The locals in north-west New Jersey used to call it "Traction Park." From what I understand, the place somehow had set up thier own insurance company as a side business. I don't know all of the particulars, but a friend of mine was a morning news man at one of the local radio stations up there and he said a lot of the local politicos were in on it, aware of it, and taking a cut from it.
I went there once and had two incidents...
1) On one of the bob-sled runs I was going down the hill and another sled hit mine from behind. It scared the bejezus out of me because I was trying to maintain a safe distance from the dude in front of me and I never heard it coming.
2) On a standard water slide (nothing too extreme) I was hit by another slider as I was making my way to the surface of the spalsh pool.
I would have to say it was over 20 years ago, but the memory of danger of that place lingers on.
A Swiss company called "Klarer Freizeitanlangen AG" has recently published a working 1:1 prototype for a looping waterslide - so it's just a question of time until one returns to a park of the world.
It still looks kind of insane to me. especially: Why doesn't the water accumulate at thee bottom of the loop?
Newspapers report that it is currently tested by TÜV (technical surveillance authority). The two test riders and several dummies found out that the g-forces go up to 6g. The manufacturer will now increase the looping diameter to reach a peak level of 5g.
Before you use the slide, you will have to pass a turnstile with an inbuilt scale. Only people between 35 kg and 100 kg will be allowed to ride. This will rule out some children, models and most americans (sorry, could not resist ;))
Hearing the stories about high g-forces and doctoring with the loop size and form makes me wonder if this new attempt will have a longer life than its predecessor. *** Edited 1/17/2008 10:02:02 AM UTC by tricktrack***
I don't think so, simply because of the fact that it seems to attempt to defy nature and logic. Water doesn't flow naturally through a loop so I find it hard to believe the human body will do any better.
what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
Keith, This is hard to describe without a picture, but the problem with that theory is that if they don't go upside down, then at the apex of the loop the rider will be on the lower portion of the 'tube' (looking at the tube as an extruded circle, at the apex the rider will be in the rough of the circle, where they would normally be in a standard gravity powered waterslide), but the bottom of the extruded circle suddenly becomes the top of the extruded circle as the loop curves back down towards the earth, so the rider would have a nasty bump as gravity takes over and they transfer from one side of the tube to the other after the apex of the loop.
I'm also really curious to hear how they would deal with the manifold "what ifs" of such a slide - it just doesn't sound like a good idea to me. What if they forgot about just one of the what ifs and it all goes wrong?
PU-wheels on steel are just so much easier to predict.
I would love to see a multiple looping water slide. Maybe one loop followed by a zero-G roll into another loop into a big funnel. I think that would be sweet and I wouldn't be suprised if we see one soon, real soon. *** Edited 1/21/2008 4:58:15 PM UTC by manofthechurch***
Top 5, in no particular order: 1. MF 2. Maverick, 3. Kraken 3. El Toro, 4. TTD 5. Superman Krypton Coaster
Top overrated coasters: 1. Incredible Hulk (Boooooring!) 2. Nitro 3. Expedition G-force 4.
Goliath(SFMM) 5. Any Dive Coaster
Why don't you like me?
^Water doesn't naturally flow *uphill* either, but NGBS and others certainly have made rides where it happens anyway...
Seems like it would feel more like being shot through the barrel of a gun.
Water does so flow uphill.
Poseidon's Fury?
Man, that slide is the stuff nightmares are made of.
