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

I had to look this up and here is the wiki link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_Park#Cannonball_Loop. That waterslide is bonkers.

holy shit 9Gs is brutal

Ok now how can I unimagine this?

I think it’s more to due to the radius.

It’s hard to tell the exact size from the picture, but the diameter of that loop seems to be at least several meters.

The one at action park was like 2 wide.

A bigger circle means less G forces while going around the loop, and less injuries. But action park rides were designed and built by the owner, who was not an engineer and apparently did not know any engineers. I’m pretty sure if you mentioned angular velocity to him, he’d just say that’s a sick name for a ride and then run away to get to a hardware store as fast as possible.

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.

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

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.

hippo guy?

On the next cofishioner...