Volume 1, No. 9. June 1, 2001
It's a waterslide tower!
Six Flags New Jersey's Hurricane Harbor in Jackson,
New Jersey, announces the arrival of Hurricane Mountain, May 26, 2001.
Measurements: 49 feet high (15 meters), six slides, 2,227 feet of total slides
(675 meters), 2,300-square-foot loading platform (697 meters). Delivered by
Whitewater West Industries.
Another Memorial Day opening, another
rain-soaked weekend. Dating back to her Jersey childhood that is the way Kristin
Kocher, Six Flags Great Adventure's public relations manager, always remembered
it. Why should it be any different opening the waterpark's second season, and
with it a multi-colored slide complex featuring two four-person toboggan slides
and four innertube slides with motion-sensor-activated water gauntlets that
riders descend through? On days like this, the best guest comment you can hope
for is that the water is warmer than the air.
Kocher and her crew chose to make the best of what they knew would be a soggy
situation and show the press and public on opening day that they were positive
the summer of 2001 would be dramatically better than the incessant drench of
2000. They enlisted Hurricane Harbor's own King Kukookachoo to do a "sun dance"
with five Tahitian dancers and a fire dancer in ceremonial garb. The king read
a poem describing the founding of Hurricane Harbor and how rainy the first year
had been, then summoned all the weather gods for their blessings, which came
in a pyrotechnic flash. The ceremony would at least demonstrate a sense of humor
on a day forecasters predicted would be shower-laden.
However, after the dancers finished, the clouds started parting. The day remained
partly cloudy until after the park closed, when the rains finally came. "We
just shook our heads and said, 'We need to do this more often,'" Kocher said.
"We're confident the King Kukookachoo sun dance will prove effective, and we
may do it every year." Perhaps she could entice the king to next fall's IAAPA
show to do a fair-weather dance for the whole industry.
©2001, Minton Enterprises LLC
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