ACE and Thrills by the Bay makes a Splash at Waterworld California!

It's June, school's out, and the temperatures are starting to rise. You could always crank up the AC to stay cool. Or....you could visit Waterworld California in Concord, CA. WaterworldCA opened in 1995 with a decent collection of slides and attractions to start off. Throughout the years, the park has slowly expanded, but adding an even better overall experience to their park! Waterworld CA is situated right in the middle of a commercial/industrial zone and is set back behind some office complexes just off of Willow Pass Rd.

Thrills by the Bay joined ACE (American Coaster Enthusiasts, Northern CA Region) for the 3rd annual Summer Splash event. Summer Splash was also a "Pre-Coaster Con" event, which happened to be taking place right here in the bay area this year. With this said, Waterworld went well above and beyond to provide a quality experience for us attendees. Our hats are off to Waterworld for pulling this off, and then some with added surprises!

Cliffhanger Speed Slides. Fun fact: These
two slides have the shortest waits in the park!

On the same tower are 4 serpentine body slides known as Hurricane. These
slides can pick up some good speed, especially the fully enclosed ones!

Attendees make their way toward the first part of the park tour.

We started off the day with a back stage tour of the park. This included going behind that wall situated at the back of the wave pool. We got to see how the waves are generated, as well as the filtration system that covers multiple attractions in the area. Word of warning: If you ever step back there (on an authorize tour, or if you work for the park) it is insanely noisy once the fans turn on.

Bill Werner and Al Garcia take us back toward the Wavepool. Just prior to the tour
there was a mini general Q&A session.

We make our way behind Breaker Beach wave pool's back wall

Filtration and chemistry system, and CO2 tanks are just part of what's back there.

...

Park staff explains the pool's filtration system

One of the attendees/friends representing our friends over at Great American Thrills :)

How does their wave pool generate the waves anyway? Well, there are a series of powerful fans that turn on, and valves that open/close pulsing the powerful blasts of air onto the water to generate a disturbance. Hearing the equipment running is almost rhythmic as you hear the pistons open and close the valves. The rhythmic pulses of air is what causes the waves to generate!

Behind these gates are what generates all of the noise when the wave pool
is running.

Powerful fans are responsible for generating the waves.

The group heads back out from behind the wave pool

The underside of some of our favorite slides: the Typhoon slide complex!

Next on our tour was being able to enter the Break Point Plunge construction site. If you're unaware, Break Point Plunge is a dueling Proslide Super Loop slide, utilizing the "Skybox" launch capsules. A Skybox launch capsule looks reminiscent of a shower stall (or if you want to be on the morbid side, looks like a coffin standing vertical).

Riders climb inside the capsule and the door is secured shut. Riders lean against a near vertical wall as their arms and legs are crossed. The countdown begins and the floor they stand on drops from right below their feet.

The trap door segment: the trap door is to the right and is in the open position

The outside/mechanical parts that open the
trap door

Skybox launch capsules provide a terrifying experience as you are nearly freefalling for a split second. At the same time, this technology actually provides a safer experience as riders can't dispatch themselves prematurely, accidently slip down the slide, or slide in an unsafe position. The slide is completely controlled by a control panel much like a regular amusement ride and the slide attendant won't dispatch riders until they are in a safe riding position.

We were so excited about the slides that wewanted to ride them as
they were in their disassembled state :)

A POV of the loop, dry of course :)

More attendees and Thrills by the Bay crew taking in their early rides in :)

Fiber glass sections were assembled to save time on costruction.

The concrete footers and foundation were poured last week and we can expect vertical construction to happen this week. Once vertical construction begins, slide assembly will happen fast! An interesting thing to note about the slide's layout: Both loops/helices are positioned to the left of the tower as opposed to the "Butterfly Configuration." This was to save space in the large vacant plot of land the park still has for expansion, for the purpose of future expansion. Very few parks in general still have undeveloped land that they can use and often have to resort to tearing out an older attraction for something newer. Others are forced to be creative and keep building things off of existing towers and empty into the park's lazy river.

Rebar for foundation work

Concrete footers were poured, going as far as 60 feet into the ground.
Note the descending columns off in the background toward the left.
This is where the duel loops will be.

Construction site

Overview of the slide segments assembled.

Can you tell we're excited to ride these when they open?

After the tour, we had a little bit of spare time before lunch so we took a dip in the lazy river. After doing a lap around, we headed over to the Luau Picnic Grove for our catered lunch. We were served your typical picnic food, but the food itself was really good! One can't go wrong with Nathan's Hot Dogs :)

This is what the backside of a waterfall looks like :)

And where there's waterfalls, there is always something hiding behind it :)

During this time, the park had a Q&A session where we learned several interesting things...Things such as that if it's too hot outside, the park will have light crowds. If it's cooler out, the park will have light crowds (naturally). There's a certain "magic tempurature" where the park will experience heavier crowds. We also learned about the unfortunate event of when one has an accident in the pools :)

Waterworld surprised us with complimentary
souvenir cups, good for all of the 2014 season

Q&A session

We were then surprised with our post closing ERT session not only being extended to an hour, but opened up 5 additional slides for us. The original offerings were Honolulu Halfpipe (Waterfun Sidewinder slide) and Tornado (Proslide Tornado). We also got to enjoy the rather intense family raft slide Big Kahuna and the Typhoon slide complex (a series of serpentine double innertube slides). We will have to say that the slides on the Typhoon tower are actually quite intense! Our favorite would have to have been the "Monsoon" slide where we felt some good forces, a pop of airtime, and overall out of control feeling all in total darkness!

Guests catch wall time on the Proslide Tornado

Thrills by the Bay crew taking on the lily pads, and very determined to stay on.

Little did he know he was about to slip right off the pad!

In line for an insanely fast ride on Big Kahuna

Fellow ACE members get ready to fly down BK!

BK utilizes a lift hill system to carry the heavy rafts to the top.

BK also provides great views of the rest of the park.

More attendees taking their ride on BK

Getting ready to slide down one of the Hurricane body slides

And, the event comes to a close - an hour after normal operating hours :)

 We would like to thank the staff at Waterworld including Al Garcia, Park Director of Sales and Marketing, for making this event happen, Bill Werner, Director of Maintenance and Construction for the wave pool tour, and the slide attendants who stayed after normal hours to run the slides for us! This is an event that we will never forget!




We put together a fun video showing some of the activities going on at the park!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e6S5PujtbI

Feel free to follow us on Facebook for Bay Area park updates, and stay tuned for the next park update right here!

A General CGA update

Great America is now in full time operation and is running in its summer hours mode. This means that you can now start riding coasters and such after dark! There's been several things happening at CGA over the past few weekends that we thought we'd like to share. While many of these are "small things" it really makes the whole big picture look even better!

Our friend and site partner Great American Thrills shared some images with us, as well as a few images we took.

Let's start with a look at Flight Deck. The obvious change at Flight Deck would be it's paint job but there's even more! The only way you'll see it is if you actually have to wait in line! If there's no line, you'll walk right by it.

The props behind this bay appear to be working, minus the windshield wipers.
It has sat dark for many seasons.

 Moving along, some improvements have happened over at Rip Roaring Rapids. They restructured the queue significantly as you now pass by Lake 2 (and the coin op geysers) as you enter the Rip Roaring Rapids line.

Along the way, we couldn't resist a ride on the Flying Eagles ride :)

During reconstruction

Finished and open!
© Great American Thrills - Used with permission

As we venture further toward the back end of the park, we noticed that one of CGA's star flat rides is still down. By the looks of it, this could be down for quite a while! Notice anything strange here?

As you can see, the floor isn't sitting level, but sloping downwards.
© Great American Thrills - Used with permission

On a more positive note, Drop Tower seems to be running better after having a rough start of the season.

Since we're in the area, there's some stuff to check out over at the park's other wooden coaster, Grizzly! As we said, the minor improvements goes a long way!

We'd like to point out that Grizzly is running great this season! Really smooth
and feels like it's running a little faster!

Not is only the coaster getting TLC, so are its queue handrails! No more chipping
wood or splinters!
© Great American Thrills - Used with permission

Heading back to the wooden coaster up front, Gold Striker, there's a few things we'd like to share, as well as a few fun photos! We took the fish-eye lens to the park and wanted to capture the feel of Gold Striker's drop wrapping around the plaza and Star Tower :)

Let's get the not-so-fun out of the way first. Gold Striker's fencing
got some (not so nice) artwork over the past few weeks.
© Great American Thrills - Used with permission

We had some fun with the fisheye lens and the Gold Striker structure :)

Feel like you're on top of the world yet?

Lastly, we'd like to end the update with some night-time activity and changes. First off, we'd like to point out that Delta Flyer/Eagle's Flight (Von Roll sky ride) was running after dark! This offered some nice evening aerial shots of the park!

Notice anything on Star Tower? Well, let's check out the rest of
the aerial shots first!

A closer look at Star Tower - LED flood lights were installed
on top of the cabin, illuminating the tower as the cabin ascends!
This looks really neat at night!

© Great American Thrills - Used with permission

And that's it for this update! Stay tuned for more bay area park updates and be sure to follow us on Facebook! Also be sure to visit Great American Thrills and give them a like!

Gilroy Gardens - Water Oasis in Progress!

Gilroy Gardens is one of the smaller parks in the bay area and is often referred to being a "hidden gem." The park is loaded with beautiful landscaping and contains family rides as well. The small park is nestled among the foothills of Gilroy, CA. Since the park is a non-profit, the park hasn't really expanded/gotten any major attractions compared to it's neighboring parks California's Great America, Six Flags Discovery Kingdom or even the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.

With this said, Gilroy Gardens’ first major addition in nine years is beginning to take shape.
Called “Water Oasis,” the half­-acre area will feature a two-­foot deep pool, a splash pad, lagoon
and more. Gilroy Gardens expects Water Oasis to open in June, just in time for when the weather
really heats up.

Press photo courtesy of Gilroy Gardens

Press photo courtesy of Gilroy Gardens

The Gilroy City Council agreed to allow the park to construct the $2 million water feature in August 2013. Previously, the area, which is located next to the Rock Maze attraction, housed a seasonal petting
zoo.

An overview of the site where Water Oasis will be.

The park held a groundbreaking ceremony in February. However, work on the site started as early
as last season, when workers transplanted a circus tree that was located on the site and began
clearing the land.

The area is full of trenches and pipes.

I visited the park recently to check out the progress. So far, the site consists of large trenches,
where crews are installing pipes. For now, the outline of the area is a little hard to make out. With
the projected opening date a little more than a month away, I would expect construction to hit a
high gear soon.

Coming Soon... Signs and fence surround the area.

Water Oasis marks the first step toward Gilroy Gardens’ future plans of a large water park that will
expand into the empty lots nearby, complete with water slides, a lagoon river, picnic groves and
more.

Gilroy Gardens’ last new attraction, Bonfante’s Splash Garden, was constructed in 2005.
The park has a live cam of the construction site on its website:
www.gilroygardens.org/wateroasis/live­view

Make sure you follow Thrills by the Bay for updates on the construction of Water Oasis.

Article provided by Erik Chalhoub - All photos used with permission.

Photographers, Videographers, and Content Creators - Protect Your Stuff!!

The online world has made quite an impact on how we, as amusement park fans, share content with the rest of the community, whether if it's through social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook or Youtube, or if it's through online forums on dedicated theme park websites.

Let's look at the grand scheme of things: You, the content creator, are spending money on your park admission/season pass, food for the day, and gas to visit the amusement park. You are then going around snapping photos and making mental notes on what's happening at the park. After a long day of shooting your home park's latest coaster construction, you go home, spend more time sifting through your photos, editing them, and begin writing up your draft trip report…

BUT…hold onto your horses, fellow content creators! Before you go and upload all of your hard work to the world wide web, be sure to know where these photos are going and most importantly, get to know your rights as a photographer/content creator.

Why should I be concerned?

There's a controversial tactic in use on the internet commonly known as a "Rights Grab." What exactly is that? Well, when you signed up to be a member of a particular site, you most likely agreed to their terms of service, or TOS for short. While it's easy to skim through and hit "agree," it's best to THOROUGHLY read it through. For example, here is what a "rights grab" clause in the terms of service may read like:

All photos that have been uploaded to our server are co-owned by SITE OWNER and the member who has uploaded the content. You hereby grant SITE OWNER a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license and SITE OWNER reserves the right to use your photos in updates, DVD releases, front page features, or any other medium.

What does this mean for you? Well, when you upload your photos onto SITE OWNER's  servers, you are also giving them free use of your photos. But say that down the road you decide you no longer want to be associated with a given community or your account is terminated for whatever reason, the photos you have up are still within their clutches and more often than not, will still be used.

Many online photo contests are also highly guilty of this tactic. In the end, this tactic is a means to lure people into submitting content to a given entity and agreeing that their photos can be used without attribution and without any royaltees. In a sense, this is cost-saving measure and avoiding the need to either hire a photographer or purchase stock photos to use.

What does this mean for you? Well, When you upload your photos onto the said site's servers, you are also giving them free use of your photos. But say that down the road you decide you no longer want to be associated with a given community or your account is terminated for whatever reason, the photos you have up are still within their clutches and more often than not, will still be used.

You, the content creator, should make yourself aware of any kind of TOS and if you feel uncomfortable donating your hard work (and having it be used without any kind of attribution), then don't agree and don't sign up.

What can I do to protect my photos?

How can you protect your hard work anyway when you do upload it? Well, very easily. There's a simple process called "watermarking" or "branding." 

Watermarking/branding your photos can be as simple as your blog's logo (or your name) in the lower corner. It can be subtle, as to not be too distracting, yet want to identify where the photo came from. Many times, users tend to save the photo or direct link it to your blog without any editing. Having a watermark present shows where the photo came from as most often users tend to just share the photo and not credit their source. 

Something as simple as a semi transparent logo or name in the lower corner
is sufficient for watermarking/branding your images.

Videos should also be watermarked as many Youtube users tend to "rip" video from another user and reupload it under their account. Having that watermark present can ensure that the video that was ripped and uploaded is in fact not theirs and that it came from you. We have actually had some of our watermarked images used in somebody's slideshow they had put on Youtube. Branding your content is a common practice as many ride manufacturers actually brand both their images and photos, identifying it as their content.

How can I still share my content but ensure that my content remains mine?

You've taken some great photos and would like to share with the world. At the same time, you want to ensure you have full ownership on your high quality images you had taken...after all, you spent all of that time and money.

Upload your images to an online gallery (Such as Flickr) where you have full ownership and copyright on your images. Feel free to link them to your gallery or your blog/website when you write up that trip report.

In the end, all of this is a matter of preparing yourself and "looking before you leap." Know what you're getting yourself into and consider what could happen down the road. Mark your images. Consider using a dedicated online gallery such as Flickr where you retain all rights to your photos.

Be sure to follow Thrills by the Bay on Facebook for Bay Area park news and updates!

Roar - MAJOR work going on

Roar, Six Flags Discovery Kingdom's signature wooden coaster, has gotten pretty rough over the years. Roar opened in 1999 when it delivered quite a smooth, fast ride. As of recent however Roar has delivering what could be described as riding on square wheels and hitting constant pot holes. It almost seemed as though Roar and Grizzly switched places for being a rough wooden coaster (Grizzly has been receiving track repairs since 2009, thus improving its condition). This ride was in pretty bad shape and we could only ride it once per visit (not to mention, bracing ourselves for those rough spots).

Our site partner, Great American Thrills, was at SFDK over the weekend and noticed that something was up with Roar. Since SFDK is now open year round, this means that rides will close for annual maintenance for a short moment.

©Great American Thrills

There is something a little more than routine annual maintenance going on over at Roar however. Let's take a look at Roar's first drop. Does anything look a bit different?

©Great American Thrills

Still wondering?

©Great American Thrills

Roar is undergoing some extensive rehab and the first drop has been completely stripped of its wooden laminate rails. This area was notorious for jolting riders, especially at the bottom of the initial drop. This is a spot where riders are going to remember their experience. Unfortunately, the sharp jolt up the back becomes the ride's highlight in its current state prior to this repair work.

Let's take a look at what else has been done.

©Great American Thrills

©Great American Thrills

©Great American Thrills

Some other happenings at the park include some prep work for the new for 2014 Tsunami Soaker. While there is not much to see yet, ground work is under way.

©Great American Thrills

And here's Wave Jumper, dismantled. This sat where Tsunami Soaker will be situated.
©Great American Thrills