Remembering Action Park, America's Most Dangerous, Daring Water Park

SI ^ | July 1, 2019 | Jack McCallum

[C19fan]

One must guard against being seduced by the ghosts of Action Park, the gone-but-definitely-not-forgotten adventure oasis in Vernon, N.J., that offered thrills, chills and broken bones in equal measure. Those ghosts, many of them in casts or bandages, will gather you in and tell tales (mostly true) about the bloody noses and the chipped teeth you got on the enclosed water slide called the Cannonball Loop. They'll try to explain the rush of adrenaline you felt when you flew off the Alpine Slide. They'll chuckle as they relate how many moons were flashed on the Tarzan Swing, how many bathing tops were ripped off by the force of the water at Surf Hill.

[C19fan]

This brings back memories. My father would take my sister and I to Action Park once a summer. The place was a blast. It was the first water park with a wave pool which seems obligatory to any water park. The thing to consider though was that original wave pool would go to twelve plus feet deep and the waves produced were at least three feet; you really felt like you were in the ocean. My guess is most of the death at the park were related to drownings at the wave pool. I am glad I was perhaps the last generation that was allowed to have fun.

[EEGator]

[PfromHoGro]

The definitive park from the “good ol’ days”:

~14 minute documentary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKDx_piZvsg

~17 minutes with more detail:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flkW-ceNvck

The first 45 minutes of Jackass’s ACTION POINT movie is a wonderful homage to the ‘70s- miss it so.

[Darksheare]

Traction Park!
And the monorail that sank into the ground one year because it was overloaded and the pylon just..sank.

[Trump.Deplorable]

Action Point could have been so much better if it stayed more to the Action Park tale.

[Trump.Deplorable]

Every year someone does a story on Action Park

Mostly because of the looping water slide

[C19fan]

Best meme I have ever seen. I remember my friends and I would construct a ramp just like that and try to copy Evil Knievel with our bikes. Of course no helmets and knee pads. FUN FUN FUN!!!

[God luvs America]

i was there as a kid!!! Almost drowned in the wave pool- holy crap!!

i’m watching video now...they tested out a water ride with e loopy-dee-loop using dummies (non human)...the dummies were coming out of the other side of the loopy-dee-loop with no head...

[dead]

Great memories. I jettisoned multiple times out of the cement Alpine Slide, but once you left the concrete part, they had piles of big rocks for you to land on and break your fall. You wouldn't fly off the thing if you didn't go too fast, but if you didn't go fast enough, some bigger kid would smash into your ass going twice your speed, which would then also throw you off the slide.

You picked the bits of glass and rock out of your gashes and got back on line to go again. And while you were on line kids would spit down on you from the chair lift over your head.

[God luvs America]

OMG!! they talk about the wave pool!!! i will never forget it- thought i was a goner...

i barely made it to the ladder, too embarrassed to ask for a life guard, pulled myself up, then literally collapsed...i don’t think i’ve ever felt so completely exhausted in my life..

[EEGator]

I hope you have a scar under your chin like I do...

[NittanyLion]

I went to Action Park as a teen - as I recall it was as nuts as described here...definitely got banged up. Great fun also though!

[Article10]

Facts...

That park was so fun!

[V_TWIN]

I will be renting the Jonny Knoxville movie based on this park for the 4th weekend.....seems appropriate. lol

Also, watched a youtube vid with actual footage earlier..... Geez.....Shoulda called it “class action park”

[Buckeye McFrog]

In the 70’s we used to build homemade ramps and jump our bikes off of them, just as the kid on the Big Wheel is doing there.

This was all inspired by Evel Knievel. My mother would have ridden a Greyhound bus all the way to Montana just to kick that man in the groin.

[PfromHoGro]

Yeah. I got the feeling ~45 minutes in they remembered “Oh right, we’re making a MOVIE, better start a story. Where’s that Screenwriting for Dummies book?”

[PfromHoGro]

But I LOVED the First Aid guy who kept telling the antagonist “You have to hold on tighter or you’ll get hurt here.”, showing zero empathy...

[Renkluaf]

I did the Alpine Slide and didn’t think it was too bad. But then, I was only 20, immortal and stupid.

[Amberdawn]

For real! We played in ponds, dammed up streams, hung onto the backs of bikes while on rollerskates...it’s enough to make nanny state heads explode.

[EQAndyBuzz]

Ah, the good ole days. People getting electrocuted on the kayak ride. Drowning in the wave pool. Riding the miniature power boats with the famous instruction from the ride operator, “If you stop the boat it will sink.” My buddy still has the road rash scar from falling off the Alpine Slide. The nurse called it a right of passage.