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American Wave Machines Helps Scientific Community
To anyone in the amusement industry, the term “wave machine” is usually associated with surf generators used at waterparks. But to the scientific community, it means something quite different, as American Wave Machines (AWM) of Solana Beach, California, is well aware.
AWM was recently contacted by the Ocean Energy Research Lab at the University of Texas at Brownsville about securing one of its wave generators for use in a large wave tank system. The university lab is involved with research into harnessing energy from offshore ocean wave swells. The lab wanted a wave generator that produces controllable wave heights and frequencies in a wave tank 15 meters (49 feet) long, 1 meter (3.3 feet) wide, and 1 meter deep.
“We get a lot of attention from scientific people because of studies going on around the world in capturing waves for energy generation,” says Bruce McFarland, founder of American Wave Machines, “and when they are looking for wave machines, our name immediately comes up.”
The Ocean Energy Research Lab is investigating technology for a maintenance- and-corrosion-free, hurricane resistant wave energy converter. The lab will use the AWM wave generator to simulate ocean conditions for testing small-scale prototype wave energy converters by simulating deep-water and transitional-water waves of varying heights and endurance. Ocean Energy needed a wave generator that could continuously provide reliable, repeatable characteristics.
“The availability of this wave generator will significantly facilitate our research along this line,” says Dr. Yingchen Yang, director of the Ocean Energy Research Lab. “It allows us to systematically examine and improve the design parameters of the wave energy converter in a timely and cost-effective manner. With this help, we are more confident we can reach our ultimate goal—to make ocean waves become a competitive renewable energy source.”
Though this scientific application is a departure from AWM’s amusement industry business, McFarland doesn’t see it as being really unusual. “I guess it’s because we still think our core business is making waves in general and not letting ourselves be limited,” he says. “In fact, we have another job we’re doing for the Navy in making waves over sediments to see how it affects the sediments. It’s an even bigger job and includes our wave generator and a special tank.”
Though the underlying technology is the same for the wave generators used in amusements and those used for scientific research, McFarland explains that his company’s focus is different. “From our core business of making waves, if it’s for amusements, it has all of the safety components wrapped into it, and if it’s for science, it’s about the specifics of the waves sizes themselves.”
As for AWM’s waterpark business, the company continues to promote its two signature products—SurfStream, a standing wave machine, and PerfectSwell, a wave generator for wave pools and custom surf pools.
McFarland says AWM has recently experienced a shift toward more outdoor waterpark business: “We still have more indoor business, but it’s not as lopsided as it was—we’re seeing more and more outdoors.” www.americanwavemachines.com
‘The New 4-D’: Going Where No Coaster Has Gone Before?
When Jordan Dietrich was nine years old, his mother discovered she might have an engineering prodigy on her hands when he attached a string, which he had reinforced to cope with stress and heat, to a plastic button. He then began spinning the button rapidly by winding and unwinding the string; so rapidly, in fact, the button reached about 60,000 rpm and exploded, damaging two mirrors, a wall, and a ceiling.
 Fast-forward 20 years. Dietrich has now developed an ingenious design for a roller coaster that features an unlimited degree of rotation for passenger cars, far fewer component parts in the track design than other coasters with rotating cars, and the possibility of novel and exhilarating track layouts never seen before. He unveiled working models of the design, which he named “The New 4-D,” at his booth on the floor of IAAPA Attractions Expo 2010 in November.
The design, which he terms a “helical control rail track,” uses one centrally mounted “strongback” spine to which the coaster track rails attach instead of the heavier two-spine systems found on other seat-rotating coasters. It also features one centrally mounted control rail instead of two externally mounted control rails, decreasing the amount of steel and other materials, according to Dietrich, and provides more efficient leverage. Finally, seat rotation is based on circular motion rather than linear motion, which he says is key.
“The seats can be oriented in any way the track designer wishes,” says
Dietrich. “That’s the beauty of it. For the first time, the rider experience is not limited by the orientation of the track. [Also,] when the seat rotation is derived from a circular motion instead of a linear motion, less is more. Because train components need not be as long, the three rails of the track are much closer to the spine, and much less material is required to stabilize them. ”
Dietrich says the design has numerous advantages, but perhaps the most intriguing is that it allows for the possibility of two coaster tracks, and thus two coaster trains, running on the same central spine, something he says has never been seen before on a working coaster.
Dietrich says he spent “thousands of hours” researching, contemplating, and refining the design over a four-year period. “I realized early on that it’s not enough for a product to do something new and surpass what’s come before—it also has to cost less and be reliable,” he asserts. “That’s when it sells.” If that happens, then damaging his mother’s mirrors, wall, and ceiling 20 years ago may prove to have been well worth it.
Working models of this patented technology, along with Dietrich’s explanations, can be seen on YouTube by entering “new4d coasters” in the search field. www.jordandietrich.com
Exhibit Highlights ‘Invisible Slavery Today’
In the minds of most people who live in the modern world, human slavery is probably a concept associated with times long ago. But a new permanent exhibit titled “Invisible Slavery Today” that opened Oct. 9, 2010, at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center (NURFC) in Cin - cinnati, Ohio, hopes to change that perception by highlighting the tragic subjects of modern-day slavery and human trafficking through a variety of techniques, including video kiosks and interactive touch-screen presentations.
Assisting in this endeavor is Electronic Art LLC, based in Cincinnati, which uses a variety of interactive media to bring the exhibit to life. Electronic Art specializes in engaging kiosks and was called upon by the NURFC when another vendor was unable to provide the necessary services to the museum. “We were brought in with a short time frame,” company CEO Tim Burke tells FUNWORLD, “so we had 17 exhibit components to do in five weeks, work that usually takes three months. We actually worked until just hours before opening night.”
In that time, Electronic Art created numerous high-definition touchscreen displays and several digital kiosks that explain how slavery continues to engulf the lives of many people today. Visitors can also submit their own thoughts on the content, which are then displayed at the exit of the exhibit.
One of the screens is a 55-inch display that permits visitors to access statistics on modern-day slavery from the U.S. State Department. “A lot of it is just sort of elevating the museum experience,” explains Burke. “The use of interactive allows you to tell a story in a more engaging way, and it permits a museum or [science center] to use its full inventory when they have things in storage because it allows them to show more of their artifacts than they can actually put out on the show floor.”
The final section of the exhibit deals with anti-slavery activities under way around the world today. Visitors are asked to make a personal commitment to being 21st Century Abolitionists in the cause of freedom.
As for the significance of “Invisible Slavery Today,” Burke says, “I think it’s part of [NURFC’s] aspiration to be less about the old Underground Railroad. Slavery didn’t just happen over a hundred years ago; it’s happening now. It’s rewarding for us to help address such a profoundly important topic.”
www.electronicart.com
Pigeon Forge Getting ‘Water-Powered Funhouse on Steroids’
As everyone knows, bad things happened to the Titanic when it ventured out onto the water. The Titanic Museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, however, is hoping very good things will happen to its guests in 2013 when they visit the museum’s newest offering, Water Magic.
Set on a 12-acre site directly across the street from the museum, the $40 million attraction will be designed to allow guests to discover new and creative ways to have fun with water without really getting soaked. Water Magic is not a waterpark—in fact, most guests will probably wear their street clothes into the venue.
But that doesn’t mean there won’t be plenty of water frolicking going on. In fact, Water Magic’s creators describe it as a “water-powered funhouse on steroids” and say its motto will be, “Get me wet.”
According to John Joslyn, who coowns the Titanic Museum with his wife, Mary Kellogg-Joslyn, he and his creative team—including Bob Fleming, president of Idletime, which designed Titanic Museums in both Pigeon Forge and Branson, Missouri— were meeting back in 2009 and looking at what they could possibly do to creatively expand the museum.
“Finally I asked, ‘What captivates children and adults more than anything else?’ and Bob replied, ‘It’s water,’ and I said, ‘Yes!’ So we thought, ‘Could we have a room where people could walk on water, or could we have a bubble room, or do a water theater?’ It’s just one of those simplistic things in life that hits you like a lightning bolt, and it just sort of took us all aback in the room.”
Water Magic will be a year-round attraction set in a 40,000-square-foot building. One of the first sites visitors will see is a 100-foot kinetic energy sculpture topped by a 1,000-gallon bucket that will spill water down onto Water Magic’s grand entry plaza. Guests will then proceed to Emporium Square, a two-story atrium filled with water-driven gadgets, like water fountains of all shapes and sizes synchronized to music.
Emporium Square will lead to several gateways, and visitors can choose which one will start their adventure. Each leads to a different gallery; some that will allow guests to feel as if they’re walking on water, while others, like the “Mirror Maze,” will present a puzzle that carries with it the chance of getting wet; still others, like “The Water Tunnel,” will wrap visitors in a cocoon of water.
The Water Theater will present “Imagination Rhapsody,” a musical melee of water jets and water spouts where guests can create their own water symphonies, with the possibility of a missed note sending a wave of water their way. In the “Deep-Sea Expedition” venue, guests will experience an exploratory dive to the ocean floor.
The owners say Water Magic will also be “wrapped in green,” a reference to its environmental stewardship. “We do have a responsibility to the environment,” says Joslyn, “and if we’re moving that much water, we should be able to figure out how to recycle it, how to use it for heating and cooling, and for power generation, which we will do. Plus, the people in the fountain business have really explored ways to recycle water, and if we have rainwater coming down in a deluge in the parking lot, we should be able to capture it and use it. We’re going to use water in smart ways.”
www.titanicpigeonforge.com
New Adrenaline Adventures Offers Wakeboarding, Tubing, and Much More
Jason and Michelle Rohs are willing to put everything on the line in pursuit of a dream. The couple decided to sell their assets in their real estate company and focus their attention on building a $5 million snow tubing, wakeboarding, and ropes course park on a 50-acre site they recently purchased in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. They also plan on adding a waterpark in the near future. Further, they’ve resolved not to seek any government funding, incentives, or tax breaks, a decision that’s earned glowingly positive reactions from the citizens of Winnipeg.
Jason Rohs says it all started when the couple took their young children to a local waterslide park. “Our kids liked going there and we saw all of the smiling faces at the park,” he says. “We’re always looking for things to do. But there’s a real lack of great things like this to do during winter in Winnipeg, and that got us thinking. Then after the long winters, people want to get outside and enjoy summer, so we want to hit that season too.”
The park is called Adrenaline Adventures, and its first attraction, the snow tubing hill, opened around Christmas. The 40-foot-high peak is 100 feet wide and has multiple highspeed tubing lanes 650 feet in length. When riders reach the bottom, instead of having to slog back up the long hill, they can hitch their tubes to a tow rope and ride back up to the top in leisure.
The wakeboarding park will open this spring on a manmade 10-acre lake fed by two on-site wells and a smaller training lake. Riders will be pulled around the large lake by an overhead cable system. It will be only the second wakeboard park in Canada and the first on a lake specifically designed for the adventure sport. In fact, Rohs tells FUNWORLD he’s already been approached about hosting the 2011 and 2012 Wakeboard World Cup and is in negotiations for the event, which he says has never before been held in North America.
There will also be a 200,000- square-foot beach near the lake. Since the Rohs intend for all of the facilities to be used year round, the wakeboarding lake will become an ice skating rink during winter.
If all this weren’t enough, the couple is also building a ropes course designed for large groups and team-building experiences on the site, with 14 challenging elements, three zip lines, climbing walls, a 10-person high-team course, and other features. “The ropes course will enable us to have attendance when it’s too chilly to be on the lakes, but too warm to be on the tubing runs,” reasons Rohs. A 20-acre waterpark is also on tap, with plans to eventually turn it into an indoor facility.
As for why the couple chose not to pursue government funding or incentives, Rohs responds, “Simplicity, and not wanting to have anyone dictate my vision. We’ve gotten just an overwhelming positive response that we’re not seeking government financing.”
www.adrenalinemb.com
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