Hurricane Harbor (SFA) Construction Update

Well, I guess this is the beginning of a long construction log for SFA’s renovation of Paradise Island into Hurricane Harbor. I was driving past the park today and happened to glance through the gates. To my surprise and joy, some very bright colors in the second parking lot caught my eye. So I found a place to park, and walked to the front gate of the park to get a better look. Best part about this addition/renovation during the off-season is that you will be able to have a pretty good view of the vertical construction of “Tornado” and “Bahama Blast” right from the front gate as you’ll see in the below pictures. For those curious, I didn’t jump any fences or do anything illegal to get these pics. I simply took the pictures through a fence on the edge of the property. In fact, you can see all of this from the traffic light right in front of the park.

This first pic is what you would see first hand if you looked in from the front gate. There’s no zoom at all (not because I didn’t want to, but my digital camera doesn’t have zoom). You can get a pretty good idea of the area where all the action is taking place by this pic:

http://www.geocities.com/terp_fan_4_life/SFA01.JPG

This second pic is a digitally enlarged version of the first pic, centered on the new slide parts. You can see the green and purple slide parts right in the foreground that will eventually make up “Bahama Blast.” The colors, interestingly enough, are almost identical to the shades of colors used on Joker’s Jinx (for reference). Behind those pieces, you can see the longer, triangle shaped blue and yellow pieces that will eventually make up “Tornado”:

http://www.geocities.com/terp_fan_4_life/SFA02.JPG

There’s really not too much else you can get from those pics, but I thought you’d enjoy seeing them nonetheless. Because of the grassy hill around the water park, you really can’t see if groundwork has started or not, but if the slide parts are arriving, I’d guess that they have at least started to pour the foundations. Next up, as far as construction goes, you should start to see the large, intricate steel framework that supports “Tornado” go up and the tower for “Bahama Blast” so I’ll let you know if I see any of that next time I drive by the park.

(FYI, the pics are being hosted by a geocities account so there’s a possibility that the site could exceed it’s bandwidth pretty quickly making it hard to view the pics; if anyone out there with a site with reasonable bandwidth wants to host the pics, be my guest. Just let everyone know the link.)

***Seems the page exceeded it's bandwidth much faster than I expected. Guess it's because of the size of the pictures, or something. Well, if the links don't work, you can go to thrillnetwork where I posted the same thread. The pics are uploaded to that site so they should work for the time being until I find a more perminant solution...here's the link to the thread:

http://www.thrillnetwork.com/boards/showthread.php?p=556305#post556305 *** Edited 3/3/2005 8:21:30 PM UTC by Coaster Lover***

Thanks for braving the chilly air to snap those couple of pictures. Glad to see those parts show up.

Oooh, it's the Deja Vu colors! I actually like that color combo. Somthing about it just screams fun ('cause noone *serious* would put those colors together ;))

jeremy

Isn't DV blue & green rather than purple & green,or is it just in reference to the colors chosen for both Bahama Blast & Tornado,given the fact that they'll be located so close together of course?anyhow glad to hear that some activity is starting to take place & once the park opens for the season we can certainly enjoy a much better view from atop Superman :).

When you were driving up 214 approaching the park did you happen to see if anything is going on with Mind Eraser as far as painting yet?I'm hopeful that they'll get the new paint jobs done before opening day,even though I probably don't plan on riding it again this season.

Once again thanks for the progress report & if you can keep us posted whenever you get the chance to take more construction pics.

BatwingFan, I did look for that and I can tell you that Mind Eraser is the same as always. I'd guess they'll start painting and such when it gets a little warmer and a little less windy. It's not going to take that long. A week or two max, so they still have plenty of time to get things done even if it isn't completly done when the park opens. Remember, even Batman at SFGAdv wasn't winished being repainted last year when the park opened. It wouldn't be too totally out of the question for the same thing to happen at SFA. Then again, they'd probably try to get Mind Eraser done first and do Joker's Jinx second seeing as how Joker's Jinx usually opens a week or so after the rest of the park anyways (at least it did last year and I'm pretty sure the year before).

A week or two to paint Mind Eraser? Are you kidding me? Have you ever counted the number of supports? Ok, for the record neither have I, but there are quite a lot compared to some coasters.

From the looks of the pics you can tell that it hasn't been touched yet especially when most of the construction equipment(ie cherrypickers) will be needed in HH when vertical construction begins.

I take it we'll probably see painting start in a couple of weeks,right now they're focused more on getting the HH rennovation completed...speaking of which did anyone notice that they appear to just be storing the parts for both slides in one pile rather than seprating them? you can clearly see a large yellow piece(for tornado) mixed in there with all the blue & green ones for Bahama Blast.

Fascinating. All the pieces in one pile. How will they ever know which part goes where?

-Vater, feeling extra-ornery this evening.

Let's not forget the mass of steel that is JJ which is also getting new paint so let's see how long that one's gonna take to get done.

I too find it a bit strange to see all of the pieces for both slides just laying around in one big pile but I guess they pretty much know what they're doing & they'll probably begin seperating & moving each piece into it's respective area or pile just as soon as the heavy construction begins.

Should be real interesting when the park opens in about 5 weeks from now,both the HH rennovation as well as the paint progress being made on the two coasters....can hardly wait til opening day.

He was being sarcastic, Batwing. All the slide pieces have to go to the same place when the park is ready to transport them to the construction site, so there really isn't a point to making separate piles if they can fit more slide pieces together in one. Just like coaster track, slide pieces are numbered and labeled, so it isn't exactly a mystery to the construction people as to where each piece should go.

*** Edited 3/6/2005 3:46:45 AM UTC by PhantomTails***

^Of course I know that but it would still probably be easier to seperate the pieces as soon as vertical construction begins.

The weather's expected to warm up just a bit this week maybe they'll also begin painting preps within the next week or two for the coasters,believe it or not I'm more looking forward to seeing the new paintjobs rather than the new slides going up.

How soon can you get some more pics for us Coasterlover?

If someone drives by the park and notices something, I'll get pictures...otherwise, you'll have to wait until March 17th (2 weeks from last Thursday). I mean, SFA is close for me, but it is still out of the way of anywhere that I might be going. I don't mind going by every two weeks to see what's going on, but I'm not going to drive by any sooner because I really feel it would be pointless. Once I know verticle construction has started, I'll drive by more often, but until then, you're going to have to wait about two weeks between new pics from me.

I mean, though, if any of you all drive by the park and see verticle construction start before then, just tell me and I'll be more than happy to go get pics...

I think two weeks is more than enough. It's not like the park isn't opening in in a month and all of us will be able to watch construction.

I don't know how long this has been up, but SFA has posted the new shops and food stalls for Hurricane Harbor. Not sure how many will be completly new buildings, but I guess we'll just have to see. Here's the list of ALL the food stalls and shops (including the old with the new names) so you can compare and see which will be completly new stands...

Tidal Wave Tattoos:
Get the latest and hottest new tattoo designs.

Coconut Cove Trading Co.:
Forgot your beach attire? No sweat! This shop features swimwear, cover-ups, towels, hats, swim diapers and sunscreen.

Sharkey's Market:
NEW! Shop in this beach themed market for all of your accessories and beach wear.

Hurricane Beach Funnel Cakes:
Fresh, hot funnel cakes with your choice of toppings and refreshing Coca-Cola beverages.

Hurricane Hot Dog:
Jumbo hot dogs, Sno Biz shave ice, soft serve ice cream, slush, warm soft pretzels and refreshing Coca-Cola beverages.

Coca Cola Beverage Hut:
Featuring cold, refreshing Coca-Cola beverages.

Boardwalk Fries:
Famous fresh-cut french fries, spicy buffalo wings and refreshing Coca-Cola beverages. French fries are cooked with peanut oil.

Beachside Burgers:
Charbroiled sirloin burgers, kids meals, refreshing Coca-Cola beverages and more.

Surfside Pizza:
Hot, delicious pizza, spicy buffalo wings and refreshing Coca-Cola beverages.

Water Park Subway™:
Famous subs with all the fixins'.

Calypso's - NEW!:
Enjoy ice cold assorted beer and wine coolers at this beachside bar.

Papaya Pete's Chicken Hut - NEW!:
Enjoy a variety of chicken, island fries, popcorn shrimp, and ice cold Coca Cola beverages.

How many of you remember SFA Online?

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BATWING FAN SFA said:
...speaking of which did anyone notice that they appear to just be storing the parts for both slides in one pile rather than seprating them? you can clearly see a large yellow piece(for tornado) mixed in there with all the blue & green ones for Bahama Blast.

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Bahama Blast will be green and PURPLE, NOT green and blue. If you look at the picture (well, maybe the picture doesn't give you a clear enough view, but as I've been there to see it for myself), all of the purple and green slide segments for Bahama Blast are towards the front of the picture while all the blue and yellow pieces for Tornado are in the back. In fact, if I was a betting man, I'd guess the pieces to Tornado are laid out along the back of the parking lot in the order of the pieces that go at the enterance to the funnel are to the left and the pieces for the exit are to the right (or possible in the reverse order).

Remember, Proslide is putting these slides together, not SFA or some local ironworking crew as is with rollercoasters (I base that on the Construction Journals for SFGAm who is also getting ProSlide attractions..."On November 8th some of the slides arrived and are currently being assembled by Proslide.") With as many ProSlide attractions going in as there are, I'm SURE ProSlide is very organized in what they are doing.

Or, SFA could have had a construction superintendant on site at SFGAM watching and learning from the construction on how to assemble the parts.

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BATWING FAN SFA said:
From the looks of the pics you can tell that it hasn't been touched yet especially when most of the construction equipment(ie cherrypickers) will be needed in HH when vertical construction begins.

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From THOSE pics you can tell that Mind Eraser hasn't been touched? What do you have? SuperVision?

There is NO WAY you can make out if they've painted Mind Eraser yet, get real!

Yes I recall SFAOnline & was a member there....is it due for a comeback? as of now SFAcentral's got some pretty good boards & general park info but not much has been going on over there lately.

Looks like they'll be serving beer in HH which is something new as previously only Crazy horse saloon has been the only place in the park to get good & drunk,now I can just see it right now....someone coming out of calypso's after downing a few cold ones & going for a swim(the hard way) in hurricane bay or worse taking on Tornado.....without a raft :).

With this in mind perhaps they should rename Bahama Blast to Budweiser Blast instead? or better yet just hold a drinking contest between CHS & Calypso's to see which establishment can produce the most drunks first.

Still even better yet offer the first 100 guests into HH free beers,kinda like they did with the free coke thing last season which I hope will return this year.

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BATWING FAN SFA said:previously only Crazy horse saloon has been the only place in the park to get good & drunk

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Um, the place directly across from the western stunt show has served beer for years! where have you been? looking for mouse tracks?