ProSlide Technology, Inc. is a Canadian designer and manufacturer of
water rides
Water rides are amusement rides that are set over water. For instance, a log flume travels through a channel of water to move along its course.
Notable types
*AquaLoop
*Bumper boats
* Fishpipe
* FlowRider
*Lazy river
*Log flume
*Old Mill
*River ...
and water park resorts. They design and manufacture both traditional slides and innovative rides such as
water coasters, funnel-shaped Tornado slides, and Bowl slides. ProSlide has received attention for being the first water slide manufacturer to build a water slide using
linear induction motors
A linear induction motor (LIM) is an alternating current (AC), asynchronous linear motor that works by the same general principles as other induction motors but is typically designed to directly produce motion in a straight line. Characteristica ...
and for designing the
Mammoth watercoaster which was named the world's longest watercoaster by ''
Guinness World Records
''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
'' in 2016. Since 1986, ProSlide has developed and designed water rides for water parks in over 40 countries around the world.
History
Corporate history
After being a member of Canada’s alpine skiing team from 1969 to 1974, Richard D. Hunter founded ProSlide Technology Inc. in 1986. In 1990, Hunter purchased Mont Cascades, a ski area and waterpark in Quebec.
Mont Cascades has since served as a research and development area where Proslide tests new ride ideas.
In 2007, ProSlide purchased a 100-acre plot of land in Ottawa where it has been developing the Alottawata waterpark.
The park was expected to open in summer 2019 and would have served in part as a research and development centre for the company.
As of August 2018 however, the park has been put on indefinite hold.
Attraction history
ProSlide debuted three types of water slides in 1987, Twisters, Kidz, and Plummets, which are all types of body flumes. The first Twisters opened at
Mont Saint-Sauveur
Sommet Saint-Sauveur () (previously Mont Saint-Sauveur), commonly Saint-Sauveur, is a ski mountain and resort located in Saint-Sauveur, Quebec, 45 minutes north of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in the Laurentian mountains.
History
Considered the ...
in
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
and
Adventure World Theme Park (now known as
Six Flags America
Six Flags America is a theme park located in the Woodmore CDP of Prince George's County, Maryland, ) in
Largo, Maryland
Largo, located within greater Upper Marlboro, Maryland, is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. The population was 11,605 at the 2020 census.
Largo is located just east of the C ...
, United States; both parks opened 4 Twisters that year.
Plummets consist of a vertical drop only, followed by a long, flat segment to help riders decelerate. The first Plummets opened at
Aquapar Magog in Quebec and
Six Flags America
Six Flags America is a theme park located in the Woodmore CDP of Prince George's County, Maryland, , respectively.
ProSlide also debuted their children's water slides (ProSlide Kidz) in 1987, which are miniature versions of Twisters designed for young children. Initially, they were installed more frequently than the full-size Twisters.
In 1989, the company's PIPEline water slides opened at several locations. The Pipeline is a water slide that carries riders on 1-to-3 person inner tubes and is ProSlide's second most common style.
The Pipeline has both open and enclosed sections; many have
water curtains at the beginning and/or end of their enclosed sections. The first Pipeline rides using
inner tube
An inner tube is an inflatable ring that forms the interior of some pneumatic tires. The tube is inflated with a valve stem, and fits inside of the casing of the tire. The inflated inner tube provides structural support and suspension, while the ...
s opened at
Fantasia de Agua in the
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...
and
Waldameer Park
Waldameer & Water World is an amusement park and water park in Erie, Pennsylvania located at the base of Presque Isle. Waldameer is the fourth oldest amusement park in Pennsylvania, the tenth oldest in the nation, and one of only thirteen trolle ...
in
Erie, Pennsylvania
Erie (; ) is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. Erie is the fifth largest city in Pennsylvania and the largest city in Northwestern Pennsylvania with a population of 94,831 a ...
.
Throughout the 1990s, several large park chains started opening new ProSlide Pipelines, including
Cedar Fair
Cedar Fair, L.P., formally Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, is a publicly traded master limited partnership headquartered at its Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio. The company owns and operates eleven amusement parks, nine included-w ...
,
Six Flags
Six Flags Entertainment Corporation is an American amusement park corporation, headquartered in Arlington, Texas. It has properties in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Six Flags owns the most theme parks and waterparks combined of any amu ...
, and
Wet 'n Wild.
In 1991, the Mammoth waterslide debuted and was the first ProSlide slide that riders rode in 4-person tubes. The Mammoth is a larger-scale version of the Pipeline.
Wet 'n Wild in
Orlando, Florida
Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...
, opened the first ProSlide Mammoth.
The first ProSlide RACER opened in 1994 at ProSlide's
Mont Cascades Waterpark in
Cantley, Quebec
Cantley is a rural municipality in Quebec, Canada, north of the city of Gatineau, east of the Gatineau River, located within Canada's National Capital Region approximately from Parliament Hill. Cantley is one of six municipalities within the Col ...
. Racers consist of one wide slide with dividers between the lanes and are designed that riders can "race" to the finish if ride operators send all of them down the slide at the same time.
Beginning in the late 1990s, ProSlide began manufactures four kinds of Bowls: ProBowls, CannonBOWLS, BulletBOWLS, and BehemothBOWLS, all four types consist of an enclosed flume that terminates in a bowl; riders travel in a spiral around the bowl (using
centrifugal force
In Newtonian mechanics, the centrifugal force is an inertial force (also called a "fictitious" or "pseudo" force) that appears to act on all objects when viewed in a rotating frame of reference. It is directed away from an axis which is paralle ...
to stay on the bowl's wall initially) before dropping into a splashdown pool.
ProBowls are enclosed body flumes which end in a bowl with an open top. CannonBowls and the larger BehemothBowls accommodate 2- and 4-person inner tubes, and have a common exit in their centers.
![Plopsaqua (C34)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Plopsaqua_%28C34%29.JPG)
The first ProSlide Bowl, a ProBowl, opened at
Golfland Sunsplash
Golfland-Sunsplash is a water park and family entertainment center located in Mesa, AZ. The location is separated into two parks. Golfland operates as a year-round FEC and features three miniature golf courses, an arcade, a pizza restaurant, a g ...
in 1999.
In the early 2000s, ProSlide gained recognition for its
TORNADO
A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, altho ...
, a 4-passenger, 50- to 75-foot-tall enclosed slide which ends in a large, often multicolored funnel. Riders travel back and forth in the funnel several times before exiting into a splashdown pool. The first Tornados opened in 2003 at
Six Flags New England
Six Flags New England, formerly known as Gallup's Grove (1870–1886), Riverside Grove (1887–1911), Riverside Park (1912–1995) and Riverside: The Great Escape (1996–2000), is an amusement park located in Agawam, Massachusetts, a western s ...
,
Mountain Creek Waterpark
Mountain Creek Waterpark is a water park located in Vernon, New Jersey, United States, on the grounds of the Mountain Creek ski resort. The park consists primarily of water-based attractions and opened in 1998. Its predecessor, Action Park, one ...
and
Holiday World and Splashin' Safari.
In 2005, ProSlide debuted its waterslide version of a roller coaster, the Rocket, an uphill
water coaster. Proslide's first Rockets opened at
Noah's Ark Water Park
Noah's Ark (officially Noah's Ark Family Park Inc.) is the largest outdoor water park in the United States. It features 51 water slides and dozens of various attractions. The park is located in the village of Lake Delton, Wisconsin.
History
In ...
,
Six Flags New England
Six Flags New England, formerly known as Gallup's Grove (1870–1886), Riverside Grove (1887–1911), Riverside Park (1912–1995) and Riverside: The Great Escape (1996–2000), is an amusement park located in Agawam, Massachusetts, a western s ...
, and the
Great Wolf Lodge
Great may refer to: Descriptions or measurements
* Great, a relative measurement in physical space, see Size
* Greatness, being divine, majestic, superior, majestic, or transcendent
People
* List of people known as "the Great"
*Artel Great (born ...
.
ProSlide opened a LIM-propelled Rocket at the Great Wolf Lodge near
Kings Island
Kings Island is a amusement park located northeast of Cincinnati in Mason, Ohio, United States. Owned and operated by Cedar Fair, the park first opened in 1972 by the Taft Broadcasting Company. It was part of a larger effort to move and expan ...
in 2006; in 2007, LIM-launched Rockets opened at
Naju Lake Waterpark in Korea and at
Kentucky Kingdom
Kentucky Kingdom, formerly known as Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom, is an amusement park in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. The park includes a collection of amusement rides and the Hurricane Bay water park. Kentucky Kingdom is located at the ...
.
Super Tubes Hydrocoaster at
WhiteWater World
WhiteWater World is a seasonal water park situated in the suburb of Coomera on the Gold Coast, Australia. It is owned and operated by Ardent Leisure and is the sister park to Dreamworld.
After years of planning and a year of construction, Wh ...
in Australia, have used the ProSlide HydroMagnetics system of Linear Induction Motors placed throughout the ride to launch riders up the uphill sections. HydroMagnetics uses Force Engineering LIM technology, which first gained recognition in the amusement park industry as the power behind
launched roller coaster
The launched roller coaster is a modern form of roller coaster. A launched coaster initiates a ride with high amounts of acceleration via one or a series of linear induction motors (LIM), linear synchronous motors (LSM), catapults, tires, chains ...
s such as
Flight of Fear
Flight of Fear is the name of two identical enclosed roller coasters located at Kings Island and Kings Dominion amusement parks. Built and designed by Premier Rides, they were the world's first launched roller coasters to feature linear inducti ...
and
Speed - The Ride. ProSlide HydroMAGNETIC ROCKETS are the first waterslides to use this same technology, which allows for more flexibility and efficiency in running the waterslides' uphill sections than the previous conveyor-belt system did.
["New water park brings slide innovation"](_blank)
retrieved January 21, 2006 In 2012, the company's
Mammoth
A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus'', one of the many genera that make up the order of trunked mammals called proboscideans. The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks and, ...
was recognized as the longest water coaster in the world when it opened at Holiday World.
Awards and recognition
During the early 2000s, ProSlide manufactured the majority of the water park industry's award-winning rides. In 2005, three of the top five
Golden Ticket Award
''Amusement Today'' is a monthly periodical that features articles, news, pictures and reviews about all things relating to the amusement park industry, including parks, rides, and ride manufacturers. The trade newspaper, which is based in Arli ...
winners for Best New Ride for 2005 (Water Park) were rides manufactured by ProSlide.
ProSlide also had two of the top three winners for Best Waterpark Ride in 2004, 2005 and 2006.
From 2010-2017, ProSlides
Wildebeest
Wildebeest ( , , ), also called gnu ( or ), are antelopes of the genus ''Connochaetes'' and native to Eastern and Southern Africa. They belong to the family Bovidae, which includes true antelopes, cattle, goats, sheep, and other even-toe ...
watercoaster at
Holiday World and Splashin' Safari was named Best Waterpark Ride.
In 2017, the company earned an additional Golden Ticket Award for Best New Water Park Ride for the Thunder Rapids Water Coaster at
Six Flags Fiesta Texas
Six Flags Fiesta Texas, formerly known simply as Fiesta Texas, is a theme park located in Northwest San Antonio. It opened on March 14, 1992, in the La Cantera, San Antonio, La Cantera master-planned development and district as the first busines ...
.
[
ProSlide is a 15-time ]IAAPA
The International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) represents over 6,000 amusement-industry members in more than 100 countries worldwide and operates several global attractions-industry trade shows. Its annual IAAPA Expo in ...
‘Best Water Ride’ winner as well as a three-time recipient of IAAPA’s ‘Industry Impact Award,’ given to the top attraction in the entire industry.
The company has also won several IAAPA Brass Ring Awards: Best New Product Exhibitor Awards which recognizes the best new product or service in the amusement parks and attractions industry.
References
External links
*
Industry awards for ProSlide products
First Place IAAPA Awards for ProSlide products
Alottawata website
{{DEFAULTSORT:ProSlide Technology
Amusement ride manufacturers
Manufacturing companies based in Ottawa
Manufacturing companies established in 1986
1986 establishments in Ontario
Companies established in 1986
Construction and civil engineering companies established in 1986