this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2024
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[–] Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 53 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] FrostyCaveman@lemm.ee 5 points 7 months ago

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

[–] nicknonya@lemmy.blahaj.zone 48 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

in case the Wikipedia article is too hard to read:

in 1983 GAR built an enclosed water slide called the Cannonball Loop. This was not unusual for that time. In fact, the park already had several such slides. On this one, however, they decided to build a complete vertical loop at the end, similar to that of a roller coaster The resulting slide, called the "Cannonball Loop”. was so intimidating that employees have reported they were offered $100 (equivalent to $252 in 2021) to test it. Fergus. who described himself as "one of the idiots" who took the offer, said, "$100 did not buy enough booze to drown out that memory." The slide was open for only a month in 1985 before it was closed at the order of the state's Advisory Board on Carnival Amusement Ride Safety. a highly unusual move at the time. One worker told a local newspaper that "there were too many bloody noses and back injuries” from riders.|! Some early riders came back with lacerations to their bodies: when the ride was closed to determine what had caused therm. teeth that had fallen out were found lodged in the interior walls. A former Navy physician found that riders were experiencing as much as nine Gs of acceleration as they went through the loop.

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 8 points 7 months ago

holy shit 9Gs is brutal

[–] kernelle@0d.gs 26 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] TheOakTree@lemm.ee 11 points 7 months ago

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.

[–] temmink@feddit.de 18 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] sukhmel@programming.dev 35 points 7 months ago

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

[–] sukhmel@programming.dev 14 points 7 months ago

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

[–] dandelion@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 7 months ago (1 children)

If you would like to traumatize yourself more, here's a video about another dangerous water slide:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulIcekOTOqg

[–] bamboo@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 points 7 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

...

That fucker stayed in office. He became speaker in 2017.

(R) Btw. For those that couldn't guess.

[–] dandelion@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 7 months ago

It is Texas after all.

[–] dandelion@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 7 months ago

A direct example of the kind of harm Republican policies can cause.

[–] melpomenesclevage@lemm.ee 12 points 7 months ago

"Is there a more american place than las Vegas?"

There was. Once.

[–] bloopernova@programming.dev 9 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] nicknonya@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] bloopernova@programming.dev 4 points 7 months ago

Reference: The Dollop, a comedy history podcast with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds. The episode is "Action Park".

[–] flx@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 7 months ago

Shoutout to Garrison

[–] BurningRiver 3 points 7 months ago

Traction Park was another good nickname for this place.