The News Tribune from Tacoma, Washington • 77

The News Tribune Section Tacoma Washington Sunday July 8 1984 Stocks summaries H-4-6 Behind glamour of is workaholism Editor! note: This ii the second article in a three-part series oa the California phenomenon known as Silicon Valley its people aad iU stare Park operator Byron Betts: lost about 30 days because of the rain' Making waves in Federal Way Amusement park may be open by end of July if rain holds off By RICHARD SYPHER The News Tribune By SID MOODY AP Wewsfeotures Writer MENLO PARK Calif Computers have finally become sexy like oil wells and squad cars Television is considering a Dallas-type series on high life in this Everest of high tech The tentative title is Midas Valley If it features workaholism Jogging and tennis between workaholism and then more workaholism you can believe it Otherwise don't are sports cars yachts and blondes here but not the mainstream" said a tenant at 3000 Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park a coveted address of venture capitalists where deals are pursued even in the room party and work 100-hour said a market research executive who thinks Midas Valley might play in Peoria but not Palo Alto Real life here is a cross between outdoor vigor and an almost fanatic indoor work ethic that breaks up more marriages than soap opera amnesia Valley is more a monastery than a Playboy said Bob Moffat who teaches engineering at Stanford At work or play the Siliconaire runs does not walk not moving said Stanley DeVaughn vice president of Xebec a computer components maker If electronics are the nation's future then Silicon Valley is a whole culture devoted to honing its cutting edge the Pittsburgh and Detroit of the 31st century What makes the Valley unique is the involvement (4 almost anybody It is unlikely that a century ago when the Merrimack Valley northwest of Boston was booming with shoe and textile mills farm wives and schoolboys were busily inventing better footwear or new looms in haylofts and livery stables In 1984 Silicon Valley everybody plays the game Jeff Gold all of 17 has been making $2000 a week programming computers He drives a gold sports car Sane Angels in the San Francisco slammer used a computer to organise their appeal When his wife became pregnant and quit her Job Porter Hurt a one-time wall installer played poker to keep the family solvent Then he decided to form his own company Testology to distribute circuit boards He expects to gross $300000 this year Foster Carr a medical student of Stanford bought the book How To Form Your Own California Corporation to do Just that Denovo Corp plans to market some 37 biotech inventions many his His stock has doubled in three months Nolan Bushnell got the seed of an idea working in an amusement arcade during summer vacations in Salt Lake City He founded Atari and became rich from video games Steve Jobs dropped out of college to find a guru in India then co-founded Apple Computer and became very rich David Smoler an engineer wanted to be his own bom So he started a one-Santa 40-elves company called SRD Labs which makes navigational loran sets Mrs Smoler is head bookkeeper Their four daughters used to solder If you make design sell program or think computers in the Valley your neighbor or tennis partner does The lemming-like crowding the eye-gouging competition produce a life and business style clearly marked in It soothes in hot tubs and seethes at the office diverse yet single-minded The chip manufacturers said a venture capitalist the street-fighters Their markets are so volatile they shoot first and ask questions later The computer people are more methodical programmed" Company personalities range from $5 billion Hewlett-Packard somewhat traditional to Rolm Corp which treats its employees with a minimum of rules and maximum TLC 13-week sabbaticals every six years to Advance Micro Devices whose boss Jerry Sanders works under a sign saying am the meanest SOB in the and whose company held a $240000 lottery for its employees won by a $487-an-hour chip water The Valley is young 6000 employees average 28 years old Pensions are not part of the culture Traditions get no respect Robert Noyce runs Intel the Mg chip maker from a cubicle Just one of the boys Hewlett-Packard which had already done away with fixed work hours where possible pit rid of time clocks An executive at a new H-P plant had asked if law required than It An executive from Back East was told by a lad in cutoff Jeans at Apple that maybe he could squeeze in an appointment with him at some future date As the executive exited one of his entourage asked: was that guy who stiffed our It was Steve Jobs boy wonder William Hockett Jr a Palo Alto headhunter recalls a similar case of cultural shock involving an RCA executive one of many transplants here seeking the good life and better stock options corners were all square He loved the Boy Scouts He was relaxing in his hot tub one day Some hippies came out of a bar down the way saw the tub stripped and climbed in with Hot tubs however are not what makes Silicon Valley work Work does the East if yon ask someone to meet you at 8 am for breakfast say Here they say How about Hockett had indeed asked his interviewer from the East if he wanted to talk over breakfast A 3:30 pm compromise was arranged closest thing to a luxury vacation in the Valley is three days in Hawaii on the way back from a business trip to said David Crockett president of DataquesL a San Jose market research firm Ron Davies an executive at Four Phase Systems worked such long hours that he used to bring the family to the office and cook dinner on a microwave At least they could eat together At 32 he had a heart attack A lesson learned he founded the Decathlon Club in Santa Clara eight acres of tennis pool muscle machines and ricocheting racquet balls where executives can replace mental with physical sweat during luncheon breaks or after hours- The place is Jammed Yes it can be a good life at a parking lot in Palo Alto and think Mercedes-Benz made more can than said Moffat There are alternate weekends of skiing in the Sierras and surfing in the Pacific In the Valley said a real estate man a hone is not a Continued on Page H-2 5 staff photos by BRUCE LARSON Concrete and gunnite form children's activity pool water Jets and paddling pools Water will vary Iron 18 to about 24 inches deep will be no teenagers in there to harass the Betts promised Four water slides each 425 feet long will begin from an enclosed and heated three-story tower a few yards from the river ride Bathers will zip through the tubes illuminated with low-voltage lights and containing piped-in sound effects before splashing into the adult pool Betts said six additional water slides will be added next year along with two speed slides While work on the pools con tin- Pool castings were constructed by Rone Construction Co of Tacoma Randy Mendioroz project manager for Ecopool nid the spring rain here nearly foiled that part of the project completely April 2 when we started and June 1 61 calendar days we had 43 days of he sighed As an enticement to travelers passing on 1-5 a huge waterfall has been created facing the highway that will spill tons of water three stories into a dark pool The River Ride was built upon a five-story manmade mountain crafted from a portion of the Accordingly he is constructing 12-acre parking lot next to new facility Meanwhile locker roans sna bars a restaurant and sun dec are being built throughout sprawling park which will pt vide lifeguards and its own secui ty personnel Admission prices will be rel tively steep but will be discount at certain times of the day Vii tors arriving between 9:30 ai and 10:30 am will pay $11 fa- all-day ticket Those arriving i ter 10:30 will pay $1250 Discount ducats for four-hoi evening visits will be sold 1 $750 Betts said the park will FEDERAL WAY The choking dust swirling from the wheels of a passing concrete truck might have upset a less determined man But dust the thicker the better was a welcome sight to amusement-park operator Byron Betts whose Enchanted Wild Waves water park was left a month behind its construction schedule this year by torrential spring rains With most of the bad weather apparently behind them last week construction crews swarmed over the 24-acre former farm site east of Interstate 5 working like bees at a hive to get the park open by the end of July Construction began in March and was supposed to be completed no later than July 1 But the monsoon rains virtually destroyed the construction timetable lost about 30 days because of the grumbled Betts who owns both the water park and seven-year-old Enchanted Village park next door When it does open the spectacular water entertainment center will be the largest of its kind noth of Los Angeles featuring a wave pool water slides river rides waterfalls and activity pools tor family fun Betts has spent more than $4 million on the park so far this year and plans to expand its attractions in 1985 Cement workers were busy last week forming gunnite pools rockeries and other concrete components The park will be a fun-lover's paradise as visitors in the 24000-square-foot wave pool ride innertubes down a manmade mountain river speed through tubes into deep pools or just relax in the 82-degree water Through a complex microcomputer system the wave pod will generate waves up to five feet high for body and raft surfing in a kind of Malibu North motif Rubber rafts will be available at the park Waves will roll toward a sloped covered with Astroturf while the other three sides of the half-acre rectangular pod will be decked for sunbathing The wave pod was developed by Ecopool a Bellevue subsidiary of the Kompleetbou (Co) of Holland which has installed 30 similar pools throughout Europe and currently is constructing others in Toronto Memphis and Palm Springs The company recently finished a 44000-square-foot wave pod in Tucson The water entertainment center will be the largest of its kind north of Los Angeles featuring a wave pool water slides river rides waterfalls and activity pools 120000 cubic yards of earth that were moved during site preparation by Welter Construction Co of Federal Way Rafters will float gently downstream in provided innertubes and may make stopovers along the way in any or all of eight pools along their meandering ride The is about two feet deep people may take a half hour to come down these chutes because have the opportunity to lollygag around all they Betts said Once they reach the bottom adult bathers may head for the Cannonball a heart-stopping blast down a water-filled trough through a plastic tube and into mid-air for a seven-foot plunge into the 12100-square-foot adult activity pool The U-foot-deep pod which will generate its own current is not designed for non-swimming children But youngsters at least 2 years old will find their pool nearby complete with small water slides main open until 9 pm Sundays through Thursdays and until 10 pm Fridays and Saturdays through September price docs Just about everything in this he said only things you'll have to spend money on are lockers and raft rentals and you'll have to buy your own Paddle-boat use next year also will be extra Betts is paying for all this with a $3 million loan from Seattle-First National Bank and with proceeds of a stock offering that will expire this summer Aproximately 130000 shares remain to be sold at $10 each ues other crews are cleaning the shoreline of one-acre May Lake that will be incorporated into the park as a 4-foot-deep swimming hole The lake has been drained for the cleaning and a sandy beach will replace lily pads on the east shore Above the beach will be a grassed area fa sunbathing Prior to opening the lake will be allowed to refill from natural underground springs A dock will be built into the lake next year and paddle boats will be available for rental Betts expects up to 6500 visitors a day to his water park from a resident and tourist market he estimates at 4 million persons.