A boogie boarder dove right smack into the wave at the Boise River Park and was shot out downstream as if the wave were a water cannon.

He was still smiling and immediately started paddling toward the wave for another shot.

The new river park, which is on the Boise River between Main Street and Veterans Parkway, officially opened in June and is proving very popular.

The $3.6 million project was more than a decade in the making.

It is now a reality enjoyed not only by whitewater kayakers but by boogie boarders, surfers, paddle boarders, rafters, pedestrians and bicyclists.

Go down there any day and it’s a community gathering place. Outside Magazine this month put Boise at No. 3 in a list of the top 12 best river towns in America. The whitewater park is mentioned in the story as one of the city’s amenities.

A highlight of the project is the new diversion dam, which is equipped with devices that can shape different types of waves for boaters.

Other highlights are new pathways, vegetation and a viewing area.

The park also is popular with bicyclists and pedestrians who just want to relax and watch the antics of those being shot out of the waves.

While everybody seems to love the park, everybody has a different idea of what the waves should be like.

Some like steep kayaking waves. Others want long, smooth green waves for more mellow surfing.

I love the Boise River Park. It’s a great asset for the river, Greenbelt and communities.

But I haven’t surfed the waves yet. They’re out of my league. The two holes, or steep waves, would trash me and my solo whitewater canoe in a second.

I’m waiting for that nice, smooth green wave that was at the park earlier in the season.

Wave-shaping techs at the park are having problems satisfying all wants and desires because there are so many different styles of surfing nowadays.

Couple that with low and fluctuating river flows and changing irrigation demands, and shaping the perfect wave isn’t that easy. Remember, too, the diversion’s first mission is to provide irrigation water to the canal upstream.

With what wave-shaping techs and park officials have learned this summer, they expect to make some alterations to the waveshapers this winter.

“It’s not an exact science,” said Tom Governale, superintendent of Boise Parks.

With so much interest in the park, the Boise Parks and Recreation Department also has initiated a survey to see what park users — boaters and pedestrians — like and want.

Go to cityofboise.org/Departments/Parks. Then click on Boise River Park then User Survey.

I filled out the survey. Actually, I think there needs to be a senior-citizen surfing day at the park with a really smooth, easy wave. Can I put in my request?

CAMPGROUND WATER

I’m still on the quest to find the best campground water and readers are still helping me.

Tami Dardis of Nampa emailed me that she liked the water at the Grouse Campground north of McCall.

“It’s so cold and so good. It’s the best-tasting water that I’ve ever tasted,” she said. “We filled our gallon jugs and took some home.”

Elaine Walker emailed me to say, “In June, I was at the Idaho Botanical Foray at the Paris Springs Campground in Bear Lake County in Southeast Idaho.

“I brought my own gallons of water, but everyone who tasted the water said it was fabulous,” she said.

I’ve done a lot of fishing for cutthroat trout in Bear Lake County streams and used that campground once. It’s delicious water.

By the way, my wife and I stopped at Mountain View Campground in Lowman last weekend to fill our water bottles.

It was a surprise. When the water first came out of the pump, it had an extremely strong iron taste. We almost didn’t drink it.

But we gave it a second chance by letting the water sit a few minutes in our water bottles without the caps on.

The iron taste seemed to dissipate and we had a cool drink of water for the rest of the drive.

Keep the comments on campground water pouring in.

Pete Zimowsky: 377-6445, Twitter: @Zimosoutdoors

Statesman outdoor writer Pete Zimowsky’s columns appear on every other Sunday in Life and every Thursday in Idaho Outdoors.