All About the River Rapids Ride

Have you been to an amusement park and seen a ride with a round raft that takes riders down a river with rapids? This type of attraction is what’s known as a River Rapids Ride and it’s a staple at many parks around the world.

In this article, you’ll learn a little history about the River Rapids, who makes them, how they and some of the different attractions available to thrill seekers today!

A Brief History of the River Rapids Ride

The River Rapids ride first became an amusement park concept in the late 70s. Bill Crandall, who was the general manager of now defunct AstroWorld, proposed the idea of an attraction that would mimic a white water rapids raft ride.

Crandall enjoyed white water rafting himself and was intrigued by the artificial white water river created in Munich for the 1972 Olympic Games. This combination gave him the brilliant idea to adapt the artificial river into an amusement park attraction.

Thunder river was manufactured by Intamin. This would become the very first River Rapids Ride to be created.

Thunder River: The First Rapid Ride

Thunder River made it’s debut at Six Flags AstroWorld in 1980. While the original is long gone, there are two Thunder Rivers that still operate at Six Flags Over Georgia and Six Flags St. Louis.

It took seven years to design the river ride with Intamin and six months to actually install it in AstroWorld. Unfortunately, even seven years of work on the ride wasn’t enough to launch it problem free. It took a solid year for the team to figure out how to overcome the challenges and then start implementing them on new installs of the attraction.

How a River Rapid Ride Works

Every one of the River Rapids Rides features the following elements:

1. An artificial river
2. Round raft for 6-12 riders
3. Elements to get the riders wet

For most of the river rapid rides, the loading station will be up high. Either guests will have to take stairs to get to the loading area, or the queue will have an incline. There are a few river rides that now feature a lift for the raft that will take the riders to the starting point of the river.

From the starting point, the raft will travel down river. The width of the channel is very important in these types of rides. The narrower the river, the higher the water velocity will be.

To create the rapids, there are wooden beams (or plastic tubes) secured to the bed of the river. There’s round beams, flat and they’re all spaced differently. This influences how the rapids develop in the river.

For example, if you have 1 single beam in the river, the highest point of the rapid would be after the beam. Then it would flatten out as you float away from the beam. Through lots of testing, manufacturers have figured out the perfect placements of the rapid elements to give the safest, and most thrilling rides.

The Special Elements of River Rides

There are many options that amusement parks can choose when buying a river rapid ride. Some of the various elements that can be included are:

• geysurs
• waterfalls
• drops
• tunnels
• elevators or lifts to the high point
• conveyers to the high point
• slides
• jets of water
• misting
• fog
• guest operated sprayers

Unfortunately, unlike roller coasters and dark rides, the technology of the river rapids ride hasn’t advanced much since 1980. Of course, the existing technology is sound and it’s family friendly, thrilling, and can do it’s job of cooling one down on a hot day. So maybe it’s more a case of, if it’s not broken don’t fix it?

List of Popular River Rapid Rides

This is a list of the most popular River Rapid Rides. There are well over 100 world wide in operation, but if we forgot a memorable one, please mention it in the comments below so we can add it!

0

0