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Europe's First "Fusion' Waterslide Opens in Switzerland05-20-15 | News

Europe's First "Fusion' Waterslide
Opens in Switzerland

Those colorful waterslide tubes are the "Houla Hoop', a 184-yard raft trip of high banked turns and near vertical plunges.

WhiteWater has collaborated with The Looping Group to deliver a new waterslide to Aquaparc in Le Bouveret, Switzerland. Opened to the public in late March, guests have the opportunity to brave the "Houla (not hula!) Hoop', Europe's first "fusion' waterslide. Editor's note: "houle" in French means sea swell, so maybe that's where they're going with "houla."

"Fusion" indicates the slide combines two waterslide designs: the "Constrictor' (high-banking turns) and the "Rattler' (near vertical tubes that apparently rattle you cage). Let's just say that between the fast turns and steep inclines, if you're not young and supple, you might want to rethink tubing this monster.

You plunge into the Houla Hoop on a raft, which reportedly has "room for the whole family to sit facing each other so they can scream and laugh together while they enjoy the ride." Top speeds are about 12 mph (pace of a 5:36 mile), and you traverse 184 yards of tubes.

The project posed a challenge to the slide path designers, as it required squeezing in a large amount of new fiberglass into a tangle of existing waterslide flumes.

"Our team developed a detailed complete 3-D environment of the site that allowed us to minimize any potential interference with the existing structural supports and waterslides," explained Marco Lechuga, a WhiteWater designer. "It was a challenging and fun project," he added.

The Looping Group owns and manages eight leisure parks (France, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom).

WhiteWater began as a waterpark operation in 1980, and has grown into a designer and manufacturer of waterpark attractions. "It's about thinking outside-the-pool," say WhiteWater, and "not being afraid to be different and to take risks."