Siam Park, ProSlide team up for dueling PipelineBlast water coaster
AT: Jeffrey Seifert
jseifert@amusementtoday.com
COSTA ADEJE, Spain — This past summer, Siam Park on Spain’s Canary Islands opened Saifa, one of the largest dueling water coasters in the world. Saifa was supplied by ProSlide Technology of Ottawa, Ontario, with which Siam Park has had a long relationship going back to the park’s opening in 2008 when ProSlide supplied the park with 11 water attractions.
Although located in Spain, Siam Park features a spectacular Thai theme that is carried through all of its waterslides, buildings and restaurants. The new attraction, Saifa, means lightning in Thai (Siamese). Saifa takes the form of a ProSlide dueling PipelineBlast. Although using the same technology as the popular RocketBlast uphill water coasters, a PipelineBlast has smaller rafts that hold two riders. With a smaller raft, the uphill inclines can be steeper, but still require less power than the typical RocketBlast uphill water coaster. To address capacity, Siam opted for a racing/dueling attraction, thereby doubling capacity. As with several of its high-profile slides, ProSlide took advantage of the somewhat challenging topography in the park to allow the slide to use natural drops and valleys. In keeping with the tropical theme, the slide colors are muted green and tan to blend with the park’s natural beauty comprised of native rock formations and lush vegetation.
The two slides start together and follow nearly identical routes as thrill seekers race at lightning speed along 306 meters (1,003 feet) of turns, crossovers and excitement, making it the longest ride in the park.
At the top of an elaborately themed 36-foot stone tower, riders board their two-person rafts. Following a small drop, the rafts quickly diverge into a unique 360-degree enclosed spiral drop, only to join up again for the first uphill blast. The paths split again as riders encounter the first pair of inward-facing flying saucers where competitors will be able to see their opponents as they navigate the high-speed turn of the saucer. The rafts are reunited as they exit the saucers. The double uphill blast that follows takes riders to the highest point of the natural topography where they will once again diverge and encounter an enclosed spiral and open saucer section that sets them up for the dueling portion where the rafts first plunge toward each other for a face-to-face encounter, then head into the final blast as they rocket away from each other. A third pair of saucers brings the rafts back together for a final plunge down the hillside to the splashdown pool where the winner is determined.
Siam Park, located on Tenerife Island, is frequently recognized as one of the best and most beautiful water parks in the world. It has received TripAdvisor’s Travelers’ Choice Award multiple years in a row, the European Star Award for Best Park in Europe and a plaque for Merit in Tourism — a prestigious Award of the Council of Ministers of the Government of Spain.
Owner Wolfgang Kiessling, originally from Germany, took frequent trips to the Canary Islands while working for a German charter airline. He fell in love with the islands and developed his first attraction, Loro Parque, a tropical parrot park with more than 150 parrots. It has since grown into a preserve for a variety of animal and plant species and now has a collection of more than 4,000 parrots.
When he decided to build a water park on Tenerife Island, he wanted the same tropical paradise theme that made Loro Parque so popular. On a visit to Thailand, he was impressed with the architecture there and decided his new park would have a blend of Thai architecture and a tropical oasis. Kiessling’s son, Christoph Kiessling, was the driving force behind the development of Siam Park and currently serves as the general manager. Since the initial development with ProSlide in 2008, the park has added 18 signature water rides, including one of the first RocketBlast/FlyingSaucer combination slides in the world, a Tornado 24/TornadoWave 60 combo and the first ProSlide Mammoth fused with a double FlyingSaucer45.
Although governed by Spain, the eight Canary Islands lie much farther to the south off the coast of Africa, near the border of Morocco and Western Sahara. The subtropical climate makes it suitable for the water park to operate year-round.
