Attraction Profile
parkworld-online.com
“It was an absolute requirement for Sea World to have the splash down inside the building,” notes Vatcher, “and this may well be a first. However, the continuously refreshed atomised chlorinated water from the splash down, coupled with the summertime temperatures of the Gold Coast, provide a very tough environment for the show sets, special effects, lighting and audio. One of our challenges was to ensure that that the show sets, effects, lighting and audio would have an acceptable service life under these extreme operating conditions.”
International team From its headquarters in Vienna, Austria, DyMoRides assembled a talented international team to work on the project including former Merlin/Tussauds Studios designer Paul Lanham of PEL Creative (creative executive), David Hurst of Full-On Lighting (lighting design), Bernie Whates of Volume One (audio/visual design and production) and Liam Hardy of the Gold
Coast’s own Sculpt Studios (show set production), working with several local sub-contractors. Special effects were supplied by Backstage Technologies and integrated together with show control by DyMoRides. “Liam Hardy and his colleagues from Sculpt Studios did an amazing job” says Vatcher who, as a former naval architect, describes the project as particularly rewarding. “Through regular conference calls and a few site visits, Liam was able to take our designs and convert them into realistic show sets that fully met our creative intent and enable the attraction to be open for the Christmas and new year season.” An imposing attraction standing 30-metres high, Storm Coaster becomes the tallest structure at Sea World. Occupying a 1-acre site, as much as half of the ride is undercover. Riders reach speeds of up to 70km/hr and pull 3Gs during the ride’s most thrilling sections, including a dive into an underground tunnel. In total, the Mack Rides coaster features 472m of wide blue steel track, held together with 15,000 bolts and supported by 45 columns.
“Storm Coaster will be hugely popular among families with an incredible wow factor as riders encounter the effects of a cataclysmic storm and the feeling of being trapped in an overturned giant ship hull which is sinking!,” predicts Village Roadshow’s Renee Soutar. “This will be a draw card for people far and wide because you can’t get anything like this anywhere else.” Sea World is one of three key Village Roadshow properties on the Gold Coast in Queensland – otherwise known as “the theme park capital of Australia” – where it joins Warner Bros Movie World, Wet 'n' Wild, and rival parks Dreamworld and Whitewater World. All were open daily except Christmas Day over the “summer” season.
themeparks.com.au
Motion rides
and more It’s just over three years since Dynamic Motion Rides (DyMoRides) was launched. Storm Coaster represents the Austrian company’s first turnkey project, but several of its key team members were also responsible for the Flyboard motion simulator and Miraculum 4D effects theatre, plus associated theming, that has been operating successfully at the Prater in Vienna since 2008. As its name suggests,
DyMoRides specialises in motion base attractions, and it has since refined the Flyboard flying theatre to incorporate a second
generation highly efficient, high fidelity, low maintenance electric drive system.
The origins of “flying” in the standing position are thought to go back to the early 1990s when Denne Developments produced the first Virtual Surfer, a project in which DyMoRides joint CEO David Vatcher also had a hand. The stand-up/semi-prone position employed on Flyboard creates an authentic feeling of flight and is touted as an attractive alternative to the various “Soarin’” style seated systems on the market. A multi- unit installation in Asia is expected to be announced soon. Demonstrating the varied range of services that can be delivered by its team, DyMoRides was invited by Village Roadshow to develop the theming and show concept for Storm Coaster at Sea World in September 2012 and then selected to produce this part of the attraction in April of last year.
dymorides.com
JANUARY 2014
33
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