Before you start screaming in the comments that New Jersey’s Action Park was actually the first amusement park to have a water slide with a vertical loop back in the ’80s, you’ll be happy to hear that’s exactly where this one is headed come 2016. Except that this updated version will actually house riders in a reinforced aluminium pod so that they can easily clear the loop without injury, and without lawsuit.
This video features a prototype of the Sky Calibre ride that’s now being tested by Avalanche Waterslides in Missouri. Riders plunge down a 90-degree, 13.72m long free-fall that sends them blasting through the 9.14m tall loop at speeds as fast as 80km per hour. It’s a short ride for an attraction that costs $US1.4 million to build, but what kid hasn’t dreamed of blasting through a loop without being tethered to a track like on a roller coaster?
There’s not a parent on earth who would let their kid try a stunt like this in their own backyard, so Action Park will be the only place to try it. [LA Times via Laughing Squid]