World's Tallest Waterslide May Face Another Delay

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Verruckt means "insane" in German. The new water slide has experienced delays with opening.

By Jessica Plautz2014-06-26 14:45:49 UTC

The opening of the world's tallest waterslide is at risk of being pushed back — again.

National and local reporters were scheduled to ride on the 168-foot-tall Verrückt waterslide in Kansas City, Kansas, on Thursday and Friday. But Schlitterbahn Waterpark spokeswoman Winter Prosapio said glitches with a conveyor hadn't been resolved in time for the preview. The conveyor hauls rafts to the top of the slide.

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The ride's official opening date had already been moved from May to June 5 to allow for more testing, then pushed back again to June 29.

There's a chance the attraction will be ready for operation on Sunday — more than a month after it had been slated to open on May 23 — as long as the issues have been ironed out, Prosapio said.

Prosapio said park officials would not hesitate to delay operation for however long it takes to make sure the slide is safe.

"When we had problems this weekend, we flew in parts, flew in people, flew in all kinds of stuff," Prosapio said Wednesday. "Crews are still working toward Sunday. That's still our goal."

Guinness World Records certified the Verrückt, which means "insane" in German, as the world's tallest waterslide in April. The slide sends riders on four-person rafts plummeting at 60 to 70 mph.

"We'll take embarrassment before putting someone in the slide when it is not ready," she said.

Sunday's opening would coincide with a one-hour special on the Travel Channel titled Xtreme Waterparks documenting the designing and building of Verrückt. A promotional video for the show includes footage of two men riding a raft down a half-size test model of the slide and going slightly airborne as it crests the top of the first big hill.

The delay of the opening in May prompted rumors that test riders had gone airborne. But Schlitterbahn's director of marketing and sales said it wasn't true.

The Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, inspected the ride to make sure it was structurally sound but is not responsible for the safety of riders, Unified Government spokesman Edwin Birch said.

"There are very few, if any, rules in the state of Kansas regulating amusement parks and rider safety," Birch said.

Prosapio said the water slide is still in the manufacturing phase and "hasn't been handed over as a completed project."

The Schlitterbahn park's owners anticipate the record-breaking slide becoming a destination attraction.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press

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Topics: Kansas City, Lifestyle, Travel & Leisure, water park, water slide