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By ROBYN JAMES | Special to the Reporter

PELHAM – Summer is heating up and the need to find a local place with a lot of cool water, shade trees and fun is a must. The good news is that place can be found at Oak Mountain State Park.

Flip Side Watersports located inside OMSP on Beaver Lake has taken water sports to the next level.

“Our passion for water, the great outdoors and our community is what drove our family to create Flip Side Watersports here locally, which has been years in the making,” said Jeremy Talbot, founder and owner. “We had a vision and strong commitment to make water sports easily accessible for all ages to learn new skills in the water, build friendships and just have a very high level of fun that will last their lifetime.”

Flip Side offers several amenities including a cable park, inflatable aqua park, paddle boarding, kayak and canoe rentals, company and private group reservations and much more.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought several challenges to all businesses and Flip Side Watersports is no different, but the park has taken extreme measures to ensure they are in compliance with the strict guidelines through social distancing, proper sanitation and adding additional staff to be on hand at the park.

“Flip Side has been a great asset to the park and now entering their sixth summer, they offer a lot of unique and fun amenities for our park patrons,” said OMSP Superintendent for the Central District Kelly Ezell.

“As a child, I was never considered popular in school and found it difficult to deal with the peer pressure that is common growing up. There was one thing that changed this for me—my love for water and skills I learned through water sports.”

Flip Side has two cable systems, a standard cable and an advanced cable. On the standard cable, they make it very easy and comfortable to teach beginners the basic fundamentals of wakeboarding at no cost.

The advanced cable is intended for riders that can complete the turns without falling and/or can successfully land the features.

“Once my peers got to see me in action on the water, I became the ‘cool kid,’ and because I had easy access to the water living close to a lake, I extended a lot of invitations to the other kids who learned to love the water and get really good at water sports,” Talbot said. “It has been my family’s drive and dream all these years to make it our mission to offer people of any age easy access to water and learn a water sport or just to have fun in the water and become a part of our park community.”

If you are looking for a cool and fun place to escape to during these hot summer months, Talbot asks that you come check them out to see what they have to offer for everyone.

More information can be found at Flipsideal.com or by calling their office at (205) 423-5457. You can find them on Facebook at Facebook.com/flipsidewatersports/.