Knott’s Berry Farm will add a trio of family rides in 2013

Thrill seekers will have to wait a little longer for a big new ride as Knott’s Berry Farm unveiled plans for a trio of family attractions in 2013 aimed at bridging the gap in the Buena Park theme park’s collection of kiddie and extreme rides.

> Photos: A trio of family rides coming to Knott’s in 2013

Knott’s plans to add a wild mouse coaster, a flying scooter and a classic scrambler ride in summer 2013 to the Boardwalk section of the park, reusing a man-made lake left over from a water ride removed to make room for the new additions.

The 52-foot-tall Coast Rider wild mouse coaster will feature a series of switchbacks traversed by individual four-person cars along a 1,339-foot-long track in a variation of an off-the-shelf ride found at many smaller amusement parks.

Similar wild mouse coasters built by Germany’s Mack Rides can be found at Legoland theme parks around the world, including the Technic coasters at the Legoland locations in California and Florida.

The Coast Rider name is a play on Ghostrider, the 1998 wooden coaster at Knott’s.

The Surfside Glider is a flying scooter ride with vehicles suspended from cables that riders control with rudders.

Also known as flyers, the flying scooters are a throwback to an earlier age of amusement park rides that are making a comeback at theme parks such as Indiana’s Holiday World, Pennsylvania’s Hersheypark and California’s Great America.

Built by Texas-based Larson International, the flying scooters often feature hot-rod-style paint jobs that evoke soaring animals or aircraft.

The Pacific Scrambler is a classic spinning carnival ride that has become a mainstay at Knott’s sister parks, including Cedar Point and Kings Island in Ohio and Pennsylvania’s Dorney Park.

The 1989 Scrambler, built by Illinois-based Eli Bridge Co., has been relocated and renamed a number of times at Knott’s, operating over the years as Whirlpool, Headspin and Wilderness Scrambler.

The trio of family rides planned for next summer replaces Perilous Plunge, which debuted in 2000 as the tallest and steepest water ride in the world. In 2001, a 40-year-old woman fell to her death from the 121-foot-tall shoot-the-chutes ride built by Intamin. A state investigation blamed the accident on inadequate safety restraints.

The new rides for 2013 are designed to appeal to the tweener set looking for a step up from the Camp Snoopy kiddie land but not ready for the extreme Boomerang and Xcelerator coasters in the Boardwalk area of the park.

In the last four seasons, Knott’s has added only one major attraction: the tame and temperamental Windseeker in 2011. The problem-plagued 301-foot-tall swing tower opened after a long delay and has been shut down for months following a series of malfunctions.

Before that, Knott’s opened a pair of well received family coasters -- Sierra Sidewinder in 2007 and Pony Express in 2008 -- that left thrill seekers longing for more.

It’s been nearly a decade since Knott’s opened a true thrill ride: the Silver Bullet inverted roller coaster in 2004.

Speculation had circulated that Knott’s was considering a massive hyper coaster for 2013, but those plans have been shelved until at least 2015, Screamscape reports.

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