THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 16, 1995 TAG: 9507190607
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover story
LENGTH: Long : 291 lines
WET, WILD WATER THRILLS
HAVE YOU EVER traveled up to 53 mph, without the aid of some type of motor?
At Wild Water Rapids, the Lightening Bolt speed slide uses only water and gravity to propel bathers at breakneck speeds down a steep, wavy flume. It's definitely not for the faint of heart.
Goaded on by his 9-year-old son, Steve Marszalrk, 39, of Rhode Island, took the plunge one morning last week and admitted ``it was a little more than I expected.''
Here's how he describes the ride:
``It starts very slow,'' he said. ``Then it becomes incredibly fast. You're flying along a thin film of water . . . it feels like you're almost going to come out of the thing.
``Then you hit deeper water and you stop, just like that.''
Fourteen-year-old Jonathan Bell, of Virginia Beach, has no fear after sliding 40 consecutive times. ``It's cool,'' he pronounced.
The speed slide is one of a multitude of water attractions at Wild Water Rapids at Ocean Breeze Festival Park. The others, while offering a variety of wet thrills, are tamer than the speed slide.
Swoosh down the Thunder Alley tube slide, shoot through the Rocky River Rapids on an inner tube, twist and turn down the Slick Twister flumes, get rocked and bounced in the Runaway Bay wave pool or challenged by the obstacle course in the activity pool.
If these are too much for your little ones, there's an extensive kiddie area with wee-sized flumes, fountains and swings.
Life jackets are available free for children.
Other amenities include food outlets, showers, locker rooms, lounge chairs and gift shop.
- Debbie Messina
JET SKI RIDES EXHILARATING
THERE'S NOTHING like the wind in your hair, frolicking dolphins at your side and a machine that goes as fast as a couple of horses on the water.
A waverunner, a sit-down jet ski or water bike, is a powerful little machine that zips from point A to point B.
And, in Virginia Beach, you don't have to own one to ride one.
Cindy McFaden and friend Angie Mitchell, both of Lynchburg, spend several weekends during the summer in Virginia Beach.
Each time McFaden visits, she looks for something new to try, she says.
On a recent weekday, the women were at Waverunners, a jet ski rental company on Shore Drive. They paid for an hour's ride, strapped on their life jackets, received instructions on how to operate the Sea Doo (a brand of jet ski) and were off.
After motoring under the Lesner Bridge with a company escort, they were turned loose in limited area of the Bay.
``I loved it!'' said McFaden after her first jet ski experience.
``The dolphins were so close. ``We could have reached out and touched them.''
There are six personal watercraft rental locations in the city. Two, operated by Waverunners, rents right off the beach near the Duck Inn and also right next to Henry's Restaurant on Shore Drive. The company rents 25 brand-new Sea Doos.
Another rental operation is Rudee Inlet Jet Ski & Laskin Road Watersports with locations at the Virginia Beach Fishing Center at Rudee, off the beach at 31st Street and at 1284 Laskin Road.
A new and more unusual watercraft rental has joined the Rudee wave runner rentals. Called the Wildthing, it's a personal water vehicle that's like a pontoon boat with an outboard engine. It hails from Australia.
With a wide rear end and seating for three, the boats are easy to steer and less likely to tip over and offer a mellow ride.
Thirteen-month-old Nicholas Longo is proof of the ride's quiet stability. He recently took a nap during an hourlong ride in the Atlantic with his mom and dad, Chris and Karen Longo of Gardner, Mass.
``We were looking for something we could do with him,'' said Karen Longo.
``He fell asleep halfway through the ride. Standing up!'' Chris Longo said.
- Lori A. Denney
FLYING IN A GIANT SWING
IT IS MIDAFTERNOON Monday and the crew at the Skycoaster thrill ride at Rudee Loop is looking for customers.
``Mondays are usually slow,'' says manager Bob Adamson. ``We're pretty busy at night after supper. That's when people like to fly.''
So, to stir up interest in ``flying,'' Adamson, aka B.A., goes up in the giant swing, which is attached to the white metal arch overlooking Rudee Inlet.
With a newspaper photographer, he takes the 100-foot plunge, tethered to a cable, and soon spectators begin drifting over to watch. A few at a time, they begin to sign up for a ride.
David Cappleman and daughter Dia, 11, of Grandview, Mo., (in the photo on the cover of today's Beacon) are the first to suit up in the nylon and canvas harnesses.
Both are a little apprehensive as the crew cinches them into the harness.
``My insurance is paid up,'' says Cappleman with a faint smile.
Sandy-haired, freckled Dia confesses to being ``a little nervous.''
Then, as the cable hauls them skyward, she looks around apprehensively. As the cable is released from an adjoining tower, Dia claps her hand over her mouth to muffle a scream, but the scream soon turns into a wide grin as she and her father soar over the Skycoaster's office-shed and back again. Up and back, up and back.
``Great!'' she says minutes later, once her feet are back on the ground.
- Bill Reed
HEADING FOR A FALL
WAYLON LEVI LAIRD, 13, steadied himself on the 130-foot high platform of Over the Edge Bungee at Ocean Breeze Festival Park.
As he leaped, he imagined he was in an action film, perhaps the handsome hero leaping off a tall building.
But the fall to the earth happened so quickly, he said, he didn't have time to savor his fantasy.
``I didn't even realize I was falling, except when I stopped and started bouncing around,'' Laird said.
It's an adventure he can't wait to brag about to his friends back home in Dover, Del. An adventure he plans to do again when his family returns next year for vacation.
``It's awesome,'' he said.
Laird claims he was never really scared, although with every step up the ladder he repeated to himself, ``This is safe. This is safe.''
Laird has wanted to make the jump for years, but his mother and father didn't think he was ready for it.
``Everything is extreme with these kids,'' said Richard Laird, Waylon's father who wasn't the least bit interested in jumping. ``He sees all these extreme sports on TV and he wants to do it, too.''
Jumpers at Over the Edge Bungee are attached to a giant bungee cord with body and leg harnesses.
After extensive instruction, they jump from a 130-high platform and free fall for the 55-foot length of the bungee cord. The cord then stretches another 55 feet as the jumper bobs around at the end before being lowered to safety.
Under the jumpers is an enormous 10-foot-tall inflated safety cushion.
David Champion, the owner, said he's made several hundred jumps.
- Debbie Messina
MINI RACE CARS A BIG THRILL
ONLY SOMEONE like Rebecca Clauss would say that she couldn't get the miniature Formula 1 Grand Prix race cars at Motorworld to go fast enough.
Clauss is an ambulance driver in Cary, N.C.
Her friend, however, was exhilarated.
``It's a chance to be a race car driver,'' said Erica Morin, of Northern Virginia. ``You can drive the way you've always wanted to on the road but can't. Like accelerating real fast around the corners.
``I'm going to be searching for these things now.''
At Ocean Breeze Festival Park's Motorworld, drivers can skid through the tight curves of the winding 1/4-mile track as the miniature Formula 1 cars hug the road like their big brothers.
Although the cars can only do about 35 mph, the smallness and tightness of the track gives the sensation of going much faster.
Most drivers complete a lap in about 50 seconds. The track record is 44 seconds. Spinouts onto embankments and bumping into the rubber tire barriers are not uncommon for drivers testing the track's limits.
Racers are responsible for any damage to the car they cause.
Motorworld also has four go-cart tracks - a family track with one and two seaters, a speed track, a slick track and a rookie track for kids. Other attractions include carnival games, bumper boats, kiddie rides, an arcade and concessions.
Ocean Breeze also offers, for separate admission, Shipwreck Golf, and Strike Zone, a batting cage.
- Debbie Messina
PARA-SAILING OVER THE SEA
IT IS 9 A.M. Wednesday, the beginning of a sunny, bluebird day at the Oceanfront and already there is a line at the ticket counter of Skyrider para-sailing.
Skyrider is an amusement ride of long-standing, operated by Bill and Kathy Baisley . What they do, basically, is take customers out to the open sea in a launch and tow them them around the Oceanfront in a seat hanging from a parachute.
With Bill Baisley at the helm, first mate Taylor Vann explains the rules of the ride for five prospective para-sailers. He gets their attention quickly when he utters the phrase ``in a worse-case scenario.''
Not to worry, he says. If the parachute cable breaks or the launch motor conks out, the riders in the gondola below the parachute will drift slowly down to the water and the gondola will keep up to 600 pounds afloat until the boat picks them up.
First to suit up in life jackets for the ride are Rose Kerns and daughter Angela Donovan, 26, of Paw Paw, W.Va. Both have vacationed in Virginia Beach before.
``Every year I've been down here I've seen this thing and I just had to try it,'' says Kerns. ``You only go 'round once.''
Bailsey heads into a slight off-shore breeze and Kerns and her daughter are reeled 600-feet into the sky for the next 10 minutes.
At that height the entire resort shoreline and the outlines of an inland office tower and hotel snap into focus. The only sound is the rustle of the breeze through their hair.
Back in the launch, Kerns smiles widely. ``This is the funnest thing I've ever done,'' she says.
Next to soar are Bill Hobbs, 16, a LaPlata, Md., student and Patricia Telford, a Montreal school teacher.
They are followed by Jenny Simmons, an Akron, Ohio, apartment property manager.
All agree later that the ride is pleasant, even restful.
``Sometimes you can see all the way into Norfolk and the shipyards in Newport News,'' Taylor tells the launch passengers.
- Bill Reed ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by CHARLIE MEADS
Rebecca Clauss, an ambulance driver from Cary, N.C., speeds around
Motorworld's Grand Prix track at 35 mph.
Angela Donovan, left, and her mother, Rose Kerns of Paw Paw, W.Va.,
ride 600 feet above the Oceanfront in a 10-minute ride aboard the
SkyRider para-sail.
Staff photos by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT and CHARLIE MEADS
ABOVE: Veronica Umbrell of Pottsville, Pa., enjoys a 100-foot swing
on the Sky Coaster at Rudee Loop. ``When I pulled the release cord
my legs started shaking,'' she said.
RIGHT: Waylon Laird, 13, of Dover, Del., takes the 130-foot plunge
at Over the Edge Bungee at Ocean Breeze Festival Park. ``It's
awesome,'' he said.
Chris and Karen Longo and their son Nicholas, from Gardner Mass.,
cruise Rudee Inlet in a Wildthing boat. With a wide rear end and
seating for three, the boats are easy to steer, less likely to tip
and offer a more mellow ride than, say, a wave runner would.
Graphic
WILD THINGS
OCEAN BREEZE FESTIVAL PARK
This complex - including Over the Edge Bungee, Wild Water Rapids
and Motorworld - is located 1 1/2 miles south of the resort strip.
There are two entrances, 700 South Birdneck Road and 849 General
Booth Blvd. There's an additional parking fee of $2. Call
422-4444.
Over the Edge Bungee
Open daily 3-11 p.m. The fee is $30. There's also a $2 parking
fee.
Bungee jumping is not recommended for people with back or neck
problems, heart conditions, broken bones or other medical conditions
including pregnancy.
Wild Water Rapids
Open daily 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Admission is $16 for adults and $11 for
children under 42 inches. If arriving after 4 p.m., admission is
$11. On Friday and Saturday, 6-10 p.m., admission is $8.
Motorworld
Open daily 3-11 p.m. Admission to the park is free. Grand Prix
cars are $3 per lap for one seaters and $4 per lap for two seaters.
Go-carts are $4 for a 4 minute ride.
Grand prix drivers must show a valid drivers license and must
wear a safety helmet.
The golf course and batting cage are also open daily 3-11 p.m.
Shipwreck Golf is $6 for 18 holes and Strike Zone is $2 for 15
pitches. Fees for Motorworld, Shipwreck Golf and Strike Zone are
half price with the purchase of a Wild Water Rapids admission.
SKYRIDER PARA-SAILING
At 200 Winston Salem Ave., at the Virginia Beach Fishing Center,
a block west of the Rudee Bridge.
No age restrictions.
What you get: a 45-minute boat ride out of Rudee inlet that
includes 10-minutes or more aloft in a parachute.
Cost: $45 per person for ride of up to 300 feet; $55 per person
for rides of 600 feet; $49 for two people at 600 feet.
THE SKYCOASTER
At Rudee Loop, at the south end of Atlantic Avenue, overlooking
Rudee Inlet.
No age restrictions.
Cost: one flier, $30; two fliers, $25 each; three fliers, $20
each. A video of the customer's flight, $10; Skycoaster T-shirt,
$10; ``frequent flier'' tickets for 10 rides, $150.
PERSONAL WATER CRAFT
Waverunners
On the beach behind the Duck In Restaurant (on weekends only) and
beside Henry's Restaurant, both on Shore Drive; 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
daily at Henry's and weekends at the Duck In. Cost for single
riders, $49 a half hour and $59 for a full hour. Each additional
person is $10. Deposit is $50. You must be 14 to ride alone and in
some cases, a valid driver's license is necessary. Call 481-4747.
Rudee Inlet Jet Ski & Laskin Road Watersports
At the Virginia Beach Fishing Center, 300 Winston Salem Ave., at
1284 Laskin Road and at 31st Street on the beach; 9 a.m. to dark,
seven days a week. Cost for singles is $45 for a half hour and $70
for an hour. Doubles can ride for $50 a half hour and $80 a full
hour. Deposit is $50. Call 428-4614. You must be 14 to ride alone
and those under 18 must have an adult sign.
Wildthing Watercraft Rentals
At the Virginia Beach Fishing Center, 300 Winston Salem Ave.; 9
a.m. to 6 p.m. seven days a week. Cost for singles is $29 an hour
and $39 an hour for doubles. Deposit is $50. Call 428-7600. You
must be at least 16 with a driver's license and under 18 must have
parental approval.
by CNB