Looping Waterslides in Europe

Quoted from www.screamscape.com

General News - (4/1/08) It seems there is a race on in Europe to design an all new waterslide design that will allow them to invert the riders upside-down for a moment. From what I??????ve been told a company by the name of Hartwigsen (Germany) and another by the name of Klarer (Switzerland) both apparently have prototype designs on the way into production.
Of course these will not be the first ??????loop?????? water slides ever built however as that honor goes to Action Park in New Jersey who built a slide that was rarely open. However anyone I??????ve ever heard from who had been on it, never had anything nice to say about it. The experience was often described as being utterly disorienting and physically brutal on the body at the same time.
Klarer seems to have the lead on the new design style however. If you scroll down to page 3 on this Klarer news letter published in September 2006 you can see some of the first concept artwork for the concept which involved a more traditional vertical loop design. Apparently the G-Forces proved to be too harsh and instead they??????ve now come out with a functioning prototype as seen over at Freizeitparkweb where the inversion has been tilted over on it??????s side a bit, much like the Incline Loop found on B&M Standing Coasters. Scroll down a bit and you can see a few different images of it where the temporary scaffolding has been moved around so they could test it out at various angles to see what works the best, from mild to wild.
Now I have to admit, the idea of a looping waterslide, while interesting at first, could end up being the stuff of nightmares. I can??????t help but wonder just what would happen if the water flow slowed to the point where it could no longer make it through the inversion and began to flow back, flooding the bottom half of the slide. Obviously the next guest down the slide would be in for a rude shock as they could suddenly find themselves submerged underwater in darkness and unable to get out. The pictures are a bit small, but I didn??????t really see any kind of emergency exit hatch to prevent such a thing from happening. This leads to the rumored news about the Hartwigsen slide which is said to have a similar design, but with the planned addition of some kind of escape hatch. If our sources are correct, their first production model may open somewhere in the Czech Republic in late 2008.

WTH, that's sick.

wow that's scary. the waterstream must go really fast to make the loop I think.

wait.... its impossible for the water to make the loop as well, so there must be some sorrta grate at the bottom of the drop... so it dosnt pool, the must hurt if going over it :S

^ I thought so to, making this comfortable would be impossible..

Unless your completely submerged all the way through.

It could be funny with a major inclination to the ground but that is a death machine[xx(]

This is Twister in Aquafun....I call it the "corkscrew slide"[8D]

That thing looks awesome!

Could be april fools though.. [:P]

It is april fools. Come on.. It's to difficult to control the speed with the the different weights of the people. So kid's go freakin fast and fat bastard get stuck in the loop.

And what if people go play around like they always do in slides? Breaking and stuff. No, this can't go right

[gouldy]

April fools or not, to be fair, it is possible, with the water jets they use on some of the slides enough power can easily be generated in the water to keep you off the base of the loop at all the times so that a grate in the bottom wouldn't be uncomfortable, or so that the water would make it all the way round the loop. Especially if the rider were to ride in a dingy type arangement where no contact is actually made with the slide. In this instance also, you wouldn't need to drop either, it'd be like a launched coaster, only a slide

Originally posted by gouldy

April fools or not, to be fair, it is possible, with the water jets they use on some of the slides enough power can easily be generated in the water to keep you off the base of the loop at all the times so that a grate in the bottom wouldn't be uncomfortable, or so that the water would make it all the way round the loop. Especially if the rider were to ride in a dingy type arangement where no contact is actually made with the slide. In this instance also, you wouldn't need to drop either, it'd be like a launched coaster, only a slide

Right,and the existing models are funny but that yellow snake doesn't seem to have that system...I'm afraid they're trying to build it just using "gravity".

And that won't happen as far as I can imagine. It's way to dangerous. Just think about the things that could go wrong in that slide. Think about people getting stuck, bumping heads, falling down when you loose speed on top of the loop etc etc..

Maybe I'm freaking out today, because of April's fool but still...

This was not created for April fools. Read the dates of the posts on the Freizeitparkweb link.

it probally will happen it being the crappy side of europe.

still a foolish idea and i wont be trying one

Yeah, the dates, well I'm curious to see how they're solving those problems then, or if they'd even solve them.

I'm thinking about who is going to test it!
I don't think dummies can be useful...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_Park

Looping slide section:

as of 2008, no additional looping waterslides have opened at any parks. However, since 2002, the Swiss company Klarer Freizeitanlagen AG has been working on a safe design for a looping waterslide and have now built and tested a 1:1 prototype of their design

Really does look like a something a n00b would build in NL, or something out of RCT

Revolution style....

some of the test dummies sent down before it was opened had been dismembered

This is not good!

well, when you think about it, the body can sustain like 30 g's safely when laying down flat, so I don't see why not. As long as you make the slide long enough so that it's impossible to get stuck.

Maybe because the weights vary to much? Children / Adults / fat boys / dogs whatever..

I think it's pretty difficult to control the water flow so that it suits everyone. Maybe the body can take 30 g's when laying down, but it doesn't sound safe to put so much pressure on the water that for example there needs to be a minimum of 10 g's or so to make it trough the loop. If these values can make it to a safe level then ok.. But I actually don't see that happen.

[rcmaniac25]

I remember Action Park. Don't remember that though...

Originally posted by cjd

well, when you think about it, the body can sustain like 30 g's safely when laying down flat, so I don't see why not. As long as you make the slide long enough so that it's impossible to get stuck.

30 g's safely? You mean for like half a sec right? Laying down flat, your ears will start to bleed at 20g's, you're very likely to be dead at 40g's. For the highest G-tolerance, sitting down or even standing up still is way better.

Originally posted by rcmaniac25

I remember Action Park. Don't remember that though...

I read an article about Action Park somewhere. It was sure a very innovative place, but dangerous at the same time. I hope this whole looping thing actually works.

I went through like 50 pages worth of a thread at ThrillNetwork about that blue slide at action park or whatever. There are people over there who have actually ridden that thing, and apparently it was pretty cool, although possibly slightly painful.
And water doesn't need 10 G's to go around a loop. It needs a positive g-force, just like the rest of the things on earth. Heck, if there were .1 G's t the top of that thing, it's still flow around the loop!