Pacific Park Hammers Home Eco-Message

Appearances aside, it's not all fun and games at . The operators behind Santa Monica's iconic amusement center are also seriously hoping to launch a new trend among their competitors: energy efficiency.

"We've worked to be a sustainable business in a sustainable city," said Jeff Klocke, Pacific Park's director of marketing and sales. "We'd like to help lead the industry" in energy-efficient rides and games.

As many locals know, the park, which is located on the , features the world's only solar-powered Ferris wheel. The park also uses energy-efficient LED lights and environmentally friendly cleaning products, no longer offers bottled water, and provides its employees with reusable bottles and mugs. Moreover, the park earned an Excellence in Stewardship of the Natural Environment prize at last year's .

Most recently, the park has unveiled the world’s first wind-powered amusement park game, the 25-feet-tall High Striker. While the concept of a wind-powered game is new, the classic Midway game itself should be familiar to anyone who's been to an amusement park or carnival: The player swings a mallet and hits a pallet, propelling a puck up a vertical tower. If the player uses enough strength, the puck hits a silver-plated bell, and the player wins.

High Striker has been a fixture at Pacific Park for years, but the remodeled, eco-friendly version was just unveiled on Oct. 11. Now, all the game's components are completely wind-powered, from the chaser lights—which have more than 100 bulbs—to the multiple spotlights and even the sound system.

The Pacific Park staff began brainstorming the idea earlier this year.

"When we first started thinking about wind power, our original intent was to make a ride wind-powered," Klocke said.

After looking into that possibility, staff determined that a wind-powered ride wouldn't be feasible, as it would require massive wind turbines. Instead, they opted for a more realistic approach: converting a game to wind power.

"One of our biggest challenges was trying to make a game energy-efficient enough that it could be powered by a turbine that could fit on the pier," Klocke said.

They settled on High Striker, which uses less energy than just about any other game at the park (the basketball toss has it beat). Even so, the staff set out to make the game even more energy-efficient before converting it to wind power. They removed all the game's incandescent lights and replaced them with light-emitting diode (LED) lights.

Under the direction of staff technician Jimmy Quaintance, Pacific Park's maintenance crew spent about two months doing research, and finding a vendor who was able to provide the right apparatus and the pieces to create a wind-power setup. 

Then, over the course of three days, staff remodeled High Striker so that the power generated from a 600-watt wind turbine would be captured and converted into usable power. The turbine features three fiberglass blades that have a cut-in speed of roughly 4.5 miles per hour, which is also the measured minimum average wind velocity year-round on the pier.

The energy is stored in a specially designed, self-contained power-storage unit located adjacent to the game. The PowerHub was manufactured by Xantrex Technology Inc., and the wind turbine was made by Sunforce Products Inc. The conversion of the game to wind power cost approximately $8,500.

The remodeled High Striker's energy efficiency isn't the only reason it's a natural fit with the park. It's also nostalgic, blending in smoothly with the nearby Scrambler, one of the park's most-used rides. (The high striker dates back to at least the 1930s, per this Popular Mechanics article.)

While the High Striker is also popular—particularly among boyfriends and dads trying to impress their girlfriends and families—Klocke says he believes the game will increase in popularity.

Klocke added that park staff still hope to convert a ride to wind power at some point in the future. But, in the meantime, he's hoping other amusement parks will catch on to Pacific Park's trend toward energy efficiency.

"We're hoping people follow suit," he said.