What not to do while riding Thunder Canyon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ar-NHW4S5s&feature=related

I thought they had operators that watched the boats? Is it possible they got yelled at when the ride ended?

Sadly I doubt a ride op even saw them.

Oh well. Too bad the idiot didn't fall out for being so stupid.

I'm not sure what you 'did there'. I have a hunch about what you think you may have done, but why don't you just elaborate for us so we're all clear?

What I referred to was the riders getting up in the middle of the ride and changing seats under the waterfall, but it may have been viewed differently and I have since deleted the post. I said "Chinese fire drill" then pointed out the irony because the people were Asian. I certainly didn't mean to offend anyone, if I did.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_fire_drill

And it is possible, but whenever we spot someone doing that at GR, I personally usually give them a stern but polite reminder about how incredibly unsafe their behavior was and how that won't be acceptable. Most of the time the people who do it are very unruly and unsupervised kids. I usually mix in an empty threat about not being able to ride again if they do that, because what's the goal? Making sure they stay safe, not scaring them because they had no clue hat they were doing.

I've found that if you are polite and calm about chastising guests or telling them that their child is not tall enough, you get through to them a lot more successfully than if you yell at them. The key is to get them to believe you care, which in this case obviously we do.

I have been on the ride when people say they don't need the seatbelts and move around when they want. We always end up hitting a wall and after almost falling out, they rethink the seatbelt thing.

They are there for a reason, though on GR, it's hard to find that reason sometimes, haha!

DMT, that's what I thought you were alluding to. In retrospect, and reading your new post, I don't believe you were trying to be derogatory or racist. But the first time around, it kind of felt that way to me.

Regardless, I think it's important to point out that the people you were referring to were most definitely not Chinese -- they certainly weren't speaking Mandarin or Cantonese. If I had to guess, because I can't recognize (let alone understand) many Asian languages, I would have to say they were Indonesian. Geographically and culturally, they are probably about as related to "Chinese" as you are to Inuit Indian, say.

You are right about one thing: they were certainly violating the rules and endangering themselves. Their actions could easily have warranted expulsion from the park.

I would suggest to the guy on the very right with the gray shirt to get a haircut.

So, another TC question...

Where are the ride ops stationed on the ride? I thought there was at least one "station" midway through the ride where a worker sat and watched.

Also, I assume the an e-stop is really only permitted if someone goes overboard during the ride. I wonder how often that happens every year? It's too bad there aren't any lifts or block sections after the start of the ride which could prevent this kind of behavior or at least get folks to stop mid-ride.

I was on the TC reviewing platform two weeks ago when some teenager undid his seatbelt and stood up before the waterfall near the end of the ride. The girl stationed to moniotr near there was on the phone in a flash. I do not know what happened to the rider when he returned to the station.

They look quite overdressed for being on a water ride! Stupid for moving around on a ride! The first statement helps solidify the second...

It's idiots like these that will cause all the rides at the point to have the locking seatbelts that the ride op. has to lock and unlock. Can't wait for them days, think of the load times then.

Not to mention my big pet peeve, having your phone / camera out on the ride. Been e-stopped on MaXair and Skyhawk both this year because some idiot didn't understand the clear instructions before the ride began. I would love to have seen the camera go into the water, but then we probably wouldn't have had this entertaining video to watch in the first place.

I'm thinking that any ride that has a potential to capsize in water, no matter how slim the chance, isn't going to have locking seatbelts.

Yeah, I think all they can really do is put lots of signage accompanied by oral warnings to stay seated, on pain of removal from the park. They would have to monitor the rafts, and then enforce it. They're pretty limited what they can do otherwise.

Even if the E-Stop is pressed, the water level wouldn't immediately decrease. Really, all it would do is just lengthen the time it would take to get them off the ride.

I'm surprised more people don't die on these rides. If you see in the video the girl waived at the employee who sits right before the waterfalls. When I worked on the ride if you seen people running around the raft or unbuckling seat belt you would just call up to the control tower and let them know the raft number, they then relay the message down to the platform to talk to the raft saying something like "you do it again you will be escorted out of the park." Pretty much a slap on the hand.

Yeah, I thought that E-stops on TC were a "big deal" and not done unless it was a major emergency.

I think this type of ride will probably go the way of the flume...aka any new ones will have major changes to the restraints so people can't climb out/stand up. Aside from smaller parks, I think the old style flume boats aren't coming back. Over the shoulder lap bars would have the same effect on TC wouldn't they?

^I would think an otsr would pose the same hazard should a boat capsize as a seatbelt that only the ride ops can unlock. I'm not sure if there is a reasonable solution to this kind of thing. Short of posting a ride op on every boat, which would just be ridiculous.

Can anyone understand what the ride op in the chair across from the viewing platform is even saying? I've watched my kids go by, as well as ridden TC this summer, and not one time have I been able to understand what is coming out the speaker from that ride op.