Concrete/Hillside Waterslides

I'm not sure about the name of the park but there is a mini golf/gokart place in Lancaster, PA a few minutes from Dutch Wonderland that has 3 or 4 operating hillside waterslides

The park mentioned by CoasterMatt is Raging Rivers in Grafton, IL. It's located on the Great River Road, just a stones throw away from the Mississippi River. I've never been there, but I have drove by it in the past, although it appears that they have fiberglass troughs winding down the hillside.

I remember riding one of the good ole cement versions at the Lake of the Ozarks. I believe that they had 2 or three slides going down the hill as well as miniature golf, go-carts and an arcade. Those things were seriously dangerous, but also seriously fun. My only memories were from when I was pretty young and riding down with my cousin. Definately felt like we were going to fly out of the trough on several turns and we did witness two guys who got injured on the slide. We never saw what happened, but apparently two adults rode together and had too much speed and they lost control. Don't know if they actually left the trough or not but they both had bloody noses and scrapes all over their arms and legs. That place is no longer operational, although the slides may still be in place.

There were also some slides in Fenton, MO right at the I-44 exit for highway 141. Atop the cliff there used to exist 2 waterslides. I never got to ride them, but I would assume that they were the cement version.

Isn't there an old slide or two located on a small man made hill off of I-71 between Columbus and Cinci? I believe it's on the east side of the highway. Those appear to be from the era that most of these type of slides were constructed.

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Anybody from the Bay Area remember Oakwood Lake Resurt in Manteca? They used to have a really fun concrete slide.

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I was going to bring those up, I believe their website used to claim they had the world's very first waterslides when they opened 30yrs ago, but their website is long gone. These articles state the same though:

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The auction, which closed the three-decades' long run of the world's first and, at one time, the world's longest waterslides at more than a mile, was conducted by Norton Auctioneers

http://www.mantecabulletin.com/articles/2004/09/30/news/news1.txt

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Oakwood Lake is still home to California's tallest speed slide, as well as the world's first fiberglass water-slides that feature a full turn, a double turn, a triple turn, and the world's first underground stretch.

http://www.mantecabulletin.com/articles/2004/09/03/news/news1.txt

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The second article also has the orgin of the concrete slide they used to have.

Rapids Waterslides in Pleasanton, CA also has 4 old school waterslides built into a hillside:

http://shadowcliffs.com/index.htm

No pics, but here's an overhead map of future expansion, showing the existing slides on the very far right side:

http://shadowcliffs.com/calsplash.htm

There is a nameless waterpark at Lake Raystown in central PA that has a few hillside waterslides. One is a big drop with a hump and one is a pool/slide/pool/slide. Other than those Two, there is one tower that has 3 body slides(not on a hillsode) and that's all.

It's a very small park, and so unadvertised that even the locals in surrounding cities don't even know about it.

ThemeDesigner

The slides you remember in Nags Head, NC were called Surf Slide. After the first year or two they added a video game arcade. And you were right, they were a blast. After a few years, they put a restriction on two of the slides and adults were not allowed on those two. They were so fast and under-engineered that adults got too beat up on them, often came out over top of the chutes and were generally bruised and bloody. Can't seem to remember if they were fiberglass or cement. I think fiberglass. Follow this link and scroll down to see the front of the building where you picked up your slide mat and the slide hill behind. This building was where they ended up putting the games. Later, they shut down the slides, but kept the games open. In later years, they reopened the slides for a short time, but now all is closed. Sorry, can't find pictures of the chutes themselves. Hope the link works. If not, please copy and paste. http://www.quarterarcade.com/Content/Articles/ArcadesAtOBX.aspx

Z

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Viper423 said:

I have been to Action Park, before the transformation into Mountain Creek. It was a strange park, not very safe. And I believe they are the only water park that ever had a looping water slide. I never saw anyone ride it, but it was there.

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There is a picture of that in my one coaster book "White Knucle Rides" It looks like it was about 30 ft tall or so and sot dow to a 8 to 10 foot loop.

From what I heard there was a crazy weight limit to it only like a 20 or 25 pound leeway to ride it. From what i heard it sucked if you didn't make it.

Camel Beach has two of those old fiberglass hillside slides. Years ago before the Camelbeach days they were just body slides but now they give you mats for the ride down. now those slides feel like an old Arrow looper compared to a B&M.

Slide-away, located off exit 44 on US-131 in Michigan, has two cement slides on a 100 foot hill, as well as go-karts and a mini-golf course. They closed about 10-15 years ago, but the slides are still there and nothing has really been touched. I believe the place is still for sale.

I have to second the potential pain associated with the slides :). A friend took it a little too quick on his rubber mat and flipped into the slide next to him, on top of the current occupant. By the time they reached the bottom, they had some pretty impressive scrapes.

I remember the one in Pigeon Forge, TN. It was called Water Boggan. I never got to ride it. I did ride the one in Florence, AL. It was across the river from my hometown. It had very high sides on it. Rough times haha. I have to say I prefer the newer fiberglass slides since I'd rather not get cut up.

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Incidentalist said:There were also some slides in Fenton, MO right at the I-44 exit for highway 141. Atop the cliff there used to exist 2 waterslides. I never got to ride them, but I would assume that they were the cement version.

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Wet Willy's is the one you refer to here. I only got to go one time and I was too chicken to ride the more aggressive of the two as the truth was many would fly out off the slide on one turn and nearly everyone would catch air and often loose their mat at one point on it. The whole mat thing was my least favorite aspect of the concrete slides. You loose that thing and you're quite subject to the surface texture and seam alignments of those things; yikes...

I rode a concrete slide when I was real young...somewhere in Tennessee. Anyway, I have never been so beat up in my life. Son of Beast isn't that bad. What I do remember is there were three slides, each one more wild than the last. We asked a life guard which one we should try out. He said try lane #1, the easy one. Well, we got to the top and of course you couldn't tell which lane was #1 and which was lane #3. Turns out I chose the wrong lane, was tossed off of my mat and beat up the whole way down. Got a few bumps and bruises.

The one's at Noah's Ark aren't that violent unless you do something stupid...like me.;)

I had the idea of trying to impress some chicks by seeing how high I could get on the turns, but those intertubes are so hard! It hurts so damn bad. :(

I've been to 2 different places like this:

-The first was near Miami,Fla. around 1979/80.The only slides there were 3 concrete ones built into a manmade hill in the middle of nowhere.The slides looked like something an amateur built in their backyard:they were concrete trenches with large lumps of cement added later to make the "embankment" of the turns.And if you fell off the mat your back got scratched up.

-The second was in Rehoboth,Del. around 1982.This place also had 3 slides in a manmade hill,but they seemed to have been better designed and built(ex:no scratches if you fell off).They also had a "Rampage" slide-the kind where you sat on a plastic sled and went down a slide made from rollers and skipped across the pool.From what I remember the place was actually open until midnight during the summer and you could buy a wristband good until closing for either the triple-slide,the Rampage,or both.

2005? Holy Sh-! LOL

Eric's been wandering.

Well, quite the zombie thread we have here.

On another note, it is rare that I actually have useful content or tidbits to add to a discussion, but in this case I do. Not sure if ThemeDesigner cares or not anymore. But in Riviera Beach near West Palm Florida is a place called Rapids. They have four flumes that are fiberglass and supported entirely by a man-made hill.

Rapids Flumes

I remember seeing a water slide complex like that when I was a kid, like a hundred years ago. I think it was somewhere in KY, when I was staying the summer with my aunt.

Myrtle Beach had an awesome water slide complex like that in a man made hillside right near the beach. I was there when I was a teenager. So much fun! It;s gone now. Why does anyone go to Myrtle Beach anymore?

That's all I've got. Maybe I should read the old topic and see if I wrote anything in it 11 years ago. LOL

^its a really nice beach , speaking as a guy who just spent 3 days just north of there at the Embassy Suites.

This tread is really old but I have no idea how the old section in Schlitterbahn New Braunfels hasn't been mentioned, it has at least 5 massive slides that go down the hill.

I guess there newer transportainment parks kind of cheat wit water conveyors, blasters, and locked to get you up hill but I would argue these rides are the spiritual successor to the concrete ditch slides.

I still miss atomic blasters at WCUSA, that ride was great; however Thunder Falls at Noah's Ark can rot in hell (pure boredom mixed with the terror of flying off your tube and hitting the ditch.

Back in the 80's, I had my first water park experience at Pigeon Forge. I was just a little guy and the lifeguard suggested that we ride slide #1 as it was the least extreme. I get up to the top of the tower and the lanes are not numbered, so I had no idea which was one and which was three (two obviously being in the middle). So, I get in line for #3 thinking it was #1. Needless to say, it was the wildest ride ever. I remember at one point being tossed off my mat and turned around backwards, looking at my mat behind me. At the bottom, the lifeguard asked me why I didn't go down #1. I was such a quiet, shy kid that I don't even remember answering him because he seemed angry that I had gone down #3. When we went back to our hotel room, my whole family had bumps, bruises and scrapes from said slide. Something I will never forget nor want to repeat,

Little-known outside the region, but a quite large and well-themed water park near where I grew up has something like this, and it's my favorite slide there. Ever heard of Enchanted Forest Water Safari in Old Forge, NY? Half the park is dry, with a large fairy-tail area similar to Storytown at Great Escape as well as some classic flat rides, and the other half is an african-themed water park in which almost every slide takes advantage of the Adirondacks' hilly terrain. Here's their concrete (I think) terrain slide, Raging Rapids:

Anybody from the Bay Area remember Oakwood Lake Resurt in Manteca? They used to have a really fun concrete slide.

I know it's against the rules, but "Me too!" :) We loved that place. Do you remember the waterski attraction where you were pulled around the lake by an overhead cable contraption? Went to Shadow Cliffs too.