Shoot the Rapids

Does anyone have any photos of the old Shoot the Rapids that they can share? I was on the last crew in '81 and enjoyed that summer the most of my 4 summers spent at the Point.

This is the only one I could find. I have seen alot of differnt photos of this view, but very few of any other part of the ride.

I think it is from 1976, because it is in with a group of pictures of Corkscrew the year it opened. That is me in the front of the boat.

http://s232.photobucket.com/albums/ee76/spitnsunshine/img453.jpg
*** Edited 9/3/2007 11:48:16 AM UTC by Spit***

You look scared. :)

-Tambo

Probably because he just realized where the water came from.

Did the Shoot the Rapids get its water from the lake? I remember one of you referring to it as "Shoot the Sewer".

I believe it did get the water from the lake, but only at the beginning of the season. It had a large retention pond where the water came from during regular operation. While I only worked on the ride 2 days a week during the '81 season (and rode on the last boat before destruction), it was referred to "Shoot the Sewer." The water smelled like sewer water and was pretty nasty. The boards we walked on were supposed to be scrubbed regularly from the slime from the water. The last year of operation, those boards and flumes were never scrubbed since it was going to be torn down. You definitely had to watch your step and hold on tight. I remember slipping on the slime on more than one occasion. superdav might be able to provide more details.

Yeah Shoot the Sewer(that's not really what we called it, at least out of earshot) pulled it's water from the lake.There was a holding pond in the center, but that ride put a lot of water on the ground, so they had to refill the pond regularly during the season.

Bill

I was in the very back seat of the last boat. Do you remember that we held it back in the upper splash pond, and John Riggleman had to come down from the tower believing that we were stuck? This was due to the fact that no one was manning the boat pull positions. That was a great ride! We rocked and whooped and hollered the entire way through the flume.

I do remember how nasty and slippery all of the planks and walkways were all summer. We made every attempt to keep from getting splashed by the water. One of the unofficial initiations for new crew included getting splashed by boats in the upper splash pond. This occurred while rotating from the tower position to boat pull. The crew member sitting at boat pull would motion the one coming from the tower when no boat was coming down the first hill. We were not able to see if a boat was coming down because we were coming from under the flume hill. This tradition was to give the OK when it was not actually clear causing the unsuspecting guy to walk by just as the splash occurred. I quickly learned not to completely trust anyone after learning my lesson from having to work much of the day soaked with that nasty water. The other of my least enjoyable jobs was to be assigned the morning walk of the flumes. This had to be done each morning to check for debris and limbs that may have fallen over night. Walking through the flumes in the puddles and slime was a very difficult task. The group leader also thought that it was hilarious to start the pumps before we were completely through the walk. You knew this had happened due to the air horn that sounded when the pumps were started or shut down. We learned to basically speed skate to the bottom of the lift hill when the horns sounded.

It was not uncommon to find partially ground up fish and other creatures that had been sucked into the pumps. If you got wet, you felt sticky and nasty for the rest of the shift.

What about Mill Race, did that too get it's water from Lake Erie?

Having worked there in the late 70's, I can attest to the fact that the water on the Rapids was nasty. The mill race had treated water, in the sense that it was filtered and dyed blue. The Rapids, on the other hand, simply sucked water from the lagoon. But, I will say that those pumps were awesome. Amazing how quickly they could fill that flume!

As for dead critters, I will never forget the night we were closing and pulling the boats out of the flume for storage. As the crane lifted one of the last boats, we looked in amazement as we say a wild turkey hanging from one of the wheels by the neck. This bird had somehow fallen into the flume and been taken under by one of the boats. Surprisingly, it was still alive, although obviously suffering from a broken neck. We called Ops, but they basically said to simply take care of it on our own. We put the bird out of its misery, discarded the carcass, and went home.

Just another day as a CP ride operator!

superdav

That last ride was fun. I remember John coming down and also getting mad at us when we held the boat back from climbing up on the conveyor back at the station. I now believe I remember who you are. I don't believe I ever had to walk the flumes in the morning, but I do remember them starting the pumps before the guys got back to the station. And, thanks for the memories about getting soaked in the upper boat pull. I too got soaked the exact same way. Yea, I didn't trust anyone after that either. Sure was fun working that ride!!!