Hydroplaning bumper car finds first home
It's been over a year since Portland-based StarFlight Amusement Rides debuted its hydroplaning bumper car at an amusement park trade show in Las Vegas in hopes of finding a buyer for the invention.
It worked. In a month, its first installation will be up and running at Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park campground in Fremont, Ind.
Lance Yule, inventor of the AquaZoom and president of StarFlight, said the ride is scheduled to open around June 1, representing a major milestone for the small company. Pitching the unique ride to amusement and water parks without having one operational was "the biggest hurdle" for StarFlight, but now the company can use the installation in Indiana to market the ride to future buyers. "If you don't have a ride up and running, you have no history," he says. "Now we're past that."
The AquaZoom is the first ride of its kind, says Yule. It's like a bumper car and skims along a quarter-inch of water much like a puck glides across an air hockey table. In September 2009, he told Mainebiz it took him about five years and $300,000 to develop it. Vermont-based Precision Composites and Lane Manufacturing in Brewer manufacture the ride's components.
The ride at Jellystone will accommodate 10 AquaZoom cars and take up about the same space as a 2-3 car garage, Yule says. The campground already has a water park on site with indoor and outdoor pools and water slides, according to its website. The campground, which has 540 campsites as well as cottages and cabins, is already booked through the summer, according to Yule. He wouldn't say how much the ride in Indiana is costing, but did say the campground is getting a "preferred cost" for being the first to install it.
The Indiana ride is helping AquaZoom gain traction. Yule says developers WhiteWater West, a Canadian-based water park manufacturer and designer, and Belgium-based attraction and ride-maker 3DBA have expressed interest in adding the ride to their portfolios and product offerings. He's hoping to find a European manufacturing partner to help bring the ride to that market, and says he's also had interest from properties in Aruba and Canada. He's expecting a successful installation in Indiana to bring two or three more sales "right away," he says.
"The amusement/water park industry is experiencing explosive growth," Yule says, since people these days often forego expensive vacations. "In a slow economy, the amusement park industry does well."
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