PRPG:
Action Park

The Action Returns to Action Park

May 13, 2015

This infamous New Jersey theme park faded into legend in the mid ‘90s…or so we thought. Here’s an update on the latest incarnation of Action Park.

Action ParkAnyone who grew up in New Jersey in the ‘70s and ‘80s is probably familiar with Action Park. Millions of teenagers and families spent summer days pressing their luck on the park’s notoriously dangerous attractions. For example: the Cannonball Loop, a water slide with a vertical loop that was shut down by a safety commission after a month.

Action Park racked up tons of injuries, lawsuits, and even deaths until it went bankrupt and closed down in 1996. It was later revamped into a smaller, and much safer, operation called The Mountain Creek Waterpark. And yet consumer demand, coupled with nostalgic newspaper articles and even a documentary led owners to reopen Action Park in 2014 with “all of the thrills but none of the spills.” Among the changes: the new Action Park actually adheres to the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs’ various safety regulations.

Among the newest “thrills”: the Zero G water slide. The tallest water slide in the world, it took $1 million to build this attraction in which riders hurtle in a capsule down a 100-foot slide. Older rides received safety upgrades. The Tarzan Swing now has protective pads, and the Colorado River attraction requires riders to wear helmets with facemasks.

If all of that still sounds too tame for you, well, they also serve alcohol on the property. There’s also plans in the works to add a few more boundary-breaking (but hopefully not backbreaking) attractions.

It might sound downright bizarre but the owners are planning to bring back a modified version of Cannonball Loop. It will be called The Sky Calibur and it’s currently undergoing a lengthy testing period (for obvious reasons). If everything goes as planned, thrillseekers will be able to plummet down its 90 foot vertical drop and through its 30 foot loop beginning sometime in 2016.