Newtown Businessman Has Been

‘Blowing Up’ Local Parties For 10 Years

By John Voket

Back in 1999, Newtowner Mike Nowak and his wife Kathy were busy attending to the many students at the couple’s popular gymnastics studio in Danbury. But being an enterprising fellow, Mr Nowak did not turn a deaf ear when a fellow gym owner from Simsbury told the local businessman how he could make a few extra bucks by renting inflatable play “bouncers.”

Since acquiring their first air-filled trampolines a year later, the Nowaks slowly added other accompanying recreational items until their modest weekend venture became a full-time independent business appropriately called Super Fun Inflatables.

“At first it was another source of income,” Mr Nowak told The Newtown Bee this week from his Turnberry Lane headquarters. “But, heck, I had two kids to put through college and it seemed like a fun part-time job at the time.”

But like virtually all the tightly wrapped bundles of colorful rubber that expand into bouncy fair weather fun for his clients, it did not take long for Super Fun Inflatables to begin growing by leaps and bounds.

His first year, the company posted a modest 48 rentals. By 2008, Super Fun Inflatables boasted 700 different jobs and is on track to meet or beat that number this year.

“I opened in July 2000 with one truck, five rental pieces, and I was doing all the transporting, installing and removal myself,” Mr Nowak said. “Today I have three vehicles, 50 inflatables, cotton candy and sno-cone machines, a water balloon slingshot, and our popular pitch burst.”

The pitch burst, he explained, is a highly preferred alternative to the old-fashioned dunk tank, because there is no danger from the occupant (or victim) to be immersed in water. Instead, the subject sits on a chair beneath a basket filled with water balloons.

When someone throws a ball and hits the target, the subject is doused with the water balloons with no risk whatsoever, no matter how young or old the participants.

“That way kids who would be way too young for a dunk tank can be part of the fun of getting dumped,” Mr Nowak said.

Affordable Super Fun

For as little as $150 during the week, a client could have a basic bouncy gym delivered, installed for five hours, and taken away in town, or throughout southern Litchfield, Fairfield, and eastern Putnam County, N.Y. Additional travel rates are assessed for points beyond the company’s service area, and weekends also have a $50 surcharge applied.

Clients can add-on monitoring personnel from the company at an additional $25 per-hour / per-person rate, but staff to set up and remove the items are included in the rental. Setup typically takes about a half-hour, and Mr Nowak says that most of the single pieces do not require add-on staff to operate.

The inflatables should be located on a flat area or slight incline, have no overhead obstructions like wires or trees, and be within 150 feet of a grounded electrical outlet to power the blower, which runs constantly while the inflatable is in operation. Clients renting a water slide or similar item must also provide a garden hose and water accessible to the installation.

“The items are very popular even when the weather is a little cooler,” Mr Nowak said of the three water slides and two slip & slides his company offers. The premier inflatable is a two-piece obstacle course that goes for $600 a day at the off-peak rate.

Clients should also be aware that the company prefers to not leave any of its pieces overnight, even if they are located inside.

“We want to clean and disinfect every piece after every rental,” he said. “And we can’t have them exposed to precipitation or condensation overnight.”

In its decade of operation, Super Fun Inflatables’ biggest annual job happens during Halloween at the Faith Church in New Milford, where an annual fair fills the facility with 12 or 13 rental pieces from the company.

There have also been a few brushes with fame, including supplying rentals to rap star Curtis James Jackson III, better known as 50 Cent, for a party at his home in Farmington.

Several of Mr Nowak’s inflatables and his staff member Ryan Tanner will hopefully “star” in the upcoming John Travolta, Robin Williams feature Old Dogs, which had scenes shot in lower Fairfield county.

“I got to come and go on the set, but Ryan got to meet and work with Williams and Travolta,” Mr Nowak said.

Hiring Local

During peak season, Mr Nowak hires two full-time assistants, and a minimum of six additional part-timers — who are presently all college-age Newtown residents. About a year ago, the company moved into its own 3,600-square-foot office condo at 10 Turnberry Lane.

Mr Nowak said while much of his business comes from repeat clients and referrals, he is getting a number of “walk-ups” from the huge decals on his two box trucks.

“Yeah, a few weeks ago the truck was stopped in traffic on I-95 and someone came running up knocking on the window for a business card,” Mr Nowak said laughing. As the future for his company continues to expand, Super Fun Inflatables may take on some chair, table, and tent rentals, which Mr Nowak said are commonly offered by his competitors.

“I’m also looking at adding on a new truck,” he said. But as far as getting much bigger in terms of his rental pieces, the Nowaks have apparently hit the limit.

“We go to a trade show every year to see what’s new, and I can’t believe how much these things have grown in size,” MrNowak said. “I mean, some of these slides are three stories tall and 1,200 pounds — crazy big!”

While he acknowledges the downside of his business comes when taking down inflatables in the pouring rain, the upside comes every time Mr Nowak and his crew fire up the blowers.

“Just to see the smiles on the faces of all the kids and adults when these things inflate is the best thing about our business,” Mr Nowak concluded.

Get more information on the company by clicking on to Superfuninflatables.com or calling 877-787-3738.