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Verrückt
Verrückt (German meaning "crazy" or "insane", pronounced [fɛɐ̯ˈʁʏkt] ⓘ) was a custom water coaster water slide located at the Schlitterbahn Kansas City water park in Kansas City, Kansas, United States. At the height of 168 feet 7 inches (51.38 m), Verrückt became the world's tallest water slide when it opened on July 10, 2014, surpassing Kilimanjaro at Aldeia das Águas Park Resort in Brazil. The ride was designed at the park, led by John Schooley with assistance from park co-owner Jeff Henry. It was featured on an episode of Xtreme Waterparks on the Travel Channel in June 2014, shortly before the ride opened. Verrückt permanently closed on August 7, 2016 following a fatal incident involving the decapitation of Caleb Schwab, the 10-year-old son of Kansas state legislator Scott Schwab, who later became Kansas secretary of state.
Verrückt had been scheduled to open in June 2013, but construction and safety testing issues caused multiple delays, including incidents in which sandbags loaded into rafts during testing went airborne. The ride's final design made rafts reach a maximum speed of 70 mph (110 km/h). Verrückt was well-received upon opening, winning a Golden Ticket Award from Amusement Today in 2014.
After Schwab's death, amusement park safety laws were updated to require state inspection of all attractions. It was later revealed that at least 13 other riders had previously sustained non-fatal injuries from contact with the netting above the slide. Criminal charges were filed against several individuals, including Schooley and Henry, which were later dismissed due to procedural issues in the case. The incident was followed by a decline in Schlitterbahn's business operations, and the park closed in September 2018. Verrückt was dismantled two months later, and the remainder of the park was demolished in 2021.
Original plans for Schlitterbahn Kansas City, the first Schlitterbahn Waterparks site outside Texas, proposed a $750 million complex including hotels and resort facilities. Officials in Wyandotte County, Kansas, where the project was planned, welcomed the announcement in 2005 viewing it as the result of efforts to encourage residents of the Kansas City metropolitan area to spend their disposable income in Kansas rather than Missouri. Kansas state legislators from the area passed legislation allowing Schlitterbahn to self-inspect its attractions without state oversight as it did in Texas, unlike all other amusement parks in Kansas, which were subject to state inspection.
The complete plans never came to fruition. Beginning in 2007, the Great Recession forced many amusement park operators, including Schlitterbahn, to scale back their plans and prioritize the profitability of existing parks. Schlitterbahn Kansas City was reduced to a $180 million park without lodging and was not open for an entire season until 2010. It was successful, but not to the degree Schlitterbahn and co-owner Jeff Henry had initially expected.
In November 2012, Schlitterbahn announced plans to create the world's tallest and fastest water slide at its Kansas City park, to open in mid-2013. No name was given during the announcement, and details on the height of the ride were kept secret to ensure that the completed ride would set a world record for its creation.
Verrückt's concept was spontaneously conceived by Henry during a trade show after a team from Travel Channel's Xtreme Waterparks asked what he was working on. Initial attempts to pitch the idea to vendors at the show failed, so Henry decided to build the slide himself, enlisting John Schooley as the ride's lead designer. Henry had described the new ride to the Travel Channel crew as a "speed blaster", a term he had likewise improvised. He and Schooley knew that Schlitterbahn had to live up to the hype Henry had created and design something previously unheard of. "Basically we were crazy enough to try anything", Schooley recalled.
Henry pressed his design team to complete the ride faster than usual, forcing many staff to work almost constantly. Calculations that normally required three to six months were completed in five weeks. As they began testing, rafts repeatedly went airborne on the ride's large bottom hump.
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Verrückt
Verrückt (German meaning "crazy" or "insane", pronounced [fɛɐ̯ˈʁʏkt] ⓘ) was a custom water coaster water slide located at the Schlitterbahn Kansas City water park in Kansas City, Kansas, United States. At the height of 168 feet 7 inches (51.38 m), Verrückt became the world's tallest water slide when it opened on July 10, 2014, surpassing Kilimanjaro at Aldeia das Águas Park Resort in Brazil. The ride was designed at the park, led by John Schooley with assistance from park co-owner Jeff Henry. It was featured on an episode of Xtreme Waterparks on the Travel Channel in June 2014, shortly before the ride opened. Verrückt permanently closed on August 7, 2016 following a fatal incident involving the decapitation of Caleb Schwab, the 10-year-old son of Kansas state legislator Scott Schwab, who later became Kansas secretary of state.
Verrückt had been scheduled to open in June 2013, but construction and safety testing issues caused multiple delays, including incidents in which sandbags loaded into rafts during testing went airborne. The ride's final design made rafts reach a maximum speed of 70 mph (110 km/h). Verrückt was well-received upon opening, winning a Golden Ticket Award from Amusement Today in 2014.
After Schwab's death, amusement park safety laws were updated to require state inspection of all attractions. It was later revealed that at least 13 other riders had previously sustained non-fatal injuries from contact with the netting above the slide. Criminal charges were filed against several individuals, including Schooley and Henry, which were later dismissed due to procedural issues in the case. The incident was followed by a decline in Schlitterbahn's business operations, and the park closed in September 2018. Verrückt was dismantled two months later, and the remainder of the park was demolished in 2021.
Original plans for Schlitterbahn Kansas City, the first Schlitterbahn Waterparks site outside Texas, proposed a $750 million complex including hotels and resort facilities. Officials in Wyandotte County, Kansas, where the project was planned, welcomed the announcement in 2005 viewing it as the result of efforts to encourage residents of the Kansas City metropolitan area to spend their disposable income in Kansas rather than Missouri. Kansas state legislators from the area passed legislation allowing Schlitterbahn to self-inspect its attractions without state oversight as it did in Texas, unlike all other amusement parks in Kansas, which were subject to state inspection.
The complete plans never came to fruition. Beginning in 2007, the Great Recession forced many amusement park operators, including Schlitterbahn, to scale back their plans and prioritize the profitability of existing parks. Schlitterbahn Kansas City was reduced to a $180 million park without lodging and was not open for an entire season until 2010. It was successful, but not to the degree Schlitterbahn and co-owner Jeff Henry had initially expected.
In November 2012, Schlitterbahn announced plans to create the world's tallest and fastest water slide at its Kansas City park, to open in mid-2013. No name was given during the announcement, and details on the height of the ride were kept secret to ensure that the completed ride would set a world record for its creation.
Verrückt's concept was spontaneously conceived by Henry during a trade show after a team from Travel Channel's Xtreme Waterparks asked what he was working on. Initial attempts to pitch the idea to vendors at the show failed, so Henry decided to build the slide himself, enlisting John Schooley as the ride's lead designer. Henry had described the new ride to the Travel Channel crew as a "speed blaster", a term he had likewise improvised. He and Schooley knew that Schlitterbahn had to live up to the hype Henry had created and design something previously unheard of. "Basically we were crazy enough to try anything", Schooley recalled.
Henry pressed his design team to complete the ride faster than usual, forcing many staff to work almost constantly. Calculations that normally required three to six months were completed in five weeks. As they began testing, rafts repeatedly went airborne on the ride's large bottom hump.