Kansas City Now Constructing World’s Largest Water Slide

Kansas City, Kansas – construction is now underway for what will be the main attraction at Schlitterbahn Park. In keeping with the German naming tradition, the slide is named the Verrückt Mega A-Blaster where Verrückt means insane. This ride won’t be for the faint of heart though. The park is boasting that the slide will substantially surpass the height of the highest water slide in operation which is Brazil’s Barra do Piraí standing at 164 feet. However, the park has announced that it will require patrons hike 264 steps in order to reach the top.

“We have always been family friendly, but this will attract those adrenaline junkies who are always looking for that next biggest, coolest thrill,” said Layne Pitcher, the park’s director of marketing and sales.

Patrons will ride the slide in a four-man raft with an initial drop of roughly five stories while hitting speeds of 65 mph. The raft will then climb a relatively small hump which will slow the raft down for the final descent.

“To ensure the record-holding statistics of this new extreme attraction, we are not going to release final height and scope of the project until we are ready to welcome our first guests,” Schlitterbahn co-owner Jeff Henry said in a statement. “This new MEG-A-BLASTER speed-slide is going to wow our guests and is going to be a game changer for our industry. Our greatest challenge will be to find thrill seekers brave enough to ride.”

The slide will operate a conveyor system to bring rafts up to the top. Given the number of steps to climb, it would be a bugger for patrons to have to haul a raft as well. The park intends to ride to be operable in the spring. Camera footage from the top of the slide give the appearance of going down a near right angle (90 degrees) for the drop.

On The Web:
World’s tallest, fastest water slide under construction
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2013/11/20/waterslide-tallest-fastest-kansas-city/3648401/