We hung out and watched some more people ride just to see them struggle to their feet. I can confirm that a guy did get stuck and they needed to get him out throught the hatch, don’t know about the injury. but we did hear that it was a lining problem and they closed it down for the day.

Best part after the instructions on how to ride it was the ride opperator saying, “You’re braver then me”

i remember the skatepark. i remember when the bumper boats worked. and when the loop waterslide was built, though b y my mememry that was mid 80′s, not the 90′s.
i was too scared to ever try it. i remember seeing one person go down, not come out, and they pulled them our of the hatch at the bottom of the loop. i was all hell noooo.

i got injured on all of the old concrete water/tubes slides, pretty much every time i went on them.

i had heard someone died on the alpine slide, on the kayak rides, i heard of a few people drowning in the wave pool, and someone on surf hill.

anyway that place was the most crazy awesome park to have ever existed. the runoff water pool were freeezing cold. guys were drunk all the time. ( i was too young to drink except for the last time i went) they used to do a big octoberfest party.
i went skiing there in the winter as well.
oh, and they had those roller tracks for skiing in the summer. they sent you up the left on the far left ( the white lift?) so you went down a crazy steep hill without the softness of snow. it was fun, but stupid dangerous.

the go carts and those speedboats, and the tennis ball shooting tanks were the best. there was a dune buggy ride too.

man, that shit would never fly today.

getting banged up at action park was like a right of passage for jersey kids growing up in the 80′s.

great memories.

It stayed opened for less than 1 day that year. A decent number of kids went down and came out the other end like they just came out of an industrial dryer. One kid at the bottom who could barely stand yelled back to the top to his friend not to do it.

Finally about halfway through the day, a piece of the interior lining peeled up. The next poor bastard that went down got near the bottom of the loop when his feet hit the peeled up liner. That made him come to an immediate stop and broke both his knees. There was the end of the cannonball loop for 1994. Not sure if it ever opened again.

Also know of story of new ride they enlisted a couple other high school drop out types to build. I guess they were selected b/c they had little to no understanding of the concepts of gravity, physics, friction, etc. They built a big monstrosity alongside the old Surf Hill (another injury hot spot). Once it was built, they paid some workers $50 or $100 to test it. (along with signing something to waive all injury liability of course). After a couple test runs and messing up a handful of kids, the ride was never opened.

As to say about the looping waterslides of today… I have ridden one… but the thing is I was not scared because it wasn’t even a loop!!?!!? It was like a little curve that is all.

What I knw is that they will never create a waterslide like the Cannonball Loop. That word just makes me more and more scared each time.

I remember the little area at the top of the slide with verry LITTLE waterflow. I mean… we are talking like a little more than drops of water.

I remember… just staring into the darkness.

Sorry I can bot expand on this anymore… But… The experience is BEYOND words. And I am getting just too scared talking about it.

Looking at the slide… I thought it was a… I don’t know but it was scary.

If anyone else can comment on how much the waterslide cost and the company details that would be great!

RIP all the dead dudes!!!!

Recently my brother and i returned to the new park-mountaincreek, and were sadly disappointed. The only real thrill we got was to trespass over to what was once called motorworld- where we proceeded to get chaby a black bear! Now that’s what i call action!!!!!!!!!!!! Keep the memory alive-spread the word of once what was, maybe some crazy bastards with money will create what once was!Loved your interview with past action park employee, as for the other “clown” he probably was paid off to give his untrue statements. As being an action park lover back in the day, many a death did occur. This is what all old timers of the park want to remember, for we experienced some of the best outlandish rides that sad to say some never will! It was great to leave the park all banged up, you knew you got your dollars worth.

Recently my brother and i returned to the new park-mountaincreek, and were sadly disappointed. The only real thrill we got was to trespass over to what was once called motorworld- where we proceeded to get chaby a black bear! Now that’s what i call action!!!!!!!!!!!! Keep the memory alive-spread the word of once what was, maybe some crazy bastards with money will create what once was!!!!!!!!!!!!- i know i would!

 vicki-long island, n.y.
!!!!!!!!!!!- i know i would!
 vicki-long island, n.y.

Just a couple of facts for your article on Action Park:

1. The loop waterslide the “Cannonball Loop” worked fine, never had a dummy slid through it, and was open to the public during the summer of 1993. The only reason it didn’t continue to operate was that we found it almost impossible to keep the slippery matting firmly laminated inside the pipe – water always got in between and we kept having to close the ride to repair it. No one ever died on this ride – in fact, there was never an injury.

2. No one ever died on the “jet thing where you fly in the air”. The “Aerodium’s” worst injury was a broken ankle.

3. Action Park EMT’s used “code red” to indicate a life-threatening situation, not “code violet”. I cannot speak to the years before or after I was the operations manager but between the years 1990 and 1995 no one at Action Park died of anything other than natural causes (ie. heart attack, aneurism, allergic anaphalactic shock, etc.)

The whole “dangerous park” thing was probably more of a mystique than a reality. The fact is, more people die at Great Adventure every year than ever did at Action Park. It was generally the feeling of the park ownership that the “deadly image” sold tickets. Judging by what’s happened to the place since Intrawest “cleaned it up”, I’d say they were right.

Just my $.02

- Ed Youmans