Racing Rivers
Not familiar with this one either.
Not familiar with this one either.
Racing Rivers
- Thread starter Luke
- Start date
This was the fad prior to the physical water park boom in the 1990s. Great Adventure had 3 of these in the early-mid 1990s prior to building Hurricane Harbor in 1999.
I seem to recall that at least one of these slides was a fully-clothed attraction. Keep your shirt, shorts, shoes etc on, you don’t get wet at all. Maybe it was the enclosed slide on the LHS of that pic above.
I got a small splash of water on my shirt and felt I had been lied to.
I got a small splash of water on my shirt and felt I had been lied to.
That one on the far right was called Riptide. It was like Rampage at WC USA, except it was shorter in height and way more intense. The ‘sled’ came completely off of the track headed down. Almost like a beyond vertical coaster drop.
All of these could be ridden fully clothed but you definitely got wet on them! LOL
In those days, the only available dryer was the Virginia breeze, and it was free.
Based on that picture, you would have dried off in seconds after walking on the completely exposed asphalt sea just outside the ride. After a few minutes, you'd be crispy golden brown.
Tie dye was a big thing for a while. In the 80s and 90s there was always one girl per day in any major park who hit either the flume or rapids ride in a non-colorfast tie dye shirt and light shorts, and ended up with swirly colored shorts and rainbow legs by the end of the day. Always.
So, a little bit of fun. Not for her, though.
?
From left to right they were named Torpedo, splashdown, and Riptide. The first two utilized rubber rafts, and Riptide utilized a sled. I can tell you from experience that if you bailed in the Torpedo tube, you were screwed. I thought I would come out like a water slide. Nope! There was only enough water flowing through to push the raft. The water would just flow right past a single body in the tube. I once spent ten minutes ‘scooching’ myself down the tube after bailing out of the raft for fun. I didn’t get kicked out of the park or anything, but the attendants were pissed when I finally emerged from the pipe. Never did that again!
