Kings Island removing surfing ride from water park

Makes me no difference. But I’ve never had the desire to completely lose my drawers on a water ride.

There is going to be a very small but very upset group of people who will have no idea what to do with their lives after this announcement. Whenever I visited KI with my friend we'd make a point to go watch the surfing machine for a while, and year after year there always seemed to be the same core group of people who spent their entire day riding for 60 seconds (or wiping out), getting back in line, and repeating.

I tried one of these a few years ago at Hurricane Harbor in Texas mostly because my kid was dying to see me give it a shot. I was flat on my back getting water shot up my nose in what I'm assuming was record time.

That sounds like a great reason to get rid of it. Seriously.

FlowRiders make fantastic brochure covers and not much more.

Marketing folk love them, ops people despise them. Very low capacity, expensive to build and even more expensive to operate, and requires specialized training for the ride operators to “coach” riders how to ride more than a few seconds before they wipe out. 95% of guests have no business riding the attraction. But it’s fun to watch.

About 10-15 years ago, some facilities morphed the attraction into more of an observation centerpiece called FlowHouse. Tiered observation seating areas complete with food and drink service were developed but even that concept never completely took off.

It’s a niche attraction that appeals to a small segment of “flow rats” who end up riding over and over. But like a said, marketing people love it.

I did find it interesting that the message about the attraction's removal directly compared it to their ill-advised decision to remove the Flying Eagles. That one still hurts, as that unit is possibly the best, most flyable Flying Scooter this side of Knoebels, and its "replacement" is a far inferior ride with lower capacity.

Of course, the Flying Eagles had a significantly broader appeal (hence the "return" some years later) than the Flowrider. The Flowrider is one of those things that a lot of people...yes, including me...will try at least once, but the experience tends to be negative enough that it prevents return visits. The fact that some people put in the time and effort to get good at it probably extended the life of the ride a bit, just because it truly was fun to watch those experts on the attraction. I'm going to miss it just a little. But not a lot; I have been smart enough to stay off of it for a whole lot of years, and I didn't go back there to watch that often.

I do lament the passing of yet another attraction where it is possible to build some kind of a skill with an aim towards increasing your enjoyment of that attraction. There's precious few of those left these days. That said, this particular attraction had the problem of an exceptionally steep learning curve, meaning the number of people who could do more than just wipe out and wash out of the thing on a first try is vanishingly small, and the experience of that wipeout is unpleasant enough to detract from return visits.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

A couple links to share. Here is the Facebook group for the surf club most associated with the ride.

https://www.facebook.com/gr...on/preview

And here is a photo of the actual letter from Kings Island GM Mike Koontz to the group.

https://www.facebook.com/ph...6451992146

That’s a nice letter. He could’ve left the group to wallow in their tears.
I feel sorry for them, and just recently figured out there was a league of serious fans and participants. (Like there is for everything- thanks, Internet!). I’ve always regarded these rides with passing fancy, and even though the sport is ultra-niche, it’s a shame it’s gone for them and they can’t pick it up and move it to someone’s backyard or farm.