Hurricanes are Brewing at Six Flags for 2003

Six Flags is known for its roller coasters, thrill rides, Loony Tunes characters, and DC Comics tie-ins. While its water parks are a bit more low profile, the park chain has been pumping lots of dollars into new water attractions and expanded water parks over the past few years. As with the rest of the industry, the Six Flags water parks have been enormously popular; on sweltering days, you can find as many--or more--people queuing for the water slides as the Superman coasters.

For 2003, Six Flags is sliding some dough to the water parks at Ohio's Six Flags World of Adventure and Six Flags New England in Massachusetts. Hurricane Harbor, at the Ohio property, is introducing ten new slides with two water slide towers. New England ride fans will see nine new slides, including a unique half-pipe ride, plus a second wave pool. With the expansion, the renamed Massachusetts park will now also bear Six Flags' premium water park brand, Hurricane Harbor.

Hurricane Harbor
Aurora (near Cleveland), Ohio
330-562-8303
Affiliated theme park:Six Flags World of Adventure

One of the Ohio park's new slide towers, Hurricane Mountain, will spiral 100 feet tall and include seven slides. That's going to be a lot of stairs to climb; then again, weary climbers can expect a great payback with some long, fast slides. Three of Hurricane Mountain's slides will extend about 500 feet in length. That's a lot of sliding. The steepest slide will reach an unusually zippy 27 mph.

Four of the brightly colored slides will be enclosed tubes. The design will keep riders in the dark about upcoming twists and turns and add to the suspense. With only the inside of the tubes as a frame of reference, however, it will be more difficult to appreciate the high speeds. Four of Hurricane Mountain's slides will use inner tubes, while the other three will be body slides.

The second new tower, dubbed Shark Attack, will climb 46 feet tall. Its three body slides will twist in and around each other and feature more muted green, blue, and black colors.

Six Flags says the expansion, which will bring the water park's slide tally up to a whopping 38, will double Hurricane Harbor's capacity. Other attractions include a huge wave pool, the Calypso Creek lazy river, and Hook's Lagoon, an interactive play area featured at many of the Six Flags water parks.

Once known as Geauga Lake amusement park, Six Flags bought the adjacent SeaWorld, pumped up the slides and attractions at Hurricane Harbor waterpark and christened the three-park complex, Worlds of Adventure. The superpark also features great thrill rides, like the X-Flight flying coaster and the Batman Knight Flight floorless coaster. One ticket includes admission to all three parks.