MASON, Ohio — Charlie Kanzawa is a typical working man during the week.
He is employed by Remy to work on heavy duty motors in a lab setting. An Anderson resident of 33 years, Kanzawa quietly and efficiently goes about his work.
As the weekend arrives, however, he becomes Cliffman, fearlessly and repeatedly conquering a monstrous water slide at The Beach Waterpark in Mason, Ohio, wowing crowds with his unique riding ability.
Although the nickname has certain implications, Kanzawa is not a superhero.
He does not ask for fame or notoriety, although he has received some of it from the park. In 2000, he was awarded a lifetime pass by the waterpark’s management upon his 3,000th descent on The Cliff, a 210-foot long waterslide.
“Even if I did not get the lifetime pass I would still be buying my season pass and going there every year, every weekend to ride the Cliff,” Kanzawa says.
His history with The Beach goes back to the mid-1980s.
“The Cliff was built back in 1989. I started coming to the Beach waterpark a couple years before it was built.”
He adds, “After I rode it just once, it became my favorite ride.”
Kanzawa not only rides The Cliff with frequency, but he does it in style.
“The slide is engineered to allow the rider to actually ‘free fall’ for many seconds during the descent,” said Pam Strickfaden, general manager and vice president of The Beach. “Charlie knows how to exact the maximum ‘free fall’ experience from the Cliff.”
Kanzawa said he noticed crowds form when he rides, and he has elicited a modest applause or two when performing on The Cliff.
The grueling climb up the gigantic slide includes 112 stairs. Repeat that number 30 to 35 times a day, two days a weekend, for an entire waterpark season, and you have a fantastic exercise routine. Climbing the slide only 21 times surpasses the amount of stairs in the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) in Chicago.
Kanzawa said, “As I get older, at age 54, I believe that exercise becomes more important and what better way to get this than by having fun while you work out? I believe playing like a youngster even though you are older makes you feel younger again and also helps your health considerably.”
Kanzawa has no family in Mason, which is near Cincinnati, nor any family in Anderson. He has had a few family members attend the park with him. When he was dating a woman a few years ago, he brought her and her daughter with him to the park. He has one close male friend who attends the park with him on a regular basis.
His true love is for waterparks, The Beach in particular.
As Kanzawa succinctly puts it, “To me, this is living life to the fullest.”
Though Kanzawa’s routine, deemed “Cliff Jumping,” sounds dangerous, Strickfaden stresses that Kanzawa is never in peril. Of course, to the small crowds that sometimes gather to watch Kanzawa , a little danger might be the thing that elicits modest cheers.
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