Freaky river rapid element

IIRC, the only Hafema rapids installation in the US is the one at Wild Adventures, Tasmanian River Rapids...it's the ride I want to theme more than any other. It does have the trademark whirlpool, but this drop feature I think is a new development....they had a COOL display at their IAAPA booth! The load unload platform is an excellent design as well, and I think the higher-capacity rapids rides could really use that....;)

know of any pics on the net of their IAAPA booth? were they the people with the model of the river rapids that changed into a spinning coaster? and please explain about this load/unload station, seems intresting

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Nemesis Inferno - The Pressure is Building!

olov said:

Someone on another board found this site and the gif animation... http://www.rpiefx.com/Theme_Parks/Ride/ride.html
Looks really freaky... The best place for it would be inside a building, hiding it. That would scare alot of people including me. Wonder what company that would build the whole ride, Hafema or Intamin maybe?

It looks a lot like a Hafema element that can be found on Phantasialand's River Quest. Unfortunately, this element is non-functional, because it is extremely dangerous.

During the test-rides, the passenger where almost thrown out of the boat! A woman who was one the ride when this element was operational said: "I was thrown to the other side of the boat, even though I really know how to hold on to the railing!"

It is assumed that this element will never be operational again at River Quest.

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Dutch Coastin' :: European coasters, thrills and theming!

and how can she be thrown to the other side of the boat if she has the seat belt properly fastened and tightened?

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-Bob (formerly Coaster Jedi)
Do any of you know how to build a sundial out of a pen and a donut?
uh oh, sounds like someone has a case of the mondays.

SFGA Bob said:
and how can she be thrown to the other side of the boat if she has the seat belt properly fastened and tightened?

FYI: River Quest does not have seatbelts. :)

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Dutch Coastin' :: European coasters, thrills and theming!

Well, why not install some? Every rapid ride I've seen has them...

(SF)Great American said:
Well, why not install some? Every rapid ride I've seen has them...

There is only one European river rapids which has seatbelts actually. It is like European custom to jump around in the boat, trying to avoid the waves. Europeans rather dislike getting wet. If you compare American river rapids with European, you can conclude that European river rapids are farely dry.

My last ride on River Quest totally soaked me, leaving no part of my clothes nor body dry.. as a true European, I absolutely disliked it. :)

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Dutch Coastin' :: European coasters, thrills and theming!

DRNK said: "FYI: River Quest does not have seatbelts." ...bet it WILL before it shows up in the States! In the US, it would have to operate under the name "Raging Lawsuit". I can imagine this thing in CA, the lawyers would be fighting for spots near the ride exit....

*** This post was edited by rollergator on 12/9/2002. ***

DRNK, thanks for the info. I didn't know that about European water rides.

one thing, though, if you're replying to a post that isn't half way up the page you don't need to quote it.

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-Bob (formerly Coaster Jedi)
Do any of you know how to build a sundial out of a pen and a donut?
uh oh, sounds like someone has a case of the mondays.

(SF)Great American said:
Well, why not install some? Every rapid ride I've seen has them...

I've never been on any water ride with seatbelts....

Try River Rapidos in Parque de Atracciones (Madrid), that's the only European river rapids ride with safetybars.. that's the closest you'll get to seatbelts in Europe. :)

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Dutch Coastin' :: European coasters, thrills and theming!

DRNK, is that something new? Be cause when i rode the river rapids it didn't have any seatbelts at all and i can't see any reason for having ones as it's not a very rough ride.

I think especially now since the problems with Perilous Plunge, that parks will definitely be cracking down on water ride safety. I don't know if it has always been this way, but I know the crew on Thunder Canyon, Cedar Point's river rapid ride, would freak if someone stood up or unbuckled their seatbelt which would usually result in a quick stop or an emergency stop.

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Brent Haley
Cedar Point Gemini Crew '02

How do you quickly stop a river rapid?

Pull the plug and wait for it to drain into the storage lake. I've seen this happen once, but it was a malfunction. Again, something I should probably post in the "You know you're..." thread (that's twice today!!), but I was next in line, and I wished sooo much that I was in that last boat... which had people with priority tickets might I add. :(

Don't know if that'd be an effective way of dealing with unbuckling a seatbelt on the ride (here they only use velcro straps on the rapids, which years of unstrapping combined with perpetual dampness fall apart if you put the slightest bit of pressure on them).

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So what if the best coaster in Australia is a second hand Arrow?

Disney uses fluctuations in the waters depth to keep the logs on Splash Mountain away from one another. To make them go slow, they add water, to spped up, lower the amt of water, but to stop they drain it

olov said:
DRNK, is that something new? Be cause when i rode the river rapids it didn't have any seatbelts at all and i can't see any reason for having ones as it's not a very rough ride.

River Rapidos is a Hobson river rapids, as far as I know, all Hobson rapids have bars. Seatbelts where only mounted on one boat, in the "transfer area". That was for special occassions or something.

As far as I know, there is no such thing as an emergency stop on a river rapids in Europe. I've seen a speed drain at Radja River in Six Flags Belgium due to a malfunctioning of the pomps, but it took over 15 minutes for the ride to be completely drained, even though the pomps where running at full speed.

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Dutch Coastin' :: European coasters, thrills and theming!

I believe a quick stop will just stop the lifts so they can hurry up and fix any problems, but they must rush otherwise the ride will setup in a way. An emergency stop will actually drain all the water.

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Brent Haley
Cedar Point Gemini Crew '02