The waterbed industry has had its ups and downs over the decades. Mostly downs if you鈥檙e looking at the past 30 years.

But its most ardent supporters are buoyed by a modern wave of beds they say could shake its kitschy reputation once and for all, and maybe even bring it back into the mainstream.

Yes, the waterbed 鈥� that once-groovy emblem of the subversive 鈥�60s and sexy 鈥�70s 鈥� is not only still around, but gearing up for a comeback to mark its 50th anniversary in 2018.

鈥淢y theory is there鈥檚 a whole generation that was spawned on a waterbed,鈥� says the bed鈥檚 inventor, Charlie Hall.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e going to swim upstream like salmon and buy another one.鈥�

The 74-year-old says he鈥檚 designed a new product for a generation that never got to experience the free-form beds the first-time around, back when his radical take on a mattress became a powerful symbol for a macrame-loving counter-culture.

A modern-day penchant for mattresses that contour and conform fits in well with the inherent properties of water, he says.

鈥淚t鈥檚 hard to believe it鈥檚 50 years but 鈥� the whole interest (now is) conforming and comfort and pillow-tops and then memory foam and all that,鈥� says Hall, reached recently by phone on a cruise ship near Santa Cruz, Mex., as he made his way to Panama.

鈥淚f you read the ads, they read like waterbed ads.鈥�

Hall, who lives on Bainbridge Island, Wash., says his new bed will debut in February. It will be 鈥渧ery waveless,鈥� and the same size as a traditional mattress.

鈥淚t looks like a conventional bed (but) it has a more compliant top on it so when you lay down on it you get more of the waterbed feel, which was always distinctively different than a regular mattress,鈥� Hall says of his first new waterbed in more than 30 years.

鈥淎nd it controls temperature 鈥� you can have it warmer or cooler, set it the way you want, even right and left side if you have different preferences.鈥�

Missing from his pitch is mention of any sensuous attributes 鈥� the key marketing tactic that both vaulted, and possibly killed, the original waterbed.

Hall debuted his creation in 1968 at San Francisco State University where he was an industrial design student. Dubbed the 鈥減leasure pit,鈥� it generated instant media attention for its promise of sexual exploits.

鈥淚t was such a curiosity, and people had never seen anything like that that moved and was compliant like that,鈥� says Hall.

The following year, he began a two-man production in Sausalito, Calif., crafting redwood frames by hand. Innerspace Environments would eventually grow to 32 retail stores in California.

But in San Francisco, they were originally sold in head shops, says Hall.

鈥淭hey would sell a bong and a waterbed. I didn鈥檛 intend it that way, but that鈥檚 what happened,鈥� he shrugs, suspecting that too limited the market despite famous devotees including Hugh Hefner, a Smothers Brother, and a member of Jefferson Airplane.

Indeed, the bed was tailor-made for the anti-establishment of the era.

The slogan of the industry was: 鈥淲e are the sleep revolution,鈥� recalls Andre Kocsis, whose Toronto company Halcyon Waterbeds launched in 1971.

鈥淭he enemy were the people who made spring beds,鈥� says the 70-year-old. 鈥淲e called them 鈥榙ead beds.鈥� The worst thing in the world was a dead bed.鈥�

Kocsis admits that much of the waterbed industry was amateurish, citing wanton trade shows in the early 鈥�70s featuring cocaine and prostitutes.

鈥淚t was a bunch of hippies that had no business experience, that got into a product which just grew explosively. I mean, at its peak the waterbed industry was a $2-billion industry,鈥� says Kocsis, citing an oft-touted tally from the U.S. waterbed industry at the time.

鈥淭he waterbed industry was run on hype鈥�. It was kind of like drinking the Kool-Aid. We were trying to get a product accepted that had a fair amount of resistance for a fair number of reasons.鈥�

Fears over leaks, the heavy load, ongoing maintenance and seasickness kept many from trying waterbeds out. But those who took the plunge were quick converts, says Kocsis, and generated strong word-of-mouth business.

By 1980, Kocsis says he had a staff of 300 and was doubling and tripling yearly sales: 鈥淲e had a stallion that was running at full speed and all I could do was hang on.鈥�

The eventual decline would be swift, too, he says.

Appeal tapered in the late 鈥�80s and early 鈥�90s, just as society shifted to a new conservatism and focus on family values. The industry tried to adapt with soft-sided and waveless versions that mimicked the conventional spring mattresses, but it was hard to shake a reputation ingrained through taglines like those on one early ad: 鈥淭wo things are better on a waterbed. One of them is sleeping.鈥�

鈥淭hose things all came back to haunt the industry,鈥� says Kocsis.

Interest has admittedly plummeted since then but demand persists, insists Mike Cleaver, owner of Waterbed Gallery in Barrie, Ont. He believes the time is ripe for a comeback.

鈥淚t鈥檚 been a long time, but the core values of sleeping on water are starting to come back to people,鈥� says Cleaver, who entered the business in 1980.

鈥淲e hear on a daily basis what鈥檚 brought them back is their dissatisfaction with conventional mattresses鈥�. Mattresses went through the roof on pricing and very little reasoning to back it up.鈥�

He, too, blames much of the waterbed鈥檚 decline on the industry itself: 鈥淭he industry self-imploded.鈥� He recalls waterbed-mania breeding an increasing number of rivals, each trying to undercut the other.

鈥淲e had some competitors advertising a $99 waterbed. That鈥檚 when it got out of hand,鈥� says Cleaver, suspecting cut corners further eroded reputation.

Lots of misconceptions arose, too, says Cleaver, disputing a slew of horror stories that dogged the product from Day 1.

鈥淲aterbeds didn鈥檛 go through floors, heaters weren鈥檛 bad for pregnant women 鈥� and that magnetic field that was sent out was less than a clock radio,鈥� he says of claims that the heaters鈥� electromagnetic fields caused health problems.

New products are out there now and Cleaver says these modern incarnations address many long-standing complaints 鈥� that waterbeds were too heavy, too big, or too cumbersome to move.

Still, Edward Leon, president of the furniture chain Leon鈥檚, doesn鈥檛 see a market, calling the waterbed 鈥渧ery niche.鈥�

鈥淚 don鈥檛 see that coming back in a big way under any circumstances,鈥� says Leon, who guesses waterbeds represented about 15 per cent of overall bedding sales in Canada at its peak.

鈥淭here鈥檚 always niche players in everything so if you鈥檙e the only person selling them in Toronto you might have some success with it.鈥�

Cassandra Szklarski, The Canadian Press

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