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Scorpion's Tail

Noah's Ark Family Park, Wisconsin Dells, Wis.



Background: The Scorpion's Tail, designed by WhiteWater West of Canada, opened this Memorial Day and is the first capsule slide in America. It's 10 stories high and 400 feet long, with a near-vertical drop that takes riders plummeting at a rate of 50 feet per second.



Why It Stands Above the Rest: Instead of sitting down and pushing off down a steep slide, riders stand in a capsule for 3 seconds until the floor drops out beneath their feet. "You literally have no control," says Joe Heflin, senior vice president for News and Park Sales at WhiteWater West. "It's like falling down an elevator shaft."



The only thing to break the free-fall is the loop after the drop, which slows down the gravitational force of 2.6 g's. The control system for the ride, according to Heflin, is unique to water slides because it requires pumping water faster than gravity in order to lubricate the flume as the bodies slide down. In order to make a smooth (but no less-frightening) ride, water nozzles spraying mist are located every 3 to 4 feet from the top of the slide.



The capsule was also engineered using translucent fiberglass, providing optimal viewing of the thrill ride from the ground level.