Volume 1, No. 15. August 24, 2001
Magic's mystery
One
thing appears certain about the "gas leak" at Magic Waters Waterpark that sent
36 guests and four employees to hospitals on August 10: it was not a gas leak.
Though not entirely sure of the incident's cause, the Rockford, Illinois, park
has instituted mechanical fixes that the rest of the industry should pay close
attention to.
Five minutes before noon that Friday with 3,300 guests playing in the park,
noxious fumes began emanating from the park's 16-year-old wave pool. The pool
and surrounding attractions were evacuated and the park immediately enacted
its crisis-management plan, calling in local emergency response crews. The 40
people sent to hospitals were treated for minor respiratory illnesses and released
that afternoon. Meanwhile, hazardous material response teams went into the wave
pool chambers and emerged with the verdict that there had been no chlorine leak.
Furthermore, the chemical balance in the pool's water was perfect, said Steve
Delorme, Magic Waters' maintenance foreman.
After the hazmat team's investigation, Delorme and his staff, the regional engineer
for the Illinois Department of Public Health and representatives of an independent
engineering firm started investigating. They concluded that the water level
in the wave pool's surge pit fell too low, allowing air into at least one of
three pumps. Hypochlorous acid accumulated in the air pocket, and when the surge
pit water rose again, it pushed the pocket of air and gas through the system
and belching into the wave pool. The odor of that acid caused the illness among
guests and employees. Public health officials said such fumes are not life-threatening.
Kim Adams-Bakke, Magic Waters' general manager, stressed that the water-level
scenario is just a theory. The three teams of engineers could not find anything
wayward in the wave pool mechanisms or structure that would cause a concentration
of hypochlorous acid. Why the water level slipped was not entirely clear, either,
though Delorme said he cleaned out debris from the three intake pipes and theorized
that those "scrunchies," as he called them, may have blocked the float valves
on those pipes. Yet, while the water-level theory is the most plausible, the
engineering teams could not replicate the incident, Adams-Bakke said.
Nevertheless, the park is taking preventive measures. Delorme installed a PVC
pipe the width of the tank behind the intake pipes' float valves. "I installed
it in such a way that the valves would never go completely straight up and down,
no matter how much water was in the tank," he said. The valves would then remain
open, and scrunchies couldn't get behind the valves to block them. Delorme also
purchased a low-water warning system, and he plans to install two more rotary
flow switches so that all three pumps will be monitored. "That way if one of
the pumps cavitates or shuts down, all the pumps would shut down so there's
no chemicals of any sort passing through there," he said.
The engineers tested Delorme's pipe installation and the wave pool opened to
the public the next day. The park validated all admission tickets on the day
of the incident for free return visits later this season or next year, or outright
refunded patrons.
Wally James, president of Con-Serv Associates and chair of the Safety Committee
for the World Waterpark Association, said that no matter what caused the incident,
Magic Waters' experience should serve as "a wake-up call" to other waterpark
operators. "The message is, where possible, be redundant, verify that there's
flow going to the pool at all times," he said, not just in wave pools but lazy
rivers and splash pools, too. "Equipment is getting older, some of it is rusting.
Time is taking its toll."
Superman sequel
Another park incident investigation came to a conclusion Saturday as the Superman
Ride of Steel roller coaster at Six Flags New England in Agawam, Massachusetts,
reopened almost two weeks after a train ran through the brake run and rear-ended
another train in the loading station injuring 21 people.
Engineers determined that a ruptured air supply line cut airflow, lowering the
air pressure in the primary brakes. The rupture also prevented full engagement
of the backup brakes, which did not stop the arriving train but did slow it
to 20 mph (32 kph) as it approached the station.
Engineers made four modifications to the ride:
— Replaced the PVC air supply lines with steel reinforced lines;
— Installed quick-release-valves to allow the backup brakes to engage faster;
— Added a remote air pressure monitoring system to more rapidly detect
fluctuations and engage the backup brakes sooner;
— Installed a separate control valve system for each pair of brakes, adding
more redundancy.
Superman's ridership reportedly was at normal levels upon reopening.
PHOTO: A colorized print from Barutha's collection showing his daughter and
father-in-law riding a Traver Racer.
Photo from www.mitchellb.com
Feeling framed
It seemed like a great
idea. Mitchell Barutha had been photographing Kennywood amusement park in West
Mifflin, Pennsylvania for two years and this work had been booked for a gallery
exhibit. With the park's Thunderbolt roller coaster undergoing reconstruction
during the winter, why not use some of the leftover wood to frame his colorized
black-and-white prints for the show?
However, the park's maintenance crew balked. This being Kennywood, where nothing
gets tossed, they claimed they would reuse that wood someday somewhere in the
park. But Kennywood's publicity director, Mary Lou Rosemeyer, intervened and
Barutha got enough Thunderbolt pieces to frame nine of his photographs.
"The character of that wood really tells you it's part of that roller coaster,"
said Barutha, who has also worked in carpentry. "When you cut into this wood
you know it's old wood, the growth rings were really tight. And it just has
a smell." Though he brushed off loose paint flecks and applied a single polyurethane
seal, he didn't alter the wood's look, so the frames "look kind of beat up,
dirty white and chipped."
His show "Bits and Pieces of Kennywood: Hand-Colored Photographs by Mitchell
Barutha" runs August 30 through September 27 at John Stobart's Three Rivers
Gallery in Pittsburgh. Barutha, with support of the Kennywood staff, traipsed
through the park in all seasons the past two years recording images with black-and-white
film. He then colorizes the photographs with oil pastels and color pencils.
"They look more painterly than painted," he said.
The show will feature more than 30 photographs along with Kennywood memorabilia
loaned by the park. The downtown gallery is located in the Union Trust Building
which also has a shopping arcade, where the famous yellow "Kennywood" arrows
will be placed in windows directing pedestrians to the gallery.
The memorabilia that's already causing a buzz, though, are the coaster-wood
picture frames. One of the frames will contain a photo Barutha took
at the top of the Thunderbolt's drop into the ravine. After the exhibit
Barutha plans to replace the photos in the other eight coaster frames with this
photo to sell to the public. They'll likely go fast. Barutha took the original
Thunderbolt-framed Thunderbolt photograph, along with other samples,
to show gallery owner Frank Russen what the exhibit would entail. Another client
happened to see the Thunderbolt photo leaning against the wall and immediately
purchased it. "They sold one already before the show started. That's very encouraging,"
Barutha said. "I wish I could get more of the wood because there seems to be
an interest in this."
For more samples of "Bits and Pieces of Kennywood" on Barutha's web site, click
here.
The Root cause
When Rick Root left his position
as general manager of White Water in Atlanta last fall, he decided to take a
year off before looking for a new job. In that time he traveled. "My son just
turned 16 months old and he's been to 30 states," Root said. "I thought I would
get in 50 by the time he was 2."
The Roots' travels have been put on hold for awhile after he took the reins
of the World Waterpark Association as president and CEO August 13. He accepted
the job forged over 20 years by the late Al Turner, but Root doesn't have any
pretensions of filling the WWA founder's shoes. "He was the man who created
something out of nothing," Root said. "I shied away purposely from comparisons
to Al, but I realize people will naturally make those comparisons. We have an
association of 1,200 members in 52 countries. My role is to facilitate the members'
involvement in their association and assure we bring all the resources that
exist to those members."
To accomplish such a task the board of directors pondered recruiting an association
professional, but decided the better route would be a waterpark industry veteran.
"The majority of the board wanted to stay inside the industry," said Terry Turner,
WWA chairman and vice president of construction, maintenance and engineering
at Paramount's Carowinds in Charlotte, North Carolina. "With his long-term experience
as an operator, he has working knowledge of all the suppliers. We don't need
to bring in somebody new and train him in all the players. (Root) knows all
the players."
Root, who has served on the WWA board since 1997, counted 15 years of experience
as a waterpark operator, starting at Summer Waves on Jekyll Island, Georgia.
He joined Silver Dollar City's White Water in Branson, Missouri, in 1990 and
rose through the ranks to become general manager of the company's Atlanta property
before Six Flags bought it in 1999. Root also has been attending WWA's annual
conventions since 1986 and has been a favorite speaker at the conventions' symposiums
for 13 years. "I see the difficulties our park members have faced first hand
and a lot of issues important to suppliers, too," he said. "That said, there's
a huge amount of stuff I'm going to need to learn, because the role of park
operator is certainly different from that of an association."
He is getting that on-the-job training at a crucial time. The association is
moving toward its 21st annual symposium and trade show in Orlando, Florida,
October 9-13, six months after Al Turner's death. Root said the staff has kept
the course through these trying months, and the association is on track for
meeting its goals for attendance among both members and suppliers. Though it's
a daunting time, he's glad he took the position when he did. "I think it would
not have done anybody any good, myself included, to start the day after the
convention."
"We talked about whether to wait after the convention, but we wanted to make
a statement," Terry Turner said. "We wanted everybody to know we're stable,
we're taking care of business, and everything is carrying forward."
For more information on Root and the WWA, visit their web site at www.waterparks.com.
Invitation to TEA
In an attempt to boost its exposure and
widen its accessibility, the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) has revamped
its annual awards ceremony to make it more inviting for industry employees and
the public to participate. Though still a black-tie event fetching $125 per
ticket, the September 22 "Thea Awards" gala will abandon the sit-down dinner
format of the past and use the Alex Theatre in Glendale, California, as a venue
to honor themers' achievements. The association also is selling tickets on its
web site (www.themeit.com) and through
amusementpark.com.
"It's more conducive to having a broader spectrum of audience in attendance,"
said Jim Presnal, the association's executive director. "If' you've got people
seated at round tables, you're inherently stuck with matching strangers with
strangers. That would have been even more challenging for us had we had civilians
coming in. This year, it's easier with reserved seats in a theater setting:
you still get a chance to mingle, but it will be more casual."
The mingling element is an important aspect of the gala and a primary reason
TEA teamed up with amusementpark.com to widen availability of tickets. "They
could reach young people in the industry trying to promote themselves," Presnal
said of the web site's role. "(Amusementpark.com) has been very proactive in
contacting us to find out what we're up to and make (that news) available to
the people who visit their site." For amusementpark.com, which has been selling
amusement park tickets and posting industry news since its debut in May, this
is the first time the site has sold tickets to a particular event, said Joie
Pitre, the site's vice president of marketing.
The neon-brimming, art deco Alex Theatre seats 1,500 people; TEA is currently
only selling the 740 floor seats to its 8th Annual Thea Awards gala. The awards
are based on nominations turned in last November and honor achievements in theming
at "attractions across a broad spectrum," Presnal said, from theme parks to
museums, retail stores to workout facilities. This year Theas are going to the
following winners, (TEA's web site has links to descriptions of the facilities
and their creative teams):
Lifetime Achievement: Tony Baxter
Thea Classic: Silver Dollar City
Attraction: Millennium Village Event
Attraction: Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle of the Buccaneer Gold
Attraction: Nickelodeon Flying Super Saturator
Attraction: Men in Black Alien Attack
Event Spectacular: Sydney 2000 Olympics Opening Ceremony
Visitor Center: The Great Platte River Road Archway Monument
Visitor Center: HollandRama
Marine Park: Discovery Cove
Interactive Sound and Light Show: Lights of Liberty Show
Theme Park: Kid's City / La Ciudad de los Niños
Themed Retail: Desert Passage
Corporate Land: Volkswagen Autostadt
Achievement on a Limited Budget: Exploration in the New Millennium
Achievement on a Limited Budget: L'Oxygenarium
Breakthrough Innovation: Stealth World's First Flying Coaster
Breakthrough Innovation: Disney's FASTPASS
New Arrivals
PHOTO of Suzanne Melas standing in front of Icarus. Photo courtesy of Waterworld Waterpark
It's a
water slide!
Waterworld Waterpark in Ayia Napa,
Cyprus, announces the arrival of The Fall of Icarus, August 11, 2001.
Measurements: 9.6 meters high (32 feet), 21.9-meter-long bullet flume launch
(73 feet), 51.4-meter-long boomerang ramp (170 feet). Delivered by Whitewater
West.
The sun was not up yet, but no matter. The rest of the ride was ready so Waterworld
simply had the ride operating when the park opened that Saturday morning. Realizing
the unusual-looking contraption—the first Whitewater West Boomerango Ride
installed in the world—was finally open after season-long construction,
"people rushed over. It got the longest queue," said Suzanne Melas, Waterworld's
managing director.
By sun we don't mean the real heavenly body; that, in fact, was ever-present
on the cloudless, sweltering day. Rather we mean a Grecian sun that was supposed
to be perched atop the boomerang ramp. In its Ancient Greece theming apropos
the rest of Waterworld's look, The Fall of Icarus has riders in one-person
or two-person rafts descend a single-lane chute from a Greek temple tower and
ascend to the sun—like the ride's namesake— before sliding back to
earth and over a hump where water sprays douse them as they head into the run-out
toward the splash pool. The mythological sun would not rise to its place until
a week later.
However, because Icarus had been generating so much interest during its
building, the park decided to forego putting that shining touch on the structure
for the time being. Park officials also did no opening ceremony, per se. "The
opening ceremony was me going down to test it out," Melas said. "We're far too
busy in the peak season to do anything more." Still, Icarus' debut day
could not have been more opportune. Neutrino of the British garage band So Solid
Crew, whose single "21 Seconds" was topping the United Kingdom Top 40 charts,
happened to be in the park. Melas herded camera crews to record Neutrino's first
ride on Icarus, and he emerged with the most suitable of sound bites:
"That was the best 21 seconds I have had in ages." News crews also watched the
mayor of Lavrio Athens, Greece, Stavros Papastavropoulos, take his first ride
and issue a quick excited comment as he hurried back up the steps for a second
go-round.
PHOTO of Mayor
Papastavropoulos taking a dousing spin on Icarus. Photo
courtesy of Waterworld Waterpark
Waterworld has seen immediate returns on Icarus in more ways than one.
Thanks to a large number of local residents visiting the park, Melas said, attendance
has shot above the normal levels of this peak period when the Cypriot resort
is packed with vacationers. "All the locals have been waiting for the ride to
open. Even the return holiday-makers have been waiting for the new ride," she
said. "What attracted me when I purchased the ride was the shape, the idea,
the movement, the drop, the flying feature and to-and-fro. We've had the same
reaction from the visitors."
PHOTO
of riders preparing to launch on VertiGo at Cedar Point. Photo
by Dan Feicht/Cedar Point
It's
a launch ride!
Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio,
announces the arrival of VertiGo, August 11, 2001. Measurements: six
seats on a triangular carriage, three 265-foot-tall towers (80 meters), a flight
of almost 300 feet up (91 meters). Delivered by S&S Power.
One minute children are trundling around a kiddie go-kart track, the next minute
adults are somersaulting 300 feet in the air. That's the way it seemed to Cedar
Point's Challenge Park guests as S&S' newest thrill ride debuted at the end
of the summer season in a spot where the kiddie go-kart track started the season.
Construction on the prototype ride broke ground July 2, and 40 days later at
6:45 p.m. on a Saturday the first park guest paid $10 to ride the air-launched
platform to sub-heaven.
Like other late-season additions around the industry, this one had no grand
opening ceremony. "I said, 'Hey, we're open,' and they started selling tickets,"
said Bill Spehn, Cedar Point's director of park operations. Nevertheless, the
crowds came. Though the reservation schedule was padded to allow operators time
to get accustomed to the routine, VertiGo saw steady business on its
first night.
VertiGo also passed its most important test that night as an up-charge
attraction: guests came back. Spehn, watching the opening evening operations,
noticed a well-to-do gentleman ride it, return later to ride with his teen-age
daughter, then the two of them returned later with a younger daughter "just
barely meeting the 52-inch restriction," Spehn said, and all three rode it together.
The ride is designed to inspire return visits in that it can be configured to
take four different attitudes as it ascends and descends: remain upright throughout
the ride (called "Hot Rocket"), ride upright to the climax, tilt forward 150
degree and nose-dive back to earth ("Cosmic Flip"), tilt forward immediately
after launch and fly nose down up and back ("Big Bang"), and fly nose down to
the climax where you turn upright "and you're able to see your kingdom, the
peninsula, all of mother earth," Spehn said. That last one is called "Big Bang
Plus."
Spehn and Cedar Point GM Dan Keller were the first non S&S riders to take VertiGo
a couple of days before it opened. "You launch up in this thing, and there's
restraint but you're wide open," he said. "And you are free. It's like you decided
to get out of your seat in an airplane and just hang there for a second. After
the ride you get off it, high-five each other and buy the video."
Eric’s Turn
PHOTO of
Eric and Sarah wearing T-shirts bearing elephant art. Photo
by Lynne Mosman
Zoo school
of art
Upon discovering that she was chosen
to submit a new painting for an art show to be exhibited by THE LOOP, Lucille
reportedly squealed in excitement. Lucille is a Tamworth pig at the Sedgwick
County Zoo in Wichita, Kansas, and she loves to paint. Even before her keepers
put the canvas on the board, Lucille was rubbing her snout across the easel
in anticipation.
Such has been the enthusiasm we created when we started gathering works of art
for the first-ever Cyber Animal Art Show to be posted with the next edition
of THE LOOP (for your invitation, click here).
We will be posting the show to coincide with the American Zoo and Aquarium Association's
annual conference in St. Louis, Missouri, Sept. 7-11. Already we have promised
submissions from Lucille, a rhinoceros, several elephants (both Asian and African)
and penguins. Zoos and animal collections contributing to the cyber art gallery
will have their web sites linked through the art, and the accompanying issue
of THE LOOP will highlight some of the pioneer painters and the zoos who use
painting for animal enrichment, research and fund raising.
Our own first encounter with this school of painters came when Sarah and I visited
Colorado last month. We learned of Lucky's elephantine work at Cheyenne Mountain
Zoo in Colorado Springs, then saw the gallery featuring the paintings of Mshindi
Rhinoceros at the Denver Zoo, Also at Denver visiting elephants Rosie and Amigo
put on a painting display, prompting us to purchase suitable souvenirs (pictured
above). Such masterworks of abstract impressionism should be broadcast to the
world, we decided, and that spawned this special art show.
You still have time to contribute: the deadline for submissions is August 31.
You can send jpegs or gifs and a bio of the artist to eric@gettheloop.com.
Not a pig? Not an artist? Don't worry, you can still be involved in this exciting
event. We are seeking sponsors for this exhibit and have a value-filled package
available. Here's a great chance for your company to show support for our friends
(both kinds) in the industry. Click
here for details.
PHOTO of Pat Koch holding a water blaster. Photo by Sarah-Janette
Smith
Return visit
The last we had talked with Pat Koch, owner of Holiday World in Santa Claus,
Indiana, she was upbeat and almost eager to take on her battle with colon cancer
(LOOP May 18). Since then she has
been through chemo sickness, a deadly bacterial infection, radiation burns,
surgery and moments when she wasn't sure she would live through the next day.
When we talked with her Tuesday, she was cancer free and heading back out to
her park to greet guests and manage the staff.
That attitude of hers going into the summer had more to do with her full recovery
than medical treatment, according to her own doctors. After her August 3 surgery
and subsequent pathology report showed no cancer anywhere in her system, the
oncologist told Mrs. Koch: "I don't know why this happened. You were very determined,
you were in good condition when you went into this, but I also know you had
so much prayer and love and support. We'll just leave it at that."
In July when she spent 12 days in the hospital suffering the effects of infection
and damage to her intestines from the radiation treatment, Mrs. Koch, who turned
70 August 14, was, by her own reckoning, totally un-Koch-like. "I've never felt
so completely helpless," she said. "I realize now how sick I was because I didn't
want to get up and do anything. I didn't even want to read." She finally regained
enough strength and stamina to withstand the long-planned surgery to remove
the tumor, and it was scheduled, ironically, for Holiday World's 55th anniversary.
Her family went to lunch while she headed for what turned out to be a short
operation.
She recalled lying in the recovery room and the surgeon walking in, touching
her hand and saying "I couldn't find anything: I think you're cured." "When
I started to come out of it, I wasn't sure where I was or what had happened.
Did I die and go to heaven? Who was that person and what did he say?" Later
the surgeon told Mrs. Koch she was "every surgeon's worse nightmare. I got in
there and thought, 'am I in the wrong place or do I have the wrong person? There's
nothing here.'"
Paula Werne, Holiday World's director of public relations, sent the good news
out on the coaster enthusiast networks, notifying the park's worldwide base
of fans who had constantly pumped Mrs. Koch with encouragement. "I know this
healing is because of all the love and support," Mrs. Koch said. "It made such
a difference in how I felt that so many people cared. I'm humbled that so many
people prayed for me and sent me cards and wrote me notes. Some enthusiasts
sent me church bulletins with my name highlighted in their prayer lists. I don't
want to have cancer again, but it's a wonderful experience to know that you're
loved so much. It's a nice thing to know."