Tsunami was a steel roller coaster manufactured by

Anton Schwarzkopf Anton Schwarzkopf (8 July 1924 – 30 July 2001) was a German engineer who founded Schwarzkopf Industries GmbH, a German manufacturer of roller coasters and other amusement rides that were sold to amusement parks and travelling funfairs ...

and located at the

San Marcos National Fair The ''Feria Nacional de San Marcos'' (San Marcos Fair) is a national fair held in the Mexican state of Aguascalientes every year for three (or sometimes four) weeks. Most of the events related to the fair, however, occur in the city of Aguascalie ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. The coaster was previously located at

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (formerly known as Six Flags Marine World, Marine World, The New Marine World Theme Park, and Marine World Africa USA) is a 135-acre (55 ha) animal theme park located in Vallejo, California, off of Interstate 80 ...

as ''Zonga'',

Six Flags AstroWorld Six Flags AstroWorld, also known simply as AstroWorld, was a seasonally operated amusement park in Houston, Texas. Owned and operated by Six Flags, the park was situated between Kirby Drive and Fannin Street, directly south of Interstate 610 (Te ...

as "Texas Tornado", and operated for 10 years on the German traveling funfair circuit as "Thriller" After its time at Marine World, it was sold to the San Marcos National Fair, where it last operated.

History

This coaster debuted as "Thriller" on the German funfair circuit in 1986, under the ownership of Oscar Bruch and toured the country until 1997, with a short spell on loan to the Gröna Lund amusement park for the 1996 season. Its last fair was the

Hamburger Dom The Hamburger Dom is a large fair held at Heiligengeistfeld fair ground in central Hamburg, Germany. With three fairs (spring, summer and winter) per year it is the biggest and the longest fair throughout Germany and attracts approximately ten mil ...

of November/December 1997, after which it was taken to the now-defunct

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

. It was assembled at Six Flags AstroWorld in

late in 1997. The roller coaster opened at Six Flags AstroWorld on March 14, 1998 and was renamed

Texas Tornado The Texas Tornado were a Junior A hockey team located in Frisco, Texas, USA. The team joined the North American Hockey League's Central division in 1999 (and moved into the newly formed southern division three years later) while located in North ...

. This coaster had very positive reviews from guests but when summer hit, the heat and humidity seemed to disrupt operation. On very hot days the coaster suffered a lot of downtime. "Texas Tornado" continued to operate there in the 1999 and 2000 seasons with a lot of downtime on the hotter days. It seemed to run decently on milder and cooler days. At the end of the 2000 season, Six Flags decided to remove the ride but it stayed at AstroWorld in 2001 but did not operate that season. Early in 2002, it was moved out of Six Flags AstroWorld and into storage. In 2003, Texas Tornado was moved to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom and some track modifications were made by

Premier Rides Premier Rides is an amusement ride manufacturer based in the United States. The company was the first to use Linear Induction Motors (LIMs) on their roller coasters. Jim Seay has been the sole owner and company president since 1996. The first r ...

. The most significant was increasing the elevation of the first two loops. The effect of this change would be reducing the Thriller's top speed and lowering the g-forces during the first two loops. It was assumed that the mild weather would enable the coaster to run better. It was then renamed ''Zonga''. Zonga then operated for two years at Marine World. Unfortunately, operation continued to be inconsistent. Zonga regularly opened about two hours after the park and had frequent breakdowns. The ride wasn't very attractive because of its location (in a distant corner and hidden behind Roar) and appearance. There have been many malfunctions, which eventually led to Six Flags again closing down the ride. There have also been many complaints about the ride being rough. The ride ran for much of the 2004 season but stood silent for the 2005 season and was removed at the beginning of the 2006 season, leaving a large empty concrete area at the front of the park. Zonga was disassembled and moved to the Discovery Kingdom parking lot where it sat throughout the 2006 season. The new coaster for 2008— Tony Hawk's Big Spin, now known as Pandemonium since 2011. Pandemonium was erected on the pad that Zonga used to occupy. In 2012, another new ride replaced Pandemonium, Superman: Ultimate Flight. Zonga's former station was reused as an extended queue area and a PLC room for its successors. Tsunami en Isla San Marcos

Zonga was then bought in 2008 by the Aguascalientes State government in Mexico, for its use in the famous San Marcos National Fair, where it has been renamed "Tsunami".

Removal

From a news article published by a local newspaper on 23 October 2013, it was announced Tsunami would no longer operate in Mexico after '' La Feria de San Marcos'' ended in 2014. An idea was suggested to move the roller coaster to the Bad Wörishofen "''Skyline Park''" for the 2016 season. However, the move didn't occur and the roller coaster was dismantled in 2016.

References

{{SFDK Coasters Roller coasters operated by Six Flags Six Flags Discovery Kingdom Former roller coasters in California Roller coasters in Mexico