Dragster H20

Going to Cedar Point in July and probably going to Soak City as well and was wondering what their new slide was like and what to expect.

We rode them this past weekend for the first time. Mind you, we are HUGE mat-racer fans, but this one really fell short.

We love the Taumata Racer are Aquatica in Orlando... Basically a much larger version of the one at CP, with a single straight drop versus the two dips after the start. We also have rode some at the Columbus Zoo which is a simple dip-variety (three dips back after back) and one other model I can't remember right now.

Cedar Point's though is too small for it's own good, and with one major flaw at the end.

The beginning starts out great. You then hit the dips after, which sadly are taken very slow. On other models, you tend to get a little floater airtime on the last dip or the main drop. Much more speedy/aggressive.

The big flaw with CP's version is the "landing zone". The water tends to "flood" at the end of the strip a bit, causing you to wipe out (not the problem). The problem is they put this grippy material all over the slides at the end so people don't slip and I ended up cutting myself badly both times I rode them. It was like sandpaper if you would slip off your mat a little bit when stopping. I don't know why this version has this stupid material (looks like it is formed right into the plastic though) unlike all the others which are smooth all the way through. Therefore, no pain when you get out or slip off.

That is my honest review... We love mat racers and made the trip to Soak City just for them (first time ever in that waterpark, and we love waterparks). But I honestly would not go just for them. The slides next door turned out to be much better (tube and body slides).

The only downfall, is that I had a near death experience on the one body slide (the one with the triple down ending). Mind you, I weigh around 260lbs and build up speed fast on water slides. I hit those dips and went completely airborne on each dip while going side-to-side at the same time (hard to explain). Was completely out of control. I never been so scared in my life. Needless to say, I don't think I would be able to ride it again... :)

But the other two were great. I really love how the CP body slides are seemless. Blows my mind why new slides are not the same way. Joints make me avoid any and all body slides. CP's though were like one long slip-n-slide. They were great.

CP's bodyslides (#5,6,7) were all sanded, refinished, and painted in the off-season. They are all considerably faster than they were last year.

The one you reference, #6, gets good airtime now at the end where it didn't before. I know exactly what you're talking about, and I only weigh 190lbs. You don't go into those last drops straight, and I found myself hitting dry parts of the slides several times during our afternoon there.

Agree also with your comments on the mat slide. Pretty weak, though I do like the decreasing radius tunnel turns on a couple of them, you build a pretty neat increasing g-force effect. But I much prefer the triple drop version at HW where I get big airtime on the third drop.

Oh, and if #6 was dangerous for you, you would have certainly died on the speed slides that were taken down at the end of last season, where the new mat racer currently stands.

^ yeah, talk about coming off the slide and slamming down on your back 2 times, major air on those final 2 dips! I was laughing and in shock at the same time after I went down those 2 slides the first time!

MaverickLaunch,

So those body slides were not always that smooth without the seams? It blows my mind why that would not be standard installation procedure on ANY body slide, to fill/sand and paint the joints between sections. I was so excited when I saw the lack of seams and they only reason I rode them! It was great (except for my experience).

With that #6 slide, that was the worst part was not going into them straight. You hit that turn right before the first dip quite fast so by the time you hit that dip, you are somewhere on the side of the slide. You go airborn only to land on the side a bit, swing to the other side right before the second dip and repeat for the last one. I seriously thought by that last dip I was going to go over the side of the slide, not joking. My girlfriend who was watching won't allow me to go on it anymore after seeing me come down that one. It really was a scary experience!

When I rode the other color (facing the lake directly) to the right, I made sure to sit up as much as I can to slow myself down.

It for sure makes the top of my "feel like I was going to die" list, and I am not exaggerating at all! I tend to fly in any water slide I go on just because of my weight/size (6'6" and 255lbs), but never have I experienced anything like that!

The only similar experience was at Wet N' Wild on their mat-racer body slides, which were amazing. At the end, they have a series of dips on one of the slides and you get airtime the whole way down. Probably my favorite waterslide to date!

Appreciate your info! :)

The seams were always minimal, at least compared to some other parks I've been to. But all the slides in soak city, except for the kiddie area, were plain original vanilla (just like how the multiperson tube slide is now) up until closing last year.

During Halloweekends they started working on them, filling joints and resanding, and then painted all of them except the big tube one. Not sure why they left that one alone.

We have a saying in my business renting houses... sometimes when you fix one thing, everything else suddenly looks like crap. That big slide stands out now as the only thing that hasn't been completely redone in the offseason.

Yeah, the waterpark looked terrible every year I have been going to CP... I mean, I live an hour away and LOVE waterparks but it just always looked so dated and ugly, we never went because of that. We go to GL almost every week and when we go to Florida or other places, we always end up at water parks just as much as normal parks. CP needed the makeover, for sure.

It looks MUCH better than before. The colors make it appear much more fun and vibrant. The big raft slide does still look odd, being tan... But better one than the entire waterpark.

My gripe is the lack of chairs/seating in that place. Very minimal anywhere besides the wave pool area and the adult pool area it seemed. We looked around for a while before settling on the sand area by the kiddy pool. So many people were toweled up on lawn areas and in random places.

Was a fun waterpark, but it was nothing special either. Glad we tried it out though!

As Invertalon said, be sure to keep your knees on the mat and your feet up at the end. H2O was my first ride of the day and I let my knees and feet drag all the way dow, which was fine. But the sandpaper-like nonslip material at end of shoot gave me 2 quartersized skin-shreds.

Had my first few experiences on DH2O yesterday. Followed the advice about keeping my feet up but on the third trip, the "flood" area bucked my left leg off the mat and onto that nonslip surface while still travelling at a fair speed, yowch! It's a little too cheese-grater-y.

I went on the Dragster H2O for the first time last week. After scraping my foot 2 times, I tried lifting up my feet and ended up scraping my knee instead. My husband, however, ended up scraping his knee and arm to the point that they started bleeding (nothing major, but it was like an abrasion you get from falling on a gym floor).
I don't know if anyone has noticed and/or has annswer, but I noticed a sign at the bottom that says something to the extent that the lifeguard shouldn't give the all-clear until the bottom has returned to a certain water level or something. Could the lifeguard be giving the okay prematurely thus causing the scraping? (IMHO, I can't see this being the case, because that would mean it would take at least 2 minutes to refill, which doesn't seem to be very efficient).

I don't get why the ending is so rough... Any other mat-racer has been smooth as can be where you slow down so you don't get all cut up. Why CP's version is different is beyond me.

I also noticed the water collection at the end is strange. The water is "thin" at first (no slowdown) and all of a sudden gets deep fast where the non-slip roughness material or whatever is. The other versions go right into the slowdown area when you hit the bottom.

The design of Dragster H20 is weird for such a slide. I have no desire to ride it again, that is for sure.

I received a nice letter from CP indicating that they would look into the issues with the rough ending. If you happened to get scraped up, drop them an e-mail on the CP web site. The squeaky wheel gets the ludicrously abrasive surface refinished, as the saying goes.

Thanks Tip, I am going to do that!

I also had the same bad experiences this Summer on Dragster H20. It's sad because I was really excited to hear that Soak City was getting mat racers, but after being on them I have no desire to ride them again due to the ending.