Before you start screaming in the comments that New Jersey’s Action Park was actually the first amusement park to have a water slide with a vertical loop back in the ’80s, you’ll be happy to hear that’s exactly where this one is headed come 2016. Except that this updated version will actually house riders in a reinforced aluminum pod so that they can easily clear the loop without injury, and without lawsuit.
This video features a prototype of the Sky Caliber ride that’s now being tested by Avalanche Waterslides in Missouri. Riders plunge down a 90-degree, 45-foot long free-fall that sends them blasting through the 30-foot tall loop at speeds as fast as 50 miles per hour. It’s a short ride for an attraction that costs $1.4 million to build, but what kid hasn’t dreamed of blasting through a loop without being tethered to a track like on a roller coaster? There’s not a parent on earth who would let their kid try a stunt like this in their own backyard, so Action Park will be the only place to try it. [LA Times via Laughing Squid]
