Trap Door Waterslides and My Worst Nightmare

So, I don't know what it is about water slides, but I am deathly afraid to go on any body slide. Top Thrill Dragster? no sweat, Power Tower? okay! Tube slides? still okay. But I cannot do body slides.

But now the new trap doors have me thinking, what happens if the mechanism for the trap door fails and only opens partially - enough to allow you to fall through, but not enough to cause damage to your neck.

Does anyone know how the trap doors work? do they 'drop downwards' or do they 'slide out'? Please someone, alleviate my fear ;)

Paging Kevin!

The trap doors drop out downwards, pivoting towards the front of the capsule (it's the large Plexiglas panel in the screenshot below). It's mainly gravity that opens the door, so if the mechanism failed to push the panel up, it would still just be hanging at a 90º angle, meaning you'd slide right past.

By the way, I wholeheartedly agree with the fear of body slides, in particular the ones totally enclosed (like the Thunder Falls body slides at the former Wildwater Kingdom). In fact, one time at WWK I was about to go down those body slides, but the lifeguards thought someone got stuck in one. Even though nobody was actually stuck, I chickened out and walked down the countless flights of stairs! Lol. Since the new body slides are translucent, they shouldn't be nearly as claustrophobia-inducing as the old opaque body slides.

The doors operate on compressed air. They are 2 transparent doors that drop out from under you with water rushing down your back. The one downside to these slides is the water hits your face quite a bit, so it was hard to keep my eyes open.

You would not like Deep Water Dive at Kentucky Kingdom. That I can tell you.

SO, I go to Kentucky Kingdom last summer. That trap door slide is so tall...I climb all of the way to the top...not one person waiting so I had to walk right in..3 second count down then drop 121 feet at a 70 degree angle. Think Gemini, but steeper. By far, the scariest amusement attraction I've ever done.

I've done these at 3 different parks now, and the first few times is really freaking scary. I can attest to that. But I think eventually you become a little more comfortable with it, and it's a really fun adrenaline rush. Just do it. :)

I personally can't do enclosed slides at all. I hate not seeing if water is about to splash me in the face. Not to mention, I may be slightly claustrophobic.

For some people, the objective, detailed "Ride-man-esque" explanations of how safe the contraptions are is enough...but in my experience it typically does not help most. It's like handing someone with a phobia of flying a brochure on how safe flying really is. Objectively, he/she already understands that, but it doesn't stop the boogeyman from creeping up.

Remember one very important thing when it comes to these attractions; for the most part, they are designed explicitly to create an illusion of danger. A lot of peoples' fears come from the perceived lack of control, and while I don't know for sure, I would assume that is at the root of a fear of body slides for you. There is nothing "holding you in", so it creates the irrational idea that one has a good chance of falling out to one's untimely demise.

Consider Millennium's queue line fly-by (on the ramp close to the station). That was a wonderful way to scare the crap out of a lot of people waiting in line. Remember Demon Drop? Everything about that ride just screamed "I'm unsafe". There's the "broken track" at the top of Expedition Everest, and the lack of shoulder restraints (thank god) on top thrill dragster, the head-chopper (and the fact that we call it a head chopper) on Gemini...all these elements that to the guest make the anxiety drip just a little bit harder through the bloodstream.

This is the same deal. It's a parlor trick. One has to get creative to take the concept of a water-slide to make it "new again", and this is a genius innovation. In the end, all you're doing is sliding down a slide that you would otherwise see nothing special about....but who ever gets a chance to ever be the "victim" of a trap door in their life? How cool is that? I always wondered how Luke felt when he fell into the Rancor pit. Through the power of magic, your brain is making you see possibilities that are not grounded in reality, but that's the fun of any good parlor trick.

Keep this in mind; that little catastrophic "trap-door-getting stuck" scenario your brain cooked up is anxiety talking. It's the voice in your head that loves to prevent you from doing something you'd love to do. It loves to create irrational ideas that we then rationalize into realistic possibilities so that we become slaves to it.

But, there's a payoff. The voice in your head will keep talking to you, but that doesn't mean you have to listen and obey. When you behave in spite of the anxiety, your brain will reward you with a flood of dopamine that will have you feeling like Jack on the deck of the Titanic.

And then you'll find yourself getting right back in line...it's why we're all hooked on thrill rides. We are, in a very real sense, junkies. :)

Kevin, that was a well articulated and informative response. But unfortunately, I don't think these thoughts my brain is concocting are irrational (not to me at least). It's the very analytical thinker in me that sees the tragedy that occurred to that young boy in Kansas this past summer and makes me wonder, what if, just what if, there's a scenario that was not planned for during the creation of these rides and all their supposed failsafes, and something unfortunate occurs. I guess that can happen on any ride; i.e. when they designed Dragster, they never anticipated that the cable would fray and snap. It wasn't until after the incident at Knott's (I think, correct me if I'm wrong here) that they decided to add a water cooling system. I can give many examples of this. I do agree though, my fear of body slides is probably do to feeling 'unsecured' because I never think about this while enjoying any other 'attraction', wet or dry.

Oh don't get me wrong; I am totally convinced that you don't think these thoughts are irrational. In fact, that's part of the core of helping someone overcome a fear; that is, helping to rewire those thoughts just enough so that they can cross the line into the great beyond. Then, when you have a rewarding experience (such as allowing yourself to get dropped through the trap door), those thoughts get forever placed in the "now how could I have ever thought that..?" category. There's typically more than one exposure involved, but it's an exercise called "cognitive restructuring".

Like I said, I don't think you think these thoughts are irrational...even though they are. :)

The two words "what if" are precisely what anxiety is all about.

Let me give you an analogy. If you didn't know, I also have an anxious mind I have to work hard at reeling in sometimes. When I leave the house in the morning on days I don't drop the girls off at school, I go through the same routine every day. Grab the coffee, out the door, down the driveway, close the garage door, down the road I go.

One particular morning when I was running late (meaning stressed), a little voice popped inside my head that kept whispering..."Did you remember to shut the garage door? You were in a such a hurry you forgot. It's still open. What if you forgot? What if someone breaks in? What if there's a robbery? What if it's open?"
I think you get the idea.

The stress and anxiety induced a completely irrational idea in my head that became consuming, compelling me to obey (turn around and check!). At the moment, I rationalized it; meaning, much like you’re describing, the irrational became rational to me, meaning I temporarily believed that it was indeed logical to assume that there was a very good chance the door was open and tragedy would ensue. The house will be looted, a fire will engulf the house, and it will end up in some time-bending trans-dimensional vortex like the home in Poltergeist.

But…I’ve trained myself. I refused to turn around, made it to my class on time, and when I got home guess what? The damn door was closed.

Anxiety lies to you and convinces you to doubt your own sense of rationality.

So yes, I believe you when you say that you don’t think the thoughts are rational. The struggle is real.

:)

Wow! You've got me. I will try the slide this summer at the Shores. Do you mind if I asked you what your profession is? I can take a wild guess, unless this is just your 'hobby'.

For the following posts, you will be charged at a standard rate. :)

Helping people is what I like to do. I'm blessed to have had the opportunity to turn my hobby into a career. This (below) is (part of ) my job. At least, what I've turned it into.

Just for the record, I will not be trying the Trap Door Nightmare Waterslide this season.

That's great Doctor Meyer! I will say this, I would love to try your class if you offer it to non-college students. And it's not even for the body slides lol, I will do that this summer on my own ;) My biggest fear is standing on a glass platform very high up such as the Grand Canyon observation deck or Willis Tower Skydeck. I almost become paralyzed and turn into this

Btw, that's very inspirational that you got to work in a field where you can incorporate something you're passionate about. Unfortunately for me, dentistry and roller coasters can't really be incorporated. I grew up around urban planning though and it's still a hobby and passion of mine and maybe one day when I'm done with dentistry I can go back to that and have Rob Decker's job

Dental work while riding a roller coaster? Sign me up!

Dental-Work will be coming to Iron Dragon on Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 10 - 11:30 AM.

Hate to pop the balloon, but this is the same structure KI put up last year. If it wasn't safe then you would have heard about it by now.

If Iron Dragon employees were handing out winning $500 billion lottery tickets, but you had to go to the dentist first, I'd be SOL.

I did one of these slides once, aboard the Disney Magic, which isn't even a particularly large one. That was it. Even with a significant amount of liquid courage (I was on a cruise ship, after all), that was a one-and-done experience.