Only in New Jersey....

[Roach]

I was doing a search for Great Adventure and came across a site that talks about an old water park called Action Park... up in North Jersey.

http://www.weirdnj.com/stories/_roadside20.asp

It's a read.. but it's funny as heck. And all true. Thinking back it's incredible what they allowed.... and it's incredible that I never killed myself. lol

Here is just one quote about one of the slides...

Upon entering the park, we saw a waterslide, an enclosed green tube, that went in a full loop-de-loop. Even as a 12-year-old, I understood how physics would not allow anyone to come out of that tube with anything but mangled, broken limbs. According to the people I was with that day, the slide was never actually used by humans. During its test runs, done with realistic dummies, the dummies came out time and time again with their heads and arms ripped off. So it stood, merely as decoration.

It is reported that the ride was opened for about a month... I probably would have given it a try had I been there that month.

Some time later they opened a 2nd park near me.. Called Action Mountain. I worked there for a summer... they had many of the same rides, except for the loop-de-loop.

It was a blast.. no doubt about it. But man... dangerous as heck.

-R

[kats2112]

Holy crap!

I didn't read much, but I scrolled down to the loop.

[Roach]

There was, however, a physics-defying ride that the park chose to keep open, one that I proudly experienced firsthand. It was a cluster of four or five short, fast water slides that ended by shooting you out into a lake. Various kids would fly out at various times, landing on each other or on some misplaced sharp rock. One of these vigorous "shoots" was particularly intriguing, as it would suck you in and then immediately make an abrupt 90 degree turn. Not a 45 degree turn. Not even a nice, slow, smooth, curvy 90 degree turn. No. It would literally slam you into a wall and toss you in a different direction and then project your young, gnarled body into a gooey pond of crying kids and water snakes. It was awesome.

It's almost something you would expect to see on The Simpsons. lol

[Guest 1PEECBARETTA]

I would try the loop

[Roach]

Of course, this was the best...

The park also sold beer in many kiosks on the grounds, with similarly lax enforcement of the drinking age as with other restrictions in the park.

I was way too young to even wanna drink... so I never knew until reading about it just now....

Can you imagine? Just going up to a machine and getting a beer?!?!?! LOL

ETA:

Some even credit the park for making them learn some difficult lessons. In 2000, one, Matthew Callan, recalled Action Park thusly:

Action Park made adults of a generation of Tri-State Area kids who strolled through its blood-stained gates, by teaching us the truth about life: it is not safe, you will get hurt a lot, and you'll ride all the way home burnt beyond belief

If the park did nothing else.... that alone made it worth it.

[Roach]

Here's another pic I found..

I mean... look what you land into!!!

No wonder that ride wasn't open for long.

[Guest Crackz]

I use to go skiing there in the winter