What not to do while riding Thunder Canyon

I doubt that the (12 seat?) TC tubs could capsize.

Yeah, I don't think the water would be deep enough that even if the tube deflated the boat would still float on.

Hasn't it happened at Disney before? I'm thinking it has happened more than once.

How about we bring paddles and pretend to be white water rafting! It's fun to go WWR, in a real river, I'v rafted the gauley in WV! Thunder canyon seems boring now, but still fun to ride with friends who have not rafted! :)

The river that goes through Ohiopyle state park in PA is a good rafting river too! Especially when they open the dam on the upper or lower, (can't seem to remember now) and it becomes class 5.

Upper or Lower Gauley, Miss Maverick? I rafted the Lower last fall - our boat took a massive spill in Hell Hole toward the end. I've been wanting to challenge the Upper soon. I've done the New and the Youghiogheny (Ohiopyle) before as well.

I remember doing the seat-switcheroo on White Water Canyon at Kings Island as a kid. While I don't condone it now, it also doesn't strike me as the biggest deal either. Has there ever been an incident in which someone has fallen out of one of these rides?

It is illegal to remove your seat belt on a roller coaster. I have seen a train stopped on the lift for Millennium, and when the d-bag that took off his seat belt got off the ride, he was warmly greeted by a group of cops.
Perhaps they are more lax with TC though? I imagine they don't have a computer system alerting them of removed seat belts. But even still, it is possible that people get confronted by cops after getting off TC if they were caught switching seats.

Jason Hammond said:I doubt that the (12 seat?) TC tubs could capsize.

It can happen and did to the same model boat in 1999, killing one. See here. That is not the only time it has happened either. Some parks have even had boats capsize multiple times! Check out this accident at Knott's where a girl did exactly what was happening in the video. She was hurt, sued the park and won.

I ride these rides with one finger on the buckle release.

^^If the cops were to bust every person that took off a seat belt they would be there all day. It happens all the time. Some people start taking the seat belts off as the raft is going up the lift.

99er, sounds like you are a bit paranoid. I understand that saying the rafts can't capsize is like saying a coaster couldn't ever get stuck upside down. It has happened before and could possibiliy happen in the future. But those are extremely rare occurrences. The track record of these kinds of rides as well as Cedar Point's rides is excellent.

As for the latter lawsuit, I suspect that the woman would have lost her case had a video such as this one existed, which proved that the rider unbuckled the safety belt.

I think all of this emphasizes why most modern restraint systems are designed so that the rider cannot manually release them.

Chuck Wagon said:99er, sounds like you are a bit paranoid.

Well I was present when one flipped last year. Rescuing people in that situation was not fun. I rarely ride these type of rides anyway because I don't favor water rides, but when I do....

Wowza. Well in that case it is understandable. If I witnessed one flip, I would be paranoid too.

I've seen a stupid kid fall out before on TC back in the 90's doing exactly the same switcharoo junk the at about the same spot in the video where the girl did at the viewing platform before the waterfalls toward the end of the ride.

I remember a lot of people on the viewing platform screaming at the ride op before the waterfalls to hit the e-stop. He didn't see the kid at first because he fell out just before his range of view (but in sight of the visitors on the viewing platform). He did hit the e-stop when he saw the kid go by in the water. That did not look like a fun rescue at all. I'm not sure what happened to the kid, but I guess he was ok.

When they hit that e-stop sure all the pumps and waterfalls shut off but still there is a heck of a lot of water flowing through that ride for awhile.

Chuck Wagon said:Wowza. Well in that case it is understandable. If I witnessed one flip, I would be paranoid too.

The sad part about the situation was that this was the 3rd time a raft had flipped at this park!

^ That's gotta be a design issue, then. I'd assume that anyways.