Wild
River Rapids, James Mellors
I remember
thumbing through an old Alton Towers Guidebook, remembering how back in
1986, the Grand Canyon Rapids (now Congo River Rapids) was the biggest
project the park ever undertook.
I remember
accounts of how tens of thousands of tons of rock dating back to the
Triassic period covering ten acres were forcibly removed with
explosives, and how the ride had to have a special lake and power
sub-station built to enable millions of gallons of water to be pumped
around the meandering course.
While improvements
in technology enable more rides than ever to be transportable, looking
at the grand undertaking that was Alton’s Grand Canyon Rapids, it is
understandable why fairs haven’t until recently seen a transportable
rapids ride.
Of course, while
many rides start off on the fair circuit and make the step across into
the world of theme parks (look at most of Huss’ back catalogue, for
example), for many the opposite can be said. It took three years for the
first inverted coaster (Eurostar) to debut on the fair circuit for
example.
Yet, despite the
logistics of building a ride like the Grand Canyon Rapids, this is no
excuse. The Egyptians built pyramids and someone, somehow built
Stonehenge. With little or no resources, both are standing testament to
the ingenuity of mankind, so sooner or later someone – not necessarily
an Egyptian – would work out how to pack a rapids ride onto the back
of a lorry or five.
While Fabbri take
most of the credit, it is actually Reverchon who first introduced the
so-called Spinning Rapids in 2004 with Fabbri unashamedly copying the
ride almost in its entirety.
Unlike traditional
rapids rides, the Reverchon version is loosely based on White Water
West’s ride, rides such as Parc Asterix’s L’Oxygenarium, which
first takes boats up a lift, before they skim down a series of elevated
turns and drops much like a large waterpark slide as opposed to
white-water rafting through traditional rapids sections.
While not the
civil engineering landmark that Grand Canyon Rapids was, Mellor’s ride
still weighs in at 120 tons and takes two or three days to construct.
Squeezing onto just five lorries, you do wonder why it took quite so
long to make such a ride transportable when L’Oxygenarium debuted in
1999.
Amazingly, it was
the British fair circuit that had first dibs on the Reverchon Spinning
Rapids, and James Mellors opened Wild River Rapids at Coventry in 2004,
yet – predictably – the Germans have since answered back with
Lowenthal’s phenomenal self-built Wild ‘N Wet, a 26-load behemoth
complete with rotating vertical lift.
While Blighty’s
glory was fleeting, Wild River Rapids continues to head up Mellor’s
line-up of rides. Reverchon, meanwhile, are quite the darling when it
comes to travelling family rides. Their Spinning Mouse coaster, for
example, has enjoyed unparalleled success on both sides of the English
Channel, and their Spinning Rapids look to dominate the water ride
market (along with the ever defiant Fabbri).
Like many
travelling roller coasters, Wild River Rapids is arranged in a wedge
shape, with the long lift hill framing the higher elements towards the
back and the lower turns towards the front.
What this usually
means is that the ride is perfectly staged with almost every part
visible to those walking past the ride, but ironically on Wild River
Rapids much of the ride is obscured by itself. Being elevated, the boats
are often hidden by the high-sided troughs meaning while the lift is
perfectly visible, and the drop is from a distance, the task of tempting
you on is easier said than done.
Nevertheless, the
ride makes a commendable effort. With the green structure strikingly
lit, the ride is festooned in colourful tropical montages, with light-up
palm trees littered around the circuit and forming an avenue up the side
of the lift hill on the right hand side.
Despite being a
large ride by British standards, for the family everything is still
reassuringly dinky. The elevated station is a small canvass-covered
affair, and boats pass through on a straight conveyor belt much like
most log flumes. The boats are veritably Matchbox compared to some
rapids, but in comparison to Congo River Rapids’ boats (Alton Towers)
they are at the height of luxury.
Each person has a
separate seat, and there is even a grab rail in the middle, even if it
is a token gesture as opposed to something you can comfortably grab. At
the end of the conveyor belt, the boat slides off and plops into the
water, slowly floating around a 180-degree bend before getting to the
lift hill.
All of a sudden,
things become less quaint as you see the preceding boat climbing the
lofty heights of this long lift hill. The conveyor belt stretches the
entire length of the ride, climbing to 40 feet through a forest of gaudy
flashing palm trees.
As you slowly
climb, the boat you’re in feels smaller and smaller as you get higher
and higher, before you reach the top and slide into the first of the
elevated turns.
Skimming on a thin
film of water, the boat aquaplanes into a 180-degree turn that starts
the boat spinning, before straightening out briefly and then dropping
into a 360-degree elevated spiral. As the water sloshes up the side of
the troughs and the boat is jostled around, you get faster and faster
before the spiral straightens out into a long drop.
As the boat
gathers speed and the churning waters below get closer, you cower before
you hit the water, it splashing up around you but falling far short of
getting you anything near wet.
While this could
have been the showy finale, your fibreglass vessel is now afloat in the
‘wild rapids’ and has to navigate itself around the bottom level of
the ride. Still with momentum to burn up from the drop, the boat turns
towards the station, before going around a sweeping 180-degree turn
sending it into a straight stretch between the lift hill on the right
and the drop on the left.
A small chicane
makes sure there are a few waves for your boat to climb over before a
final 180-degree turn into an s-turn approaching the station slows
progress down as your boat dips over the waves and troughs created from
the turns in the course.
With alarming
speed, the boat heads towards the station before coming to a halt as it
hits the conveyor belt into the station and you climb off to the right
hand side.
Alas,
Wild River Rapids is definitely no River Quest.
But
it is also no Rumba Rapids.
While
River Quest focuses on drops and nothing else, Rumba Rapids focuses on
being somewhere near the bottom of the water ride bell curve. Wild River
Rapids, meanwhile, sits somewhere in between the two, offering the
sections of rapids that River Quest doesn’t, as well as the drops,
excitement, razzmatazz and – well – everything that Rumba Rapids
doesn’t.
Wild
River Rapids is no five-star ride, but it does make measured steps to
ensure that it doesn’t sink without trace. Fortunately, Wild River
Rapids seems to remove itself from inevitable comparisons between itself
and the more-established Intamin rides by offering something completely
different.
While
Intamin focus on rough and churning waters – with the associated
danger of getting soaked – Reverchon focus instead on the sensation of
height. Despite your spherical ship sailing up to 40-feet into the sky,
Wild River Rapids is never particularly scary thanks to the absence of
any major drops.
The
feeling of skidding around the elevated turns is an odd sensation, and
new to probably just about everyone who rides Wild River Rapids. It can
only really be compared to the Wild Water West rides, such as Parc
Asterix’s Oxygenarium.
Like
Oxygenarium, ignoring any high expectations you may have, Wild River
Rapids is quite a fun ride. No, you won’t be running around to re-ride
it, no, you won’t be telling all your friends and family about it, and
no, you definitely shouldn’t catch the next flight or National Express
coach up to ride it, but like even the worst rapids ride, you can get
together as a family and enjoy the prospect of a fairly entertaining
ride at worst.
While
there is the perennial fear of getting wet, the water stays at bay,
which is apparently by design. Without the provision of toilet
facilities like theme parks, getting wet at a fair is quite a miserable
prospect, so this design ‘feature’ is a welcome one.
While
this means that your fibreglass boat won’t be clawing their way up and
over torturous walls of water as if in a scene from A Perfect Storm,
small waves do make sure that you’re not floating across a mill pond.
This
however ignores the fact that almost half the ride is taken up by the
first meandering elevated turns, and the drop that follows. Offering a
feeling not dissimilar to Vikingar, the drop is long, shallow, but
pretty fast. That said, while the boat creates a respectable splashdown,
this will hardly have panicking riders jumping overboard.
One
of the biggest criticisms that could possibly be levied at the ride is
that in terms of length, it is sensationally short. Much of this is down
to the fact the first half of the course is navigated at such high
speed. The second, slower rapids section helps, but as you leave the
ride, there’s still the uncomfortable feeling that for such an
expensive attraction, you don’t get much bang for your buck.
While
Wild River Rapids does an admirable job of steering through the stormy
seas in search of satisfying the notoriously difficult family group, it
is always going to be up against stiff competition.
For
now, we’ll always remember Wild River Rapids as an unremarkable ride
in an unremarkable genre.
MS
12 December 2005
Good points:
▪ A major family ride, not
something often found at fairs
▪ Not too wet
▪ Two distinct halves; elevated turns and then slower rapids
section
▪ Fairly decent boats
Bad points:
▪ Nothing too spectacular
▪ Far too short
▪ Not a spectator's ride due to limited visibility
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