Patent ID: 8166582

Claim:
A water feature for propelling a rider, the water feature comprising: a basin for containing a body of water, the basin having a basin proximal end and basin distal end; a water slide chute having a bottom and two sides, the bottom and two sides defining a channel suitable for receiving a rider, the channel having a channel proximal end and a channel distal end, the channel being in fluid communication with the basin and the body of water at the channel proximal end, the channel further adapted to contain at least a portion of the body of water within the chute; at least one wave generator adapted to generate at least one wave within the body of water, the wave generator comprising: an elongated tubular chamber having a substantially closed rear end and a substantially open front end wherein the body of water is in fluid communication with the substantially open front end of the chamber; an anchor for securing the chamber and for maintaining the chamber in a desired orientation with respect to the basin proximal end and the body of water; a gas compression compartment in fluid communication with the substantially closed rear end of the chamber; a gas control valve in fluid communication with the gas compression compartment and the chamber, the gas control valve adapted to operatively control the flow of compressed gas from the gas compression compartment to the chamber; a make-up fluid conduit in fluid communication with the chamber; wherein actuation of the gas control valve is capable of causing compressed gas to be released into the rear end of the chamber to forcibly expel fluid within the chamber out of the open front end into the body of water; wherein the make-up fluid conduit is adapted to introduce fluid into the rear end of the chamber to relieve low pressure in the chamber; and wherein the wave generator, the basin, and the channel are configured so that when the wave generator generates at least one wave within the body of water, the basin proximal end is adapted to receive the at least one wave and the channel proximal end is adapted to receive from the basin at least a portion of the at least one wave within at least a portion of the body of water contained within the chute to propel the rider in a distal direction along the channel.