Mama Duck, duckling inflatables set to pump up crowds at Idlewild and SoakZone

Jase Wiarda occasionally calls a company with a pressure washer to give his rubber duck a bath.

“It’s a weird phone call to make,” he said. “People think it’s a prank.”

That is, until they realize their services are being sought to clean the “World’s Largest Rubber Duck” — a six-story-tall inflatable yellow bird that has come for a stay Friday through Sunday at Ligonier Township’s Idlewild and SoakZone family amusement park.

“Occasionally, Mama Duck needs a good scrubbing,” said Wiarda, director of operations for the towering attraction.

At Idlewild, Mama will be staying on dry land, awaiting visitors in the large field where heavy athletics competitions are held during the Ligonier Highland Games.

The field is located well back in the park and isn’t visible from Route 30.

She’ll be joined by a smaller inflatable counterpart — “Timmy the Duckling,” standing more than 10 feet tall.

Mama Duck debuted in 2014 as an added attraction at a Tall Ships festival organized in Los Angeles by Craig Samborski. Since then, under Samborski’s direction, it has migrated around the country to various locales.

The duck drew attention when it made stops last summer at Los Angeles’ Raging Waters and Splish Splash in Calverton, N.Y., which are sister parks of Idlewild and SoakZone.

That registered with Idlewild’s director of marketing, Jeff Croushore, resulting in the duck being booked for its appearance this weekend at the Ligonier Township park.

The weekend will include themed activities tied to the duck’s visit, including: a “Shake Your Tail Feather” dance party for kids and families; a “Timmy’s Foam Fest” foam party; and a “Quack Track” walk-through attraction with fun facts about ducks.

Mama Duck isn’t airtight and has to remain stationary during her appearances, relying on four programmable fans to stay inflated, Wiarda said. On the other hand, Timmy is self-contained and mobile, allowing the duck support staff to pose him at various amusement features for an added visual gag during water park visits.

“We’ve put him on the Lazy River and in the kids’ Splash Zone,” said Wiarda.

In addition to snapping selfies with the big bird in the background, Wiarda said, “Kids and families get to experience the size of the duck up close instead of just seeing it floating on the water.”

Fully inflated with about 140,000 cubic feet of air, Mama Duck stands 61 feet tall, measuring 64 feet from wing to wing and 74 feet long, from beak to tail feathers.

Given those dimensions, Wiarda said, “It’s like a giant sail on a sailboat. It can be very susceptible to the wind. If the wind decides to act up, there are multiple zippers we can open to get the duck down and safe.”

A different duck

In 2013, a giant-sized floating rubber duck charmed onlookers during a visit to Pittsburgh. It was not the same bird that currently is greeting visitors to Idlewild, but there is an apparent link between the two rival inflatables.

The duck that floated into Pittsburgh was attributed to Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, who since 2007 has been installing different large-scale versions of the familiar yellow bath toy in places around the globe as part of an ongoing public art project dubbed simply “Rubber Duck.”

Various media outlets have reported Hofman’s charge that the duck being promoted by Samborski is a rip-off of Hofman’s earlier version.

In 2017, when Mama Duck was touring sites in Ontario, Canada, Hofman’s art studio issued a press release wherein a spokesperson, Kim Embers, stated, “Mr. Samborski has been using our patterns, our design, and our intellectual property to profit off of what was supposed to be a public art installation.

“The duck was never supposed to be used for profit.”

According to artnet.com, Samborski says when he was preparing for the 2014 Los Angeles festival he paid Hofman €50,000 euros — the equivalent of $57,000 — to obtain the Dutch artist’s rubber duck designs. But, Samborski contends he received only basic drawings and had to design his own version of the inflatable.

Samborski also has argued that Hofman didn’t offer any objection when Samborski filed in 2015 for a trademark to promote his version of the inflatable as the “World’s Largest Rubber Duck.”

Whatever its provenance, the rubber duck is assured to have a large presence at Idlewild.

Wiarda said a typical reaction he witnesses when a visitor first spies the duck is “saying wow, with a really big smile. It’s cool to have something we can bring around and, as soon as people see it, it brings them a ton of joy.”