WhiteWater provides world’s largest waterslide to Dubai

Atlantis The Palm, the Aquaventure Waterpark in Dubai expanded its offer in September with the addition of a six-waterslide complex. With a 40m (131ft) tower, the complex features a number of world firsts including two AquaTubes™, which fly through the world’s largest 9m (30ft)-diameter waterslide – the Anaconda™. It’s hailed as the first dual suspended body slides within a slide experience (called flume-thru-flume technology).

At Aquaventure, six-person rafts plunge riders into the dark, serpentine depths of the tunnel raft ride to experience twists and turns with intense vertical banking to 4.6m (15ft) and speeds of up to 35kph.

The ride is 23m (75ft)-high and 182m (597)-long and is available as a three-, four- or six-person raft ride. It’s designed to be easily combined with WhiteWater’s other attractions for a larger experience.

Aquaventure has ‘slides within slides’

Cartoon Network Amazone completes Humungaslide

Cartoon Network Amazone – Thailand’s first internationally branded waterpark – is on track to open in the first half of 2014 with the completion of Humungaslide in September. The high-speed water coaster is based on the popular Ben 10 alien, Humungousaur and is part of The Omniverse, one of 10 themed zones at Cartoon Network Amazone, each offering an array of water coasters.

Riders in two rafts race each other in circular slides, speeding through twists and turns before being dropped 8m (26ft) into the clutches of Humungousaur. The Omniverse zone has six high-speed water coasters, as high as 23m (75ft).

The world’s first Cartoon Network waterpark spans 35 rai (14 acres) and is located in coastal Bang Saray, Thailand. Liakat Dhanji, chair and CEO of Amazon Falls Co Ltd, the developer of the waterpark, says: “Cartoon Network is the number one kids’ channel in Asia Pacific. Fans are going to get to experience all its incredible series and characters in ways they never dreamed.”

Humungaslide is a high speed coaster

Calypso opens African river adventure

Billed as Canada’s largest waterpark, Calypso Theme Waterpark has opened a new CA$7m (£4.3m, E5.1m, US$6.8m) attraction called Kongo Expedition. The river ride is 400m (1,312 ft)-long and takes 15 minutes to complete. It includes flooded caves, tropical villages, waterfalls and a family wavepool and splash zone. Created in-house, Kongo Expedition is Calypso’s first lazyriver with inner tubes.

Calypso opened in 2010 at a cost of more than C$50m (£31m, E36m, US$48m), east of the capital city, Ottawa. The park covers 100 acres (40 hectares) and has more than 35 waterslides, 100 water games and the country’s largest wave pool.

Calypso opens African river adventure

Interlink’s super flume goes to Finland

Interlink’s super flume log flume ride opened at PowerPark in Härmä, Finland in July. Called Kwai River, it takes its theming from the iconic World War Two film Bridge Over the River Kwai, starring Alec Guinness, and each of the boats/logs is named after a character from the film.

The super flume features two lifts and two drops, one of 7m (23ft) and another of 14m (46ft), with an overall circuit length of 400m (1,300ft). The ride has nine, six-seater boats, providing an hourly capacity of 600 passengers and a themed station building with a 12m (39ft)-long section for loading and unloading.

The ride is situated in a new area of the park and has been integrated into an existing bridge structure, hence the theming, something that provided an additional challenge to the Interlink design team. The soundtrack from the Bridge Over the River Kwai movie is used throughout the ride and an existing bridge structure is both a major theming backdrop and the access to a new Thai restaurant at the park.

The flume handles 600 riders per hour

Kongo Expedition takes in flooded caves, tropical villages and waterfalls

Zamperla updates the tea cup ride

Watermania is one of the latest additions to Zamperla’s product range. It takes the form of a duelling tea cup ride on water with a standard configuration of six, four-seater cups providing a total capacity of 24 passengers and a theoretical hourly capacity of 480.

Each rider is seated in front of a water blaster, which allows them to shoot water at fellow riders. As the whole ride rotates around a central axis, each cup also rotates, alternately clockwise and anti-clockwise, making the ‘battle’ between the cups more fun. Loading and unloading of the cups is carried out from outside the pool thanks to a control system that ensures the ride stops in the same position after each ride.

As well as the standard format, Watermania’s also available in a double configuration – two standard rides next to each other – offering a total of 48 seats and an hourly capacity of 960 riders. The ride is very compact, with the diameter of the single version, including surrounding fencing, being 13m (42.6ft) while the double version is 25m x 13m (82ft x 42.5ft). A double version opened this year at Coney Island in New York, USA and the first single model opened at Splashdown Beach in Fishkill, also in New York.

Two more single models are bound for Turkey and Indonesia in the near future.

Each rider sits in front of a water gun so they can aim at riders in other tea cups

Child’s play from Empex

Empex Watertoys’ series of water toys for under-12s now includes Aquatropica, Aquacircus, Aquapirata and Aquaracers.

Aquatropica is tropical themed, with palm leaves, flowers, birds and animals. Aquacircus is an interactive circus of water events, water toys and climb and slide play features. Aquapirata is a pirate themed climb and slide play structure and Aquaracers are a series of interactive racing cars, placed on a racecourse, with race themed water toys.

Empex’s water toys for under-12s offer the themes of tropical, circus and pirates

Arihant launches thrilling slide rides

Visitors to Portugal’s Aqualand can now enjoy Arihant’s new Typhoon Tunnel and Open Float Slide.

Aimed at adrenalin seekers, riders sit either alone or in pairs on an inflated tube or float. The 54in (137cm) width of the tunnel ensures a thrilling sway as they speed round the turns.

The Typhoon Tunnel is 15.8m (52ft)-high, 113m (371ft)–long and carries around 590 people per hour. The float slide is 17.4m (57ft)-high, 189m (620ft)-long and has the capacity for 480 people per hour.

The Typhoon Tunnel is for thrill seekers