Verruckt Verified as World's Tallest Waterslide

This thing still looks a bit unsafe. I agree that strapping you in to a water slide is an odd design choice, especially as it now crawls over the hill, so i doubt that you would go flying out of your seat.

This ride looks like they just wanted something to attract visitors to the new park, and built a pretty simple, uninspired ride. I'm sure that its pretty fun though.

That hill at the end looks like just a gimmick to me. I don't really see much of a purpose for it if the raft just crawls over it now. The drop looks like the main thrill while the hill seems to be filler, unless it serves as a way to slow the raft down in a shorter footprint.

A bit more than taking apart and putting back together again by my count.

[mkingy]

Huh so the drop is technically smaller now than it was?

[TTD03]

Eh, even with the drop different, it will still be the World's Tallest. And I am confused why the boat thing crawls over the 2nd hill now, still looks like even with the new configuration it would fly over it?

That 2nd hill seems to be a lift hill effect or the real one! They would have thought of a boat stalling while cresting the hill.

TTD03 wrote:

And I am confused why the boat thing crawls over the 2nd hill now, still looks like even with the new configuration it would fly over it?

As am I. It must have something to do with the fact that the drop is slightly shorter now, and the new hill being longer but flatter would have an effect because of the low friction. It seems odd how much it has slowed down since initial testing though.

And I am confused why the boat thing crawls over the 2nd hill now, still looks like even with the new configuration it would fly over it?

If you watch either the POV or the news segment, you can see the black strips they added to the drop which look like rubber. Whatever they are, they're slowing the raft way down on the drop, and then partway up the second hill too. If there actually are restraints on the ride now, I would guess that this is the reason. On the news segment you can especially see the hangtime that the rafts get on the drop. It seems to me like this could pitch people forward out of the raft pretty easily.

[TTD03]

^ Good observation, didn't notice those before.

[TTD03]

Update!
Verruckt is now open!

From early rider reviews, it appears as though the wait for Schlitterbahn Kansas City's Verruckt was well worth it! The water park opened the ride today, which is officially the tallest water slide in the world, to a crowd of eager riders, or should we day daredevils.

Seated in rafts of three, complete with car-like seat belts, riders plunge down a 168 foot, 7 inch drop and reach speeds that can approach 60 miles per hour. The speed depends on the weight of the riders, which must be weighted beforehand. Each raft must have total rider weight of between 400 and 550 lbs, and each person must be at least 54 inches tall.

After the initial plunge the rafts head up a 22 degree slope to the top of a 55 foot hill, with giant water blasters pushing them up the hill. A final drop takes rafts to the catch pool. Verruckt (which means insane in German) lasts only 18 seconds, but those are some rather memorable 18 seconds.

This news report has some great footage of the slide in action, showing just how fast those rafts are moving on that drop. Even the park is saying that Verruckt is not a family ride, and is intended for thrill seekers only. The goal of building the slide was to really get Schlitterbahn Kansas City on the map - consider that mission accomplished. The sheer number of nationwide news stories about the ride today exemplifies that.

While the ride had to be redesigned heavily, costing an extra $1 million, nothing like this had ever been done before so delays were inevitable. We're just happy that all the issues were resolved and now visitors can really test their courage on Verruckt!
Source

Looks safer than before its modification! At "1:12" they were using Garmin to scale the top speed! Only 43mph? The video says that number.

[TTD03]

^ I always thought Garmin GPS's were wrong on speed , It's supposed to go 65 MPH!