Our Story

It Started in Stone Harbor

Our family has been running water adventures out of Stone Harbor since 1988 through Island Water Sports. For years, we ran a small inflatable park alongside the charter business — and watched families light up every time they hit the water.

The small park couldn’t hold all the energy. Customers kept asking for more, bigger, longer. Around 2014, we started sketching out what a real inflatable water park could look like — something that would become a destination in its own right. Margate, centrally located on the shore and beloved by both locals and day-trippers, felt like exactly the right home.

The Long Road to Opening Day

The vision was clear. Pulling it off was another story.

The right property turned out to be two side-by-side marinas on Amherst Avenue that came available at the same time — the kind of opportunity that doesn’t repeat itself. We bought them both.

What followed was four years of permits, engineering, planning, and community conversations. The first planning board meeting drew overwhelming attendance — many neighbors had real concerns about what a water park would mean for their street. We listened. We answered questions. We adjusted where it made sense, and stood firm where it mattered.

Approvals were never a sure thing. More than once, we were told we’d never pull it off.

2020: The Underdog Opens

Island Aqua Park opened its doors in the summer of 2020 — in the middle of a global pandemic, with every operational constraint you can imagine. It was, to put it mildly, an unconventional year to launch a business built around crowds of smiling kids.

We adapted. We opened. And despite every reason it shouldn’t have worked, people came. Families needed a place to be together, outdoors, having fun. We gave them one.

A Margate Staple

Seven seasons in, Island Aqua Park has become part of Margate’s summer identity. Many of the same neighbors who questioned the project in the early days are now regulars — some of whom have stopped us on the boardwalk to say, gracefully, that they were wrong.

We’re a proud member of the Margate Business Association and committed to being a good neighbor, a safe place for families, and a business that reflects the best of this town.

Still family-owned. Still running Island Water Sports down the coast. Still the underdog story we’re proud of.

Come See What We Built

The best way to understand what Island Aqua Park is about is to come spend a session on the water with us.