Volcano Bay 'Punga Racers' injures 115 and paralyzes one guest

It’s why they put a severe weight limit restriction on it. It’s also why it’s currently under construction.
 
I had a similar injury on a belly mat racer slide at the Great Wolf Lodge here in Southern California. The mat smacked me in the chin at the end when I hit the water. It was pretty painful. For a second, I thought I had knocked out teeth. I never rode it again. My younger son had water shoot so forcefully up his nose that he started choking. These types of rides are not fun. I heard they changed Punga Racers to a lay down, feet first slide.
 
Interestingly, the article never talks about WHY the Punga slides have had so many injuries. Other water parks (like Blizzard Beach) have head-first mat slides and we don’t hear about the same problems. The basic answer is that the ride-out at the end was way too short. After the slides opened, it was common to see adults fly past the end of the ride-out and onto the pavement. They tried to fix that by adding a splashdown at the end with about a foot of water or so - still didn’t really work (and forced the mat upwards into your face when you hit it). The reduced weight limit (150 pounds) was to keep riders from picking up more speed and shooting past the run-out at the bottom - watch the mat racers at Blizzard Beach sometime and how much further the adults go at the end versus the kids.

Haven’t seen these now that they’re converted to body slides - they had torn up the bottom completely to install new catch pools. The reality is they tried to fit a larger set of slides into a compact area that didn’t have enough space at the end. Which is a shame as the slides are pretty fun.
 


Interestingly, the article never talks about WHY the Punga slides have had so many injuries. Other water parks (like Blizzard Beach) have head-first mat slides and we don’t hear about the same problems. The basic answer is that the ride-out at the end was way too short. After the slides opened, it was common to see adults fly past the end of the ride-out and onto the pavement. They tried to fix that by adding a splashdown at the end with about a foot of water or so - still didn’t really work (and forced the mat upwards into your face when you hit it). The reduced weight limit (150 pounds) was to keep riders from picking up more speed and shooting past the run-out at the bottom - watch the mat racers at Blizzard Beach sometime and how much further the adults go at the end versus the kids.

Haven’t seen these now that they’re converted to body slides - they had torn up the bottom completely to install new catch pools. The reality is they tried to fit a larger set of slides into a compact area that didn’t have enough space at the end. Which is a shame as the slides are pretty fun.

The main difference between the BB mat race slide and this one (as well as the one I rode at GWL) is speed. The one I rode (and this one) are enclosed tube slides with somewhat of a drastic drop from beginning to end. They go VERY fast, unlike the one at Blizzard Beach which is a much slower, meandering ride until,the final little bunny hill at the end. I think the more aggressive slide profile means much faster speeds and when you land in that foot of water at the end, it's more like slamming down into a wall of water. That is how it feels when you land. The Blizzard Beach one has never felt that rough.
 

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