There’s a documentary about this called Class Action Park that’s absolutely wild. They interview a bunch of former employees, and I can’t emphasize enough to people who don’t remember it how much the attitudes described epitomized a large portion of 80s and 90s youth culture in America. Which was simultaneously rad and a fucking nightmare, because so much of it was synonymous with just being a reckless shithead, lol.
I just finished watching that after seeing your comment. Damn, that was really interesting.
I grew up going to a similar, but seemingly much less dangerous (I assume…) park here in Australia called Jamberoo which looks like it’s still open. Like looking into a weird dangerous alternate reality world lol
in case the Wikipedia article is too hard to read:
holy shit 9Gs is brutal
A while ago I went to Terme 3000 in Slovenia, they had a looped style waterpark ride. Just as crazy as is looks, I guess the tilt angle prevents major injuries? Because that slide has been open for a long time. It took no effort to clear the loop as well.
Edit: For those curious, it’s a pod-style release you can see on the image, the floor disappears under your feet. The green one next to it is one of the steepest in Europe IIRC.
In this one you aren’t expected to be flipped upside down and then right side up in the span of 2 seconds. It’s the loop diameter and the angle making this one safer.
The ride reopened a few more times over the years. In the summers of 1995 and 1996, it was opened for several days before further injuries forced its permanent shutdown.
They generally seem like fun people 😱
Action Park was formally opened on July 4 of that year, with two opening-day promotions: a Dolly Parton look-alike contest and a tobacco juice-spitting contest
Gene didn’t want to do the same old shit, where you just get strapped into something or it twirls around. He wanted to take the idea of skiing, which is exhilarating because you control the action, and transfer it to an amusement park. There’s inherent risk in that, but that’s what makes it fun
the park eventually bought the township extra ambulances to keep up with the volume
But especially this:
The Bailey Ball was an Alpine Center attraction developed and tested, but never opened to the public, as a result of those tests. It consisted of a large steel sphere in which a rider could be secured, and then rolled downward. The plan was to do it on a track with PVC pipe as its outer rails, and one was built alongside a ski trail.
The designers neglected to take into account the tendency of PVC pipe to expand in heat. During the first test, with a state inspector present on a hot summer day, the ball, with a man inside testing it, went off the track as a result of the pipe expanding and bounded down the adjacent ski slope. It continued through the parking lot, across Route 94, and came to rest in a swamp. After it came to a natural stop at the bottom, the inspector left without saying anything and park management abandoned the project
To me the slide does look interesting, but I guess 9g of acceleration was not advertised to clients and that’s quite a bit of nope
If you would like to traumatize yourself more, here’s a video about another dangerous water slide:
Jesus, that is horrible.
State legislators from the area passed a law allowing Schlitterbahn to self-inspect its attractions without state oversight as it did in Texas, unlike all other amusement parks in Kansas, which were subject to state inspection.
Verrückt permanently closed in 2016 following a fatal incident involving the decapitation of Caleb Schwab, the 10-year-old son of Kansas state legislator Scott Schwab.
…
That fucker stayed in office. He became speaker in 2017.
® Btw. For those that couldn’t guess.
It is Texas after all.
A direct example of the kind of harm Republican policies can cause.
“Is there a more american place than las Vegas?”
There was. Once.
IM THE FUCKING HIPPO GUY
hippo guy?
Reference: The Dollop, a comedy history podcast with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds. The episode is “Action Park”.
Shoutout to Garrison
Traction Park was another good nickname for this place.
