Retro Surf Cincinnati Commercials circa 1988.

If you've followed QC/D for awhile you may be familiar with the saga of Surf Cincinnati. It was the first abandoned place I ever truly explored and photographed. On top of that, its story hit on several personal notes: I went here a lot as a kid and exploring an abandoned amusement park always made me reflective of the years I spent working in one myself. Photographs of the park when it was active are few and far between, and until this one, I had never seen a video or commercial from the park pop up online.



After acquiring an old BetaMax player and reviewing family recordings,Marcus Perry from Past-Tastic came across this Surf Cincinnati ad from around 1988 and brought it over digitally. He soon found another:


If you watch closely (and if you had ever visited the park when it was still open), you'll recognize several iconic attractions. There's also some stock footage spliced in there that shows up at a different frame rate. All in all, it reeks of late 80's goodness and local nostalgia indicative of a "Saved By The Bell-esque" era.

- Surf Cincinnati's wave pool as seen in 2007. From our previous history piece here.

The park operated from 1984 until 2002 and was the first of its kind in the area. After being abandoned, nature gradually reclaimed the grounds and the vast majority of the complex was demolished in 2009. A few remnants still exist today.

Thanks to Marcus for taking the time to post these and for allowing me to share them. He runs an awesome retro store on Etsy, check it out here.

To read the history of this park check out the piece from 2010, or check out all the posts regarding Surf Cincinnati here.


Over the years, several of QC/D's urban exploration stories have focused on abandoned amusement parks: View all of the stories

"Surf (yeeeaaaahhh)! Cin-ci-nati, YEAH!"