Spin down the giant water slide in your oversized inflatable raft...
Spin down the giant water slide in your oversized inflatable raft...
| Theme Park | Thorpe Park |
|---|---|
| Park Area | Amity |
| Type | Water Ride |
| Audience | Families |
| Opened | 17 March 2011 |
| Manufacturer | WhiteWater West |
| Model | Spinning Rapids Ride SK-75 |
| Height | 64 ft |
| Length | 467 ft |
| Duration | 5 minutes |
| Extras | Fastrack |
Spinning down the slide
Storm Surge is a spinning raft ride, set in Amity Cove as another reason to interact with the fast-rising flood waters engulfing the area from the tidal wave.
Riders sit inside large round inflatable rafts, which progress slowly up a 64ft high conveyor belt lift hill. At the top, the rafts begin sliding down a large water slide style channel. Parts of the walls have been lined with a rough velcro/sandpaper like material, which causes the rafts to spin - sometimes quite violently - and are designed to make the slide more intense. At the bottom, the rafts splash down into a pool and then float back to the station.
Unfortunately, the ride is underwhelming. Riders don't actually get that wet so Thorpe have installed a series of sprinkers and water guns, which are sadly frequently broken. Storm Surge also has extremely low capacity, with rafts taking an age to be loaded and unloaded. It is common to see a long queue of rafts filled with bored looking riders waiting to disembark at the end of their ride.
Worst of all though is the look of the ride itself. Its grey steel support structure and red, blue and yellow plastic slide have been painted to look weathered and rusty. That though, just makes the whole thing look uncared for rather than "themed", not helped further by the constantly leaking from the trough onto the pathway below. Storm Surge looks very out of place, almost as if it was just "plonked down" in front of the The Walking Dead: The Ride pyramid.
It is ugly, and gives the appearance of a cheap poorly thought out addition to the park. That's not too wide of the mark either: the ride is second hand, having come from Cypress Gardens after Merlin took it over and turned it into Legoland Florida. Hopefully sometime the park management will see sense and either theme it properly, or more likely tear the damn thing down.
Storm Surge entrance: the best themed part of the ride
The giant water slide, with its faded rusty "theme"
The open air ride station
Conveyor belt lift hill
Ascending the lift hill takes ages, but the conveyor rollers give your feet a nice massage at least!
Once at the top, boats spiral down to the bottom
Exiting the spiral
Coming down the final drop
Splash down!
The rafts float slowly back to the station, giving riders plenty of time to contemplate the pool of water in the bottom of the boat
A queue of rafts waiting to unload is a common sight
Storm Surge's poor capacity can lead to long queues on sunny days
The spiral constantly leaks water onto the path below
The primary colours of the slide are visible from Lost City
