RIDES
THE RIDE MAKERS Flumes, chutes and water coasters are a fi rm favourite with park guests. We meet the companies who champion the joy of the water-based ride Alice Davis, managing editor, Attractions Management
HOPKINS RIDES
DOUG SMITH VP BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, WHITEWATER ATTRACTIONS What’s the relationship between WhiteWater and Hopkins Rides? WhiteWater acquired Hopkins Rides (formerly OD Hopkins) in 2012. The water ride company has operated under the same name, Hopkins Rides, acting as a product line of WhiteWater Attractions. WhiteWater Attractions is a division of WhiteWater West Industries that manufactures dry attractions for a number of markets, including theme parks. Tell us about a few of your most recent water ride installations. WhiteWater commissioned a Super Flume in the popular South Korean theme park Everland Resort last fall. The new Super Flume, Thunder Falls, is a flume ride with an eight-person vehicle that takes riders through 485 metres (1,591 feet) of adventure. The ride features a 20metre drop (66-foot), a 180° turntable and backwards cascade drops. Prior to the Everland installation, WhiteWater Attractions worked with Calaway Park in Calgary, Canada, to deliver a Log Flume called Timber Falls. The new Log Flume, which replaced an old flume ride, improves the park’s water consumption by retaining 95 per cent of the water used to operate the ride. The ride features three drops – one where riders are sent down backwards – and a zig-zag river section. WhiteWater Attractions also recently installed a Shoot the Chute at Parque Diversiones in Costa Rica. Where do you see water ride trends going? The experiences that are popular right now are offering a combination of experiences 86 attractionsmanagement.com
Timber Falls at Calaway Park in Calgary, Alberta, is a new installation by Hopkins Rides within one ride. We’ve seen it in the waterslide side of our business with the success of our Fusion Waterslides and we are seeing similar demands in the dry attractions business. A good example of this is the Super Flume at Everland theme park, where we took the traditional water ride and added additional features, such as a rotating
Doug Smith oversees Hopkins Rides
table and backwards cascade drops, to enhance the ride experience for guests. We’ve seen some of the big amusement park players dipping their toes into hybrid parks more and more. We also know that the big developments in China are combining theme parks and waterparks within the same gate to offer a complete tourism offering. For example, Zhengzhou Yinji Kaifeng Waterpark, one of the biggest waterparks in the world, has a Shoot the Chute as a centrepiece of the waterpark. What are you doing that other ride makers aren’t? We’re taking experiences that have been successful in other products in our portfolio and integrating them into amusement rides. Having years of experience in waterpark and waterpark attraction design, we know the kinds of experiences that work really well to achieve different results and we’re applying that expertise to our water rides. Our goal is to help our clients succeed and if we can AM 1 2016 ©CYBERTREK 2016