 cable and he said no. I told him I purchased the 2.0 cable. He said it was not being operated today as they were short staff. He asked another gentlemen to assist me. As I waited we met up with the young man and the owner I presume. The owner asked who assisted me with sale and I described the young man. He explained he was short staffed but would try to get someone else to assist with a private lesson. I told him I didn't want a private lesson. He said that is all that is available. He asked me to give him 5 minutes so we waited in the office and he found someone to assist us. Now we were paying for a private lesson which was another $29. We walked out to 2.0 cable with the long hair young man. I sat nearby as he gave a few instructions. He operated the cable and after a few tries my grandson was able to get up. At one point he had fallen off and I looked at the cable operator who was on his cell phone. I told him my grandson fell off and asked if he can send the cable back to get him? So he sent cable back and my grandson tried again. The operator then asked me to ask grandson if he needed a break and the response was no. After another try he was ready for a break. As we were on break, the operator asked my grandson to grab the rope as we was going to take him across the lake which he did. About 3/4 of the way his shorts fell off. My grandson starts swimming towards his shorts which sunk before he could get to them. I looked at the cable operator who once again was on the phone. The operator finally gets off the phone and sent the cable to bring him in. My grandson wouldn't get out of the water and the operator asked you don't have your shorts? Had he been off his phone he would of noticed as I did that the shorts had sunk. After a few minutes of just sitting there I asked if they sold shorts in the store and he didn't know. So I walked to the store and found some expensive shorts. When I got back to cable with shorts the cable operator said he only had a few tries left. So my grandson puts on the equipment and tries again. About half way thru he falls and is yelling. I look back at operator who is on his cell phone. I soon notice that his board came off and was floating away from cable area. My grandson swam to get wakeboard then back to shore and said I had enough. The cable operator was quick to look away from his phone and say "did he say he had enough"? He went to turn off cable and we walked towards exit upset that this was not what we paid for. On the way out I looked for the gentlemen who I presumed was the owner. I looked in the office as I was going to complain. I didn't see him and at this point I wasn't going to wait for them to find him. We paid for an hour private lesson and we got a 40 minute lesson with an interrupting cell phone present. By far not a private lesson. Also, I don't think the drag across the lake is part of the private lesson. Had the operator been paying attention he could of sent the cable back in time to retrieve the shorts. Parent/grandparents don't make the mistake I did. Spend a little more gas and go to neighboring cities to do water sports. You will be glad you did! And by the way this is the first time I have taken the time to do a review as I felt it was necessary to inform others on...

My daughter, son and I visited velocity island a few days ago and before we went I read a lot of the reviews to get an idea of what to expect. I decided to write one because there was a lot of info that would have been useful for me to know but it wasn't mentioned. When we walked into the building to register and pay andvwe were not greeted by any of the three young men at the counter. Even when we reached the counter I had to say hello before anyone said one single word to us. After we paid I had to ask them what to do where to go and I asked if they had locker's so that we could put our personal belongings away but they didn't. They said people just put their stuff on the chairs and nobody should mess with it. We get to the obstacle course area, put our stuff on the chairs and go meet the instructor for a life jacket and rules. I noticed there were a bunch of little fish in the water and ask about it the employee said that they put the fish in there to eat bugs and algia. At first I really didn't want to get into the water because of the fish but my son was so ready to get started so I just tried to get it out of my mind. We got in the water and there was a significant amount of algia in it, we get on the obstacle course and get to a spot that we had to climb through and there was an excessive amount of algia in those particular sections that you couldn't avoid going through. I think that they should clean them out daily so that it doesn't get so bad. The rest of the course was fine with the exception of a few spots that were deflating. We went through the course twice and had a lot of fun doing it, when our hour was up we went to the rinse station and rinsed ourselves and change our clothes we wanted to get a pizza before we left. we could not order a pizza because the employee behind the counter stated that there was a party coming up on the weekend and the owners were out of town so no more dough could be ordered and they wanted to make sure they had enough pizza for the party. That was a bummer for us because we were really looking forward to having dinner there before we left. I think that's just really bad for business because we're paying customers just like the people who book The party! I read a review before going and the same thing happened to another person. Overall I gave it three stars because we did have fun as a family, had it not been for the pizza thing and the customer service in the beginning I would have given a 4. Had there not been an excessive amount of algia in the areas that you have to climb through I would...

Velocity Island was absolutely the wrong place to take my kids. They are clearly not keeping up with city, state, or safety regulations. According to lifeguard standards (source), what I witnessed was unacceptable.

There were only two people wearing red T-shirts claiming to be lifeguards—neither was paying attention. One was on their phone, and the other was making out with a man on the left-hand side of the island. The lifeguards had no way to communicate with each other—no walkie-talkies, no first aid supplies on hand. They didn’t actually supervise; instead, they sat around doing personal things while I was paying for this service.

Meanwhile, there were around 80 kids present, many of them breaking just about every safety rule you can imagine, putting every single child at risk. The life vests were unsanitary, the island was full of dead grass, and the seating areas were surrounded by hard cement—far from a safe or enjoyable environment.

This was not the experience I had hoped for. I strongly hope Yolo County looks into this business, as it appears to be in violation of multiple safety regulations. Please, do not take your minors here—it is an unsafe environment...