Explosions, floods, everything from moving mummies to jutting dinosaurs, and all the mechanical things that go into theme park attractions that’s what Ron Griffin does for a living. A quick tour of the facilities of his business, The Attraction Services Company in Valencia, reveals a lively commotion of designers, engineers, mechanical and electrical technicians, welders and computer programmers all busy developing products for three shows in a major theme park in Singapore. In one area is a giant fiberglass Egyptian statue that will be included in the remake of The Mummy attraction; in another area are elements of the popular Waterworld ride. The third show is secret, he said. Further into the shop there’s a boat designed by Griffin to explode and sink. Near the edge of a pool that has been drained of water (to make changes to a wave making machine that he also designed) Griffin gets ready to test a fire effect. In an instant a gas pump is suddenly engulfed in flames. Griffin smiles. “We’re in the entertainment industry and I always say the first people we need to entertain are ourselves,” he said. Griffin, 56, has been designing and building special effects for the past 15 years. The long list of shows under his belt includes Universal Studios’ Jaws, Backdraft, Poseidon’s Fury, Twister, and Sinbad, to name a few. He’s recreated several shows in locations around the world such as Japan, where Jaws, Backdraft and Waterworld were recreated in Osaka. His work can been seen in major theme parks and attractions from Los Angeles and Las Vegas to Orlando, Fla. and as far away as Paris, Barcelona, Osaka, Tokyo and Blackpool, England. At Port Aventura, near Barcelona, he created what he considers among his best fire shows: Templo de Fuego. His company developed most of the effects, from the eerie and dark fog that greets the guests in the walkthrough attraction, to the dozens of water and fire effects that reach temperatures above those permitted in the U.S. A growing industry “We are probably one of the most well known providers of major fire effects for the themed entertainment association in the world,” he said proudly. Banking on what he called a growing phase in the theme park industry in the last few years, Griffin has been able to expand the company, which he owns with his wife Melissa Townsend, to 50 employees and increase revenues by more than 40 percent to $2.1 million in 2008 compared with the previous year. Even today, despite the slowdown in the economy, Griffin said business is thriving especially in developing markets such as Asia. But business wasn’t always this good. The terrorist attacks of 2001 brought the industry almost to a screeching halt, Griffin said. “Basically people weren’t going to theme parks anymore. We had four major projects all cancel within weeks of the terrorist attacks,” he said. In order to survive the slowdown the company reinvented itself and for the next six years refocused efforts on building prototype vehicles for the military, something Griffin had done earlier in his career. “One of the projects I’m most proud of is designing a fully autonomous military patrol vehicle called MDARS-E, which is currently in production at General Dynamics,” he said. Early experience His mechanical ability and design ability, which he said is what propels him from one project to the next, is something he picked up early on. As a kid, growing up in Granada Hills, Griffin, who has no formal engineering education, learned all about building and design from his dad’s auto repair shop. By the time he was 10 he could already repair cars as well as any other mechanic, he said. “I was always building things when I was a teenager I never had any fear of trying to build something from scratch.” With this fearless attitude, Griffin began building All Terrain Vehicles that he would race on the weekends during his mid 20’s. He later launched his company ProATV, which he sold in 1986. It was his ability to design and build innovative and unique vehicles that landed him several contracts with the military. But in 2006, as military budgets got depleted for the war effort and most of the military projects they were working on got put on hold, Griffin again set his sights wholeheartedly on the theme park industry, seeing new potential for growth. So far the move has proven profitable and as the economy begins to recover, the future looks even brighter. “One area of the world that is growing by leaps and bounds is Asia, that’s one of the reasons we’re in Singapore. It’s because there’s so much work going on there,” said David Aion, who was brought onboard in March to lead business development efforts for the company. Even in the current financial crunch, Aion said local theme parks are investing heavily in their facilities, trying to lure those people who can no longer afford to take long vacations around the world, and instead are spending their money locally. As science centers continue to get more sophisticated there will also be increased demand for their products, he said. The Attraction Services Company has already designed and built several interactive exhibits for the California Science Center such as TESS a 50-foot animated woman and a giant Yo-Yo propelled on rotating cam wheels on two huge towers, among other exhibits. “Even zoos, aquariums and museums are moving in that direction [of themed attractions] because everyone is scrambling for tourist dollars, looking to do more interactive things and make their facilities much more exciting. What we do is certainly add excitement to things,” Aion said. Another trend that the company has followed is the increasing demand for designer or architectural fire fixtures at hotels, casinos, office buildings, nightclubs and high-end residential locations. The company has done this type of work in upscale venues in Las Vegas, San Francisco and other locations throughout the country. At the same time, Aion, who represents the company at trade shows and expos around the world, was en route to Detroit last week for a military vehicle show hoping to also explore the possibility of reviving the company’s work with the military. “Now that there’s all this stimulus money, and we have all this experience building vehicles for the military, let’s see if there’s some more of that business that we can get,” he said. Regardless of what they’re building, what sets the company apart is its ability to “build sophisticated stuff in the least complicated manner that will be reliable and dependable,” said Griffin. “The hardest part of our business is not making something do something a few times. It’s making it do it repeatedly. We have shows that cycle every 14 seconds, seven days a week, 12-16 hours a day. Some of these attractions are still going after 15 years.” Whether it be fire effects or mechanical actions such as dropping, slamming, tilting, shooting or swinging, the company strives for realism, he added, working mostly with pneumatics versus the more complex hydraulics systems. Even after so many years, Griffin, who runs the business with the help of two of his children, is still fully hands-on at the shop. His involvement with projects goes from concept to design to actually working on it. “I also do the estimating, bids, proposals, but I’d rather spend my time in the shop or out in the field crawling under something and fixing it,” he said. SPOTLIGHT: The Attraction Services Company Revenues in 2007: $1.500,000 Revenues in 2008: $2,100,000 Employees: 50
