Thunder Canyon Crew 2008

I held back from posting a TC post, because I didn't want to steal all your guys' thunder.

But anyway, this is the official "I'm on the greatest crew ever, Thunder Canyon" post. If you are on the crew, let us know. My name is Ryan, I'll be the Team Leader this year and Mitch is the Assistant. It's gonna be a great summer.
Feel free to IM me at Top Thrill Ryan

Hey Ryan. Just got got word that I will be part of the Thunder Canyon crew. Not too surprised really because of how the interview went. Should be really fun.

I would never work another day on this ride. One season was enough for me. Did get a good tan though. Wouldnt be surprised if there was alot of operational changes to this ride, after last year.

Oh please do tell the horror stories.

They probably wouldnt like me to say, but last season the ride had to close down for a day and a half because of what happened. After this CP changed a few operating procedures. The rafts suck also, the bladders are always going flat. On one of the hottest snd busiest Saturday's we had only 4 available rafts out of 15. The line was over 2 hours long. Also the e-stops can get very scary at times.

Well then it looks like we have a challenge on our hands Ryan. Up to it? I think we can take on a little minor setback. A day and a half. Sounds like a vacation. I would have loved to have been away from CJ's for a day and a half. Now thats drama. WE HAD MINORS and you try getting thru the season and not want to kill them.

Have fun on the ride, you will get plenty of exercise on the rotating platform. Also Field has got to be the worst position on the ride, but it does offer shade for those hot days. Hope you like spiders too.

Is that the spot where over by the observation deck where the person is sitting in the chair with the umbrella yelling at the raft as it goes by?

DId someone jump off the boat or get seriously hurt or somthin? Please tell, oh please. And why are the E-Stops so scary?

Yes field is the position wiith the chair. You will be yelling at alot of people as they go by. People just dont understand that they are going to get wet on a water ride. I never knew that so many people stood up on the rafts and ran around them. No someone did not jump off the boat or get hurt. Lets just say that the ride is surrounded by trees and trees sometimes fall. E-stops on this ride require running from the ride hosts that are on the platform. When the e-stop button is pressed the pumps stop and cause the water to flow alot faster. Some boats can get jammed at the entrance to the turntable which causes a backup of rafts which is not so good. You have to act fast during e stops. One day we had around 3 in a 30 minute span. Also people do NOT know how to buckle there seatbelt on this ride. They are stupid.

RYAN!!!!

I'm so glad that you're going to be TL of my old ride. You'll do great there and Mitch will do well over there too. I remember those E-stops all too well, but don't worry. Just wanted to clear up that when an E-stop happens while immediate action is necessary, it isn't because the water begins flowing faster. When the pumps shut off, the water stops being pumped to the top of the flume and this changes the current through the table, but the flow and speed of the water actually decreases throughout the duration of the E-stop. As long as everyone on the crew knows what to do, the event might be nerve wracking, but also fairly safe.

I remember hearing about a tree falling on thunder canyon last year. Must have been a big one to shut the ride down for that long.

ahh good 'ole thunder canyon...i worked there last year and again this year...its not really that bad of a job..yes e-stops are a bitch but at least you get your exercise right?...in my opinion the worst place to be when a e-stop happens is field...cuz you gotta go runnig around the forest and make sure everyone is ok...and another thing that sucks about field is all the spiders...haha those suck..

Its gonna be a good summer tho..make sure you got comfortable walkin shouse cuz what you'll be doin for a good 8-10 hours a day...see you all trainig week...

wow those stories bring back memories from my TL year in 87, the second year it was open. 22 rafts back then guys, talk about busy! 7 platform positions, how many are there now?

I could not think about running 22 rafts. The few days when we were running close to 15 was crazy. Back then I heard they ran alot of rafts everyday. is this true? Crowd position would be a horrible running 22 rafts. What did they use the numbers that were painted on the platform? I dont know what they we be used for. When it rains the numbers show up.

crowd was very busy! you used the number on the raft to send the people to. the platform constantly had rafts on it. we had a much bigger queue back then also, full one was only about a 25 minute wait, the line moved constantly, like when gemini used six trains. it was not umcommon on a hot day to have about 20000 people ride, remember it was a new ride back then. we couldnt go under a 22 raft operation then until usually 8 at night. more stories if you have any questions....

Heck by 8 we were standing around looking at each other talking, having the same kids come back over and over. It got really boring standing around sometimes. Field was horrible. The ride can really move some people. So do you have any interesting stories about the ride? Would like to hear.

well it got slow usually by 8 also, but things were so different back then with park op. at 8 they let us go to a 16 raft operation! oh curios, who starts the pumps in the morning? back then, the area supervisor had to do it with the TL in the tower. we started the day with 16 rafts, and at 11 we went to 22 rafts. i only got to go the "field" a couple of times. loved it!!!! not so many spiders back then and the trees were small. i hear so much of the Estop. it only happened a couple of times when i was there, but one was a big one!!!!

Having an E-stop with 22 rafts would be crazy. It would be neat to go back into time and see how the ride operated compared to todays operation. Sounds like it was a very popular ride back then. How many times a day did you have to stop the lift because of a seatbelt? It happened all the time, and were sometimes the causes of the e-stop.

i dont ever remeber stopping the lift for a seatbelt, maybe stopping the table before the raft left it for the lift though. things were so diffent then with how the rides were operated. but with 22 rafts it was really busy! and people back then didnt know how to fasten seatbelts either. we had to call and get permission to remove rafts when the crowd slowed down, is that still the case?