Background The water splash patterns strongly depend on the surface conditions of the solid object. The present paper discusses the influence of the surface conditions of the solids falling into the water on the formation of the splashes, employing the experimental method with the high speed video camera and the numerical approach by the particle method. Methods We propose two engineering models for calculating the Navier–Stokes flows to distinguish the different surface conditions of the solids falling into the water. One is to add the attractive or repulsive force between the water and the surfaces of the solids, and the other is to consider the swelling ratio as the slip condition, which causes the different wall shear stresses at the interfaces between the solids and the water. Results The above models are successfully employed to study the effects of the differences of the surface conditions of the falling objects on the splash formations. Conclusions We have successfully calculated the splashes caused by the different surface conditions of spheres using the MPS method.