The world's tallest water slide, the 17-story-high Verrückt at the Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City, Kansas, will open Thursday after waterpark designer Jeff Henry and ride engineer John Schooley survived a test run.
"The giant water slide stands at 168-feet-tall, resembling a NASA launch pad as it towers over its surroundings,"
Bill Chappell, of NPR's "The Two-Way," reported. "Instead of a rocket, the slide launches people on a large raft that organizers say will reach speeds topping 60 mph before it comes to rest after completing an initial large drop that's followed by a second rise and fall."
Henry and Schooley decided to record their first run on their own invention after
technology website io9.com noted that sandbags were used in previous videos demonstrating the ride.
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"Also, remember a few months back when we reported the rumor that sandbags were being launched off the ride, and then everyone freaked out because the park claimed that wasn't true," io9.com reported. "Well guess what? It was true. In earlier models of the ride, sandbags were launched into the air. And on the actual ride itself, early tests showed the entire raft lift off into the air."
The latest video makes the water slide look plenty imposing by design, Henry told the Travel Channel show "Xtreme Waterparks" on
June 29, according to the Los Angeles Times.
"We want you to feel like you're coming out of a cannon and getting shot out and then falling straight down," he said.
The Times said that Guinness World Records representatives have already certified the ride as the world's tallest water slide.
"The ride is extremely complex," Winter Prosapio, a Schlitterbahn spokeswoman, told the Times. "This ride is almost a hybrid between a waterpark ride and a roller coaster, so we are going with the more conservative waterpark guidelines."
The Schlitterbahn Development Group built its first waterpark in South Padre Island, Texas, in 2001, followed by a development in Galveston, Texas, before opening its Kansas City park in 2005.
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