'Action Park' (YES that Action Park) is back for the summer

[larrygator]

Because you can never get enough Action Park

 

http://www.dailyrecord.com/story/news/local/2015/07/09/action-park-debuting-worlds-longest-waterslide/29934701/?from=global&sessionKey=&autologin=

 

Action Park debuting world’s longest waterslide

Michael Izzo, @MIzzoDR 6 p.m. EDT July 9, 2015

 

 

VERNON – A water park that already carries its share of lore is about to get a little more wild, as Action Park will soon debut the World’s Longest Waterslide.

 

The 2,000-foot-long slide was brought over from New Zealand and rebuilt on Mountain Creek’s ski slopes.

 

The first round of employee testing will begin Friday, and representatives from the Guinness Book of World Records will be on-site to confirm the ride officially qualifies as the longest.

 

The World’s Longest Waterslide, made of 20 1,000-foot sections of polyvinyl chloride plastic, is not yet approved by the state Department of Community Affairs, so non-employees cannot yet ride it.

 

The slide was brought to the United States from New Zealand, where it was designed and built by Jimi Hunt, who had no prior experience working with waterslides.

 

When Action Park President Bill Benneyan first learned of the slide, he said he had to have it for the park, as it fit perfectly with its history of “backyard-style rides.”

 

"This Waterslide screams 'Action Park' and we knew our resort would be the perfect home for it," Benneyan said. "What's more wild and crazy than flying nearly half a mile down a ski mountain on the World's Longest Waterslide?"

 

Benneyan arranged for the waterslide to be shipped from New Zealand to New Jersey without knowing if it would survive the trip.

 

Its journey to Action Park can be seen on an upcoming episode of Travel Channel’s “Xtreme Waterparks” series, airing July 26, at 10 p.m. An earlier episode of the show aired in June and chronicled the construction of the slide.

 

One of the country's first waterparks, Action Park was open between 1978 and 1996, but closed due to a change in ownership. The park reopened as Mountain Creek Waterpark in 1998 with many of the same rides.

 

A few summer’s ago, a viral video about the park titled “The Most Insane Amusement Park Ever" cause Benneyan to reconsider, re-opening the water park under its original Action Park name in 2014.

 

Benneyan has since brought in rides that safely follow in the original Action Park’s footsteps, like Zero-G, the world’s tallest double looping drop-box waterslide, which was also featured on “Xtreme Waterparks.”

 

Action Park has more than 30 rides, slides and attractions, including the Cliff Jumps, Tarzan Swings and Colorado Rapids River Ride.

[ejot]

Well that's awesome. I'll be here Sunday for my first ever visit, will try to grab some pictures of this. Sounds like it won't be open though.

[boldikus]

^ ^ I just watched that Xtreme Waterparks/Travel Channel episode about that dude Jimi building the slide in New Zealand. Easily my favorite episode of that show, dude is awesome. Crazy its coming here.

[SharkTums]

Just watched a more 'real' video of the slide on the Today Show this morning and it was slow and painful. Looked completely pointless, uninteresting, and rough. They were trying to make jokes when the woman riding kept stopping and having to push herself off or when she would say "oh, or ow".

[KBrylczyk]

^ What Elissa said. This thing looks like it's an ER visit waiting to happen.

 

[youtu_be]

[/youtu_be]

 

I mean, I'm all for nostalgia, but do we really want Traction Park to return?

[ejot]

The Today show clip was definitely disappointing as the reporter did get stuck a few times on her way down. On the other hand, a few rider-POV's from park employee runs have been posted showing them maintaining a good pace. I think rider technique comes into play strongly on something this long - stay streamlined and rigid and you'll go well - get all loosey-goosey and react to splashes, accelerations... maybe get stuck ?

 

It's also interesting that in the Travel Channel episode about the construction of the slide, they portray one of the testing days as: slide not working at all all morning, people getting stuck, etc. Then in the afternoon it suddenly starts working great and everyone gets good runs. So it might be very sensitive to who-knows-what variables, that are not yet well quantified. Temperature, humidity, exact inflation level...

 

Since there is naturally not a clear plot this long within the waterpark, they have this set up off to the side under a ski lift. I didn't notice it until the end of my visit on Sunday. It was deflated and vacant by the time I walked over to check it out. They have it routed over a jump that would definitely give nice air at 35 or 40mph (claimed max speeds). Overall I'm excited to give this a shot if they get it open. Next year, I'm thinking.

 

__________________________________________

 

Going to put a quick TR and some impressions of the park here while I'm at it. We had an absolute blast. And I even have a huge bruise on my back, just like I'm supposed to! : P

 

The day started off with a little hiccup. I'd pre-purchased tickets online and printed them out. Arriving at the park, there was a huge line queued out front of the ski lodge waiting on windows marked "Tickets". Typically one of the perks of having pre-paid tickets is bypassing these types of lines, so we happily walked past and got in the bag check line. After a 25min wait, we get to the bag checkers and he goes, "Sorry man, you need wristbands past this point," and motioned me to turn around. I asked where I was supposed to have gotten a wrist band and he told me at the lodge. Thankfully, he was very kind and let my partner wait by him with our bags while I went back for wristbands, so that we wouldn't have to wait in the whole bag check queue again. I went inside the lodge, found a guest relations booth with a small line, and asked the lady where I could pickup wristbands for my printed tickets. She told me I was supposed to have waited in the ticket line (!) but that she could go ahead and print them out for me. We just found it a very odd process with signage completely lacking.

 

But no matter, we were in, and excited to ride! I feared that fluffy bunnies would be sold out, but it was no problem getting one, not even a wait.

 

After a quick blast down Surf Hill to get things going with some competitive spirit (I won yay!), we headed up the hill (and holy crap - you get a real workout here!) to the H2-Oh-no! / Zero-G tower. Whenever a trap-door slide is the tamer of the choices in front of you, it's probably going to be a fun day. Passing a sizeable queue on the stairs for that one, we found ourselves the only guests willing to tackle the speed slide at that moment - a true walk on! This slide is very thrilling and introduced water into previously unknown depths of my nasal cavity. After another round we hit up the trap door slide which was a much better experience than my go at SFNE. Very smooth yet forceful.

 

Overheard a local talking about the speed slides there in the heydays. He claimed one was far steeper - virtually vertical - than the current one and actually had a net over the top that you would distinctly brush against on your way down (while touching no part of the slide itself)!

 

It was already lunchtime and we were hungry so started checking out food options. Settled on a sit-down BBQ deal right in the middle of the park with a deck that overlooked the High Tide wave pool. It was totally empty, the service was outstanding, prices only moderately jacked up, and food was quite good. Wave pool was putting out the biggest waves we'd ever seen at such an attraction ... they would fully break, still a foot and a half high, at the very back of the pool. Meant to get in there but ended up not getting around to it.

 

After stuffing our faces we of course immediately headed to the most gut-wrenching ride in the park - Cannonball Falls. After a short, fast, twisty run through a tight, small diameter, pitch-black slide, you empty into a very deep, very cold pool by means of a ten foot plunge! It is incredibly nerve-wracking as you begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel, knowing what awaits you. Really, really exhilarating, and a definite reride. Three riders after us, an obvious non-swimmer plunged in, shot a terrified look at the lifeguard, and got rescued.

 

The exit of this slide takes you by the Tarzan Swings viewing gallery, where we spent a few entertaining minutes watching some very skilled and very unskilled jumpers. A few guys were doing crazy aerobatic flips off the rope. One guy's grip slipped and he fell straight in immediately, to a huge round of audience laughter. Another totally butchered a flip and belly-flopped from 10' in the air to a huge collective groan/"oooohhhh" from the crowd. Granted: this place is highly neutered compared to its original incarnation. And yet we still felt some jubilant awe at the fact it exists, in 2015, in the United States. With a little effort, you can definitely still get yourself hurt here.

 

Once dried off a bit, headed down to the entrance area for their Alpine Mountain Coaster. It was much cheaper than most of them: $5 for a ride and $8 for two rides. We did two rides and had the good fortune to go brake-less both times. Certainly not the longest, steepest, fastest, or most thrilling mountain coaster, but a great time nonetheless. You can ride in your swim suit.

 

High Anxiety is one of the original ProSlide Tornados and had a serious line. We did wait it out, and it was fun but of course nothing earth shattering. Alpine Pipeline next door also had a big wait. It is an excellent, moderately thrilling, partially closed/partially open two-person raft slide. Would have been happy to reride this all day long had the wait been short, but alas, had to be a one-n-done for the day.

 

We then headed over to the Wild River Canyon part of the park, expecting the best rides to be behind us. Oh how wrong we were! I'm guessing that much of this section is retained from the original Action Park. A short, straight, concrete body slide drops you 18' into a pool. There are man-made cliffs directly adjacent where you can jump 18' and 23' into the same pool. Passing on these and making our way down to the pool level, we grabbed tubes for what would be three really terrific whitewater tube rides. These are completely home-brewed, and completely off-the-chain. The Gauley is single-person only and was my favorite, with a seriously steep drop at the end that I took backwards, MAJOR surprise factor.

 

And yet the best ride of the day was still to come. After climbing back up out of the canyon and sitting for a beer at the highly popular Tiki bar, we shuffled over to the Colorado River raft ride which had an overflowing queue. It looked like an 1hr+ kind of line, but in about half that we were rolling our massive raft up to the entrance and in the water. This was basically the home-brewed tube rides previously described... on steroids, in a 4-person raft. It is white-water rafting, and you get drenched, unlike the lame-o corporate dry park raft rides. I started getting the giggles immediately and by halfway thru was laughing completely uncontrollably. We absolutely HAD to do it again, despite the line.

 

With that, it was closing time, and we went home still smiling and laughing. I'd intended to put some time aside to take pictures, but was having so much fun it never materialized.

 

And I have no clue what the big bruise was from. It has a mesh pattern imprinted in it.

 

.

World's longest slide, direct from New Zealand. They had it set up across from the waterpark under a ski lift - this jump could make for some nice airtime!

The slide viewed from across the road, headed back to parking lot

[Ape]

I think this thing looks fun.

 

 

https://youtu.be/dk9RSr43bxk

[HartmannHunter22]

 

360 on the JUMP

 

Also:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVVKko7aopE

[KBrylczyk]

That...that isn't a waterslide. That's just a tarp they threw on the ground with bowling lane bumpers on the side. Also looks ridiculously painful to ride.

[DoinItForTheFame]

That...that isn't a waterslide. That's just a tarp they threw on the ground with bowling lane bumpers on the side. Also looks ridiculously painful to ride.

 

These were my thoughts when I watched the video. It just looks like a really long painful Slip-N-Slide.

 

When I think "water slide" I think of this:

 

 

NOT This:

 

[gp1086]

I NEED to get back to Action Park. Kind of wish I was there in the heyday.

 

Are there any other waterpark a with cliff jumps (love the one at Action)?

 

Great TR a few posts back.

[gp1086]

Any news / previews / etc. for the new vertical loop slide (Sky Caliber) slated for 2016? Recognize we're still a few months from opening this year, but haven't seen anything recently.

 

http://www.nj.com/sussex-county/index.ssf/2015/03/action_parks_infamous_cannonball_loop_to_make_a_co.html

[ejot]

I wonder if the looping slide project was canned. Never heard any further news and don't see anything on their site. Just sent them a question about it. Anyone been here this year?

[gp1086]

I wonder if the looping slide project was canned. Never heard any further news and don't see anything on their site. Just sent them a question about it. Anyone been here this year?

Seems like it was canned (along with the "longest waterslide" they were promoting at the end of last season). They actually quietly dropped the "Action Park" name again this year and are now Mountain Creek again.

[Midgetman82]

I wonder if the looping slide project was canned. Never heard any further news and don't see anything on their site. Just sent them a question about it. Anyone been here this year?

Seems like it was canned (along with the "longest waterslide" they were promoting at the end of last season). They actually quietly dropped the "Action Park" name again this year and are now Mountain Creek again.

Woah! They still own the URL actionpark.com, but the title on the page now calls it Mountain Creek Waterpark... Was there a sudden and quiet shift in management recently or something?!

 

Personally speaking, I do prefer this name over "Action Park."

[A.J.]

Woah! They still own the URL actionpark.com, but the title on the page now calls it Mountain Creek Waterpark... Was there a sudden and quiet shift in management recently or something?!

They've been known as Mountain Creek Waterpark since they reopened back in the late 90s, they probably brought back the Action Park name a few years ago to cash in on nostalgia, nothing more. The park did technically change hands last year but I'm pretty sure it's keeping the name "Mountain Creek Waterpark" for family ties to the ski resort of the same name.

[thesman]

well the park did change owners a few years ago back to the original owners, then changed the name to action park for about 2 seasons, guess it was just for publicity. But I liked the Action Park name better.

[canadianparkfan]

Not sure about the looping slide, but seems like the world's longest slide was only there for a limited time as a publicity stunt.

 

[RaceBoarder]

 

So this should be an interesting look into things. This seems like it was quite the gong show for kids who grew up in Jersey 30 years ago. I'm intrigued by this park and am curious how the documentary turns out.

[AmyUD06]

As someone who frequented Action Park as a kid, and has done tons of personal research on it as an adult, that video blows everything WAY out of proportion. Besides, the story's been documented so many times already and hasn't changed, so whatever this person is putting together might as well be plagiarism or even falsehood.

 

EDIT: Yeah, I just watched it through again. Mostly utter BS.

[RaceBoarder]

As someone who frequented Action Park as a kid, and has done tons of personal research on it as an adult, that video blows everything WAY out of proportion. Besides, the story's been documented so many times already and hasn't changed, so whatever this person is putting together might as well be plagiarism or even falsehood.

 

EDIT: Yeah, I just watched it through again. Mostly utter BS.

 

Care to elaborate? If this in indeed click-bait, I'm curious.

[AmyUD06]

Well, let's start that for the life of the park, a total of 6 people ever died there. Three were drownings (not the park's fault), one was a heart attack caused by jumping into cold water (not the parks fault), one was where an employee flew off the Alpine Slide and hit his head (self-controlled attraction, not the parks fault), and ONE, and grand total of ONE, could be attributed to negligence on the park's part: a kayak flipped and the deceased made contact with exposed electrical wiring, executing him. In that instance, the park did the right thing and never re-opened the attraction.

 

Compare to Six Flags Great Adventure, where 8 people died in the Haunted Castle fire which, while not started by the park, the construction of the building and lack of sprinklers didn't help. And the woman who fell out of Lightin' Loops because operators neglected to properly check her harness. Then there's injuries on the Joker caused by mechanical failure. And so on. No one makes such a big deal about these incidents, or any other incidents at a major park, because it's not "Traction Park LOLZ."

 

Specific things in the documentary trailer that are blown out of proportion:

-Towards the beginning, the female narrator's "whistles blowing, people screaming, motors running...you knew you were jumping in to the fire pit" line stated in a fashion to imply that any of those things are bad/dangerous and not common at any amusement park.

-Male narrator's "if you lived through Action Park, you lived through an event in your life" line, also stated in a similar fashion. Obviously, countless people "lived through Action Park."

-The part about the Cannonball Loop is greatly exaggerated. No one was ever seriously hurt on it, no "teeth got stuck in the lining, etc." That is all rumor mill that was generated long after the park was closed. Fact is, the ride operated from the day it was built to the day the park was shut down when attendance necessitated it. There are numerous reports of it operating every year, but yes it was frequently closed because it wasn't very popular and the staff could be used elsewhere.

-The Woody Allen-looking dude (maybe actually Woody Allen?) "Everyone almost died there."

-The entire part about "flaming tennis balls" at the Tank Tag/Boat Tag never happened at that park, and is also technically impossible since the compressed air used to propel the tennis balls would extinguish any flame that was on them.

-"I thought this gentlemen was decapitated" - no context whatsoever given, put in the video purely for shock value.

-The old broad making a huge case about "fake, FAKE, FAKE!!!!!11!" liability insurance (which is false).

-Anything Jimmy Fallon or that idiot from Jackass had to say.

 

Yes, there was some controversy over Mr. Mulvihill's funding, insurance coverage, and frequent injuries at the park. But it was nowhere bad as the modern publicity about the park makes it sound.

 

I highly recommend reading through the Center of the Action Blog, which is comprised of stories from former employees, for an accurate look at the park.

 

Weird NJ also did a pretty good write up on the place a back in 2005, but even they go for shock factor at times.

 

Basically what I was trying to say that every LEGITIMATE story about this place has already been told, and that this documentary will be literally incapable of saying anything new or doing anything other than raising "SJW furor" over the fact that a place without padded handrails at every turn was allowed to exist. There have been numerous pieces written over the past few years to that effect, none of which I'm going to link to because they're trash, that say the same thing this documentary will be trying to.

 

Yes, it was real. Yes, people got hurt. No, it was in no way the most dangerous place to ever have existed.

[larrygator]

While reports of the Action Park are generally sensationalized it was more dangerous than a typical outing to an amusement park. Just not from a life and death standpoint.

 

Everyone I know who went to Action Park has a story to tell of seeing someone getting hurt or injured. Granted many of those accidents were brought upon by the stupidity of someone not obeying the rules.

[SharkTums]

^^Very well put together. It seems everything today must be over sensationalized or people just don't care. It's like what we're accustomed to at this point.

 

^I don't think that's actually that rare, I mean, pretty much every time I'm at an amusement park I see someone injured or requiring medical attention. When you put that many people together in an unfamiliar setting stuff happens. We have a rule even just in our three person family that it's not a trip to the water park until someone's bleeding...and we're experienced park goers!

[thesman]

2 things to note, The cannon ball loop was closed most the time and would only open periodically. And while the park did have insurance, it was in the Cayman Islands making and owned by the same owners of the resort making it somewhat fake