Sabrina's Brochure Spotlight: Belmont Park 2005

This week we check out an oft-forgotten seaside park that happens to be near and dear to my heart: Belmont Park in San Diego. I had to chuckle when I looked back through the NPN archives and remembered that it was only one short year ago that I sent Mike some photos of this park to share. We didn't even know each other back then! My how things change in a year, eh?

While I do have last year's brochure, I decided to take us back a bit farther than that. Belmont Park, which opened on May 29, 1925, celebrated its 80th anniversary in 2005. Its famed Giant Dipper roller coaster, which opened on July 4th of the same year, shared this anniversary. The 2005 brochure proudly marks this milestone, and the park even created a special logo to honor the occasion.

Belmont Park celebrated its 80th anniversary in style by welcoming two new attractions. For the ride lovers, the park added a Chance-Morgan Revolution dubbed "Beach Blaster". And for the surfers, they added a monster wave machine which they aptly named "Bruticus Maximus". The latter, a FlowBarrel model from Wave Loch, was hailed by the surfing community as the world's first "dedicated surfing wave". Although this brochure also throws the park's Chance Chaos into the "new" category, that ride actually opened in 2004.

Bruticus Maximus needed a home, and Belmont delivered. The year 2005 marked the debut of the Wave House, a "beach lifestyle venue" featuring wave machines, restaurants, tiki bars, an athletic club, and two stages which frequently feature live music acts. It is also the home of The Plunge, Belmont's historic swimming pool which opened with the park back in 1925. The Plunge is still the largest indoor swimming pool in the state of California!

It's unfortunate that this brochure doesn't include more photos, but take my word for it: This is a fun little park! I always enjoy my visits, and hope to make it back soon!