Sep 15, 2008 10:54 PM
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I've never actually seen someone get hurt at an amusement park until this weekend. If you're going to Waterworld in Concord, CA, please avoid the ride above, I think it's called Death Shudder or Costner's Folly or something. I captured a few shots and videos of some of the rides here with the waterproof Pentax W60 here before shit went down and the guards had me clear my SD card.
I rode the slide above despite its major joints were leaking acrid, over-chlorinated water. It was fun, but I suppose that's what made it dangerous for the others we were with; two flipped, with one ending up sliding down the entire ride on her neck, inhaling a good bit of water and eventually being delivered to the ER. You'd think it would be a good thing that I had a waterproof camera along to record the experience. But as I said, security guards asked persistently that I delete such photos to "protect my friend's identity". Seems more like they're trying to avoid posts like this one. Or this one! Or this one! As mr dude walked away, I passive aggressively snapped a few more of him walking away.
I know that guy who convinced me to delete the photos was just doing his job, but I didn't know his job was to be a dick.
My sense is that I didn't have to delete the photos and never have before during work related activities. But I would have had to leave the park right then and there and I wasn't ready to make that call for our entire group of 10. I took shots of the aftermath only because I thought that it was slightly negligent of the medical staff to not give a soaking wet patient standing in a breeze for 20 minutes a blanket when she could have been a little shocky.
As far as the Pentax W60 camera goes, it is still highly recommended. Although I am sad that the undelete button did not work. Apparently you need to keep the camera on and immediately undelete photos to recover them. I could attempt an SD card data recovery app, but the few I found were not cheap. I also am starting to notice that the extremely solid depth of field on this camera has an unfortunate side effect of catching all the water on the lens cover. The video mode continues to be the killer app. The focal length at widest zoom works to capture a POV of one's face during rides if one plants it on a belly. (I will warn you, although safe for work, there is decent amount of man nipple in this video.)
I guess the park has to watch its liability after accidents like that time in 1997 when a ride collapsed.
Other than that, the park was pretty good for kids, and apparently dangerous enough for adults to appreciate. Funnel cake sucked, burgers were good. I would have considered a 2009 season pass for $40, as just a fun testing ground for waterproof digital cameras, had the day not taken such a sour turn. To Raging Waters!
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