The staff at Paradise Cove can take a deep breath after a frenzied six months at Broward County’s newest water park.

With school in session, there finally is a break in activity at Paradise Cove in C.B. Smith Park, 900 N. Flamingo Road, Pembroke Pines. The water park is open only on weekends through Oct. 24.

The spring and summer attendance numbers surpassed even the most optimistic projections. Jeannie Hildebrand, C.B. Smith’s park manager, said gate figures will likely hit 200,000 for the year by Oct. 24, when the water park will close for the winter.

“It has been pretty incredible,” she said.

The attendance is six times last year’s gate, when the water park was known as Flume Lagoon. The 2003 count was 32,856, before closing for good Sept. 29 and undergoing a $6.3 million makeover, with new water-play areas and a river ride.

Paradise Cove opened only one weekend in March, conducted a grand opening April 9 and was open only on weekends until just before school ended for the summer.

The month-by-month figures for 2004:

March: 634

April: 14,948

May: 28,012

June: 40,896

July: 56,059

August: 25,994 (through Aug. 30)

The average daily attendance during the summer was about 1,600, with some people hitting the park right at the 9:30 a.m. opening, but many others waiting until 3 p.m., when the entry rates are reduced, Hildebrand said.

The park reached its listed capacity of 835 only about seven times all year, Hildebrand said. (The capacity number is set at 835 because that’s the maximum number of people the lifeguards can effectively watch at any given time. Paradise Cove often will have more than 835 visitors when sunbathers and snack bar patrons are counted.)

Most of the “capacity” days were on holiday weekends “when every other place is booked and also has to turn people away,” Hildebrand said.

The biggest change expected next year at Paradise Cove will be the addition of more umbrellas for birthday parties, she said.

This year, six of the nine large umbrellas on the site were available for rental, with other water park patrons sharing the three others for shade.

Park officials are considering putting in a different type of shade structure for patrons, and increasing the rental umbrella availability to 11 by using its current six, allocating the three used for general use for parties instead, and installing two more umbrellas.

“We need to provide shade to the public, but we also would like to improve the way we do birthday parties,” Hildebrand said.

Paradise Cove is open from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. weekends through Oct. 24. Call 954-437-2650.