What is a Water Coaster?

Virginia's First Water Coaster Coming to Water Country USA in May

Thrill seekers, seek no more. Virginia’s biggest water park just announced the biggest news in the park’s history: there’s a water coaster coming, friends, the first of its kind in Virginia.

Water Country USA’s new Cutback Water Coaster is already making waves with coaster enthusiasts and epic water slide fans. Here’s what future riders are asking as the excitement continues to build.

What is a water coaster?

A water coaster combines the thrilling speeds and uphill propulsion of a roller coaster with the refreshing splashes of a water slide into one ride.

This particular coaster will include a revolutionary new water jet propulsion system with patented RocketBlast® technology. Most water coasters have one water nozzle at the bottom of each hill, but a RocketBlast slide features a system of custom water jets on every hill, creating powerful water propulsion for a smooth ride and blazing speed.

There are two technologies that make this a revolutionary ride? What are they?

What’s really awesome about Cutback Water Coaster is that it brings two thrilling technologies into one ride – a cutting edge water jet propulsion system and saucer slide features.

The propulsion system gives the slide its speed, but there’s also the steep angle of the massive saucers that creates the kind of drop and dive sensation riders feel as they race along its edge. Bringing two thrilling water slide elements into one water coaster means a whole new speed of water fun.

What else do we know about Virginia’s first water coaster?

We’ll be announcing more in social media and here on our blog, but here’s what we know so far:

•  Opening May 2019

•  Combines RocketBlast propulsion technology with steep saucer features into one thrilling ride

•  More than 850 feet of slide

•  Four-rider raft

•  Travel up and down steep hills, jet through tunnels and speed into wide-open expanses of massive saucers with drop-and-dive sensations

•  These different thrills create a feeling of an Olympic style giant slalom ski race, but in perfect control

What’s the difference between a water coaster and rides like Escape from Pompeii, isn’t that a water coaster?

A lot of people wanted to know how this compared to Escape from Pompeii at Busch Gardens Williamsburg. ‘Pompeii’ is a classic “shoot-the-chutes” water ride that uses a conveyor belt for the ascent, then lets gravity send the slide racing into a lagoon after a single drop. Conveyor up, gravity down.

But compared to the ride experience water coaster that uses jets to propel you up a hill and the cylindrical forces when riders come sailing out of a saucer at blazing speeds, the experience is just not. Even. Close..

What’s the difference between a water coaster and a water slide?

Colossal Curl is a water slide, and it’s a beast for sure – downhill. Traditional water slides pump water to the top, then count on curves and angles designed to amp up the fun, and the speed. Slides of any size are more about gravity and engineering.

The 24-foot funnel on Colossal Curl is where riders gain some speed. But the steep banks of the saucer features on Cutback Water Coaster will create even bigger thrills. Add to that its cutting-edge propulsion technology for the kind of hill-topping, adrenaline-pumping experience you think of with a roller coaster, and you can see why a water coaster is way more than a water slide.

Keep an eye on our social buzz or check back on the blog for more details. You’ll hear about them as soon as we do. (We can’t wait to ride it either!)