Volume 3, No. 13. July 11, 2003
New Arrivals
It’s
a flume ride!
Crealy Adventure Park in Devon, England, announces the arrival of Tidal Wave,
July 5, 2003. Measurements: 11.5 meters (37 3/4 feet) high, 200 meters (656
feet) long, 2,000-square-meter (21,528-square-foot) footprint, eight logs. Delivered
by L&T Ride Systems and Space Leisure.
Crealy
opened its largest capital improvement ever on schedule Saturday; the second
schedule, that is. The park had originally ordered a flume from Reverchon with
a targeted opening date in May, but when the manufacturer’s financial troubles
interfered with the ride’s delivery, Crealy’s owners turned to L&T
Ride Systems of Bologna, Italy. “What we ended up with was a lot more than
we expected,” said the park’s managing director Angela Wright. “The
quality of the engineering is really impressive, as is the solidity of the construction,”
she said referring to the flume’s galvanized iron.
The
park had already sent brochures with Tidal Wave’s original opening
date, and consequently had to reprint a new batch. “Thank goodness we have
a lot of good will in our park anyway, so there was a lot of understanding,”
Wright said. Besides, Crealy had not raised its admission price for this season,
so people had no incentive for complaining about a ride that wasn’t there
in the first place.
Tidal
Wave, sporting Polynesian theming by Space Leisure, covers more area of
Crealy than any of the park’s other eight rides, and its 11.5-meter second
drop (the first drop is 6.5 meters/21 feet) is the highest ride point in the
park, outreaching the 8-meter (26-foot) El Pastil Loco family roller
coaster. “It’s a bit of a step up for us,” Wright said. Yet,
still, a family ride.
To
stress that point, for the opening ceremony Wright had her 100-year-old grandmother,
her mother join and her 4-year-old daughter join her to cut the ribbon. Both
her grandmother and daughter are named Amy, and with local radio covering the
event Wright illustrated how Crealy Adventure Park could appeal to four generations.
However, when it came time for taking the first official ride on Tidal Wave, only three generations boarded the log. “I didn’t take grandmum on the flume,” Angela said. “She watched from the safety of the station.” The age range was impressive, nevertheless, from 4-year-old Amy to mother Marion who, Angela said, “is slightly older than me, and slightly younger than my grandmum.”
THE LOOP is written and produced by Eric Minton, Minton Enterprises, LLC. To see more examples of Eric Minton's work and Minton Enterprises services, visit www.ericminton.com.
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