Making a Big Splash : Wet Is What You Get on New Knott’s Ride

Any scientist worth his weight in H2O can tell you that without water, life as we know it would be up the creek.

So while Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia is opening yet another cold steel roller-coaster--the “Ninja”--to spice up its summer attendance figures, Knott’s Berry Farm is turning to water and lots of it in the new “Bigfoot Rapids” ride.

The idea, of course, is to splash more life into the old box office receipts.

The attraction, which opened Thursday, cost $10 million and transformed about 3 1/2 acres of parking lot into Knott’s fifth theme area--the Wild Water Wilderness. Park officials claim that the Bigfoot Rapids ride is California’s longest man-made white-water river.

They even enlisted Olympic kayaker Norman Bellingham, a Newport Beach resident, to take the first two runs through the course, which Bellingham ranked between 3 and 4 on the six-level scale of river-ranking. (A six, he said, is “dangerous to life, like riding a major waterfall.”) “This one is more challenging than I thought it would be,” he said. “I’d like to do this all day.”

At about six minutes, Bigfoot Rapids is longer than most theme park rides. It also has the appeal of being one of the few free-floating rides--there’s no track under these rafts. They bob and spin off the concrete river banks.

But there’s really only one question that matters with a ride like this:

How wet do you get?

Answer: Very.

We’re not talking plant-misting wet. We’re not talking seltzer-bottle-in-the-face wet. We’re talking water-buckets-over-the-head wet.

Indeed, because the round, six-chair rubber rafts pass directly under two waterfalls, it would take considerable rafting skill to get through Bigfoot Rapids without getting drenched.

Most of the pioneers who helped inaugurate the ride Thursday--a combination of invited UC Irvine fraternity and sorority members, several Southland Royal Ranger Scout troops and regular park guests--came out dripping with enthusiasm.

“It’s like Russian roulette--you never know who’s going to get it,” said Suzan Sikora, 19, a psychology major at UCI from Delta Gamma sorority.

“I figured it would be just a little spray,” said a vacationing Sandra Maviglia, 35, of Detroit as water puddles formed around her shoes. “I usually don’t go on the rides except for the merry-go-round.”

One woman said she preferred it to Magic Mountain’s Roaring Rapids, which opened in 1981 and was built by the same firm as the Knott’s ride’s. “The rafts are smaller--six chairs instead of 12 at Magic Mountain. And Magic Mountain’s has more smooth spots where you just float. This one is always moving.”

If there were any complaints, they tended to be like that of Jim Bullock, 42, a veterinarian from Newhall. “We weren’t sufficiently prepared,” he said as several members of his party stood outside the exit gate, wringing out shirts.

What had they forgotten? “A wet suit, snorkel, maybe a mask. . . . You think you can dodge the waterfall, but you really have no control,” Bullock said with a laugh.

A couple other visitors noted that the star for whom the ride was named--Bigfoot--was noticeable by his absence, but the lack of Sasquatch sightings hardly dampened their enjoyment. Knott’s spokesman Stuart Zanville said: “People will hear Bigfoot, they’ll see Bigfoot footprints, some may see him in the foggy tunnel. There will be lots of evidence of Bigfoot, but we never intended to have a robotic Bigfoot or anything like that. We prefer to maintain the mystery of Bigfoot.”

On the other side of the Bigfoot tracks, while the ride was under construction, nearly three dozen residents were petitioning the Buena Park City Council to ensure that the “rapids” wouldn’t flood their neighborhood with noise. Knott’s responded with a 10-foot-high wall and other measures designed to drown any neighbor complaints.

On Thursday, Harry O. Aldrich, who lives just a few hundred feet from the west wall of the ride, said: “It’s a little noisy if you go down to the end of the street. But I’m well-satisfied. I don’t know if the fence they built did much to keep the noise down--I think it’s because most of it is below ground-level. I think it will be OK.”

In any case, it’s a safe bet that lines for an open water ride will dry up considerably during the dark, brisk days of December--at which time the flow of the waterfalls may be reduced or turned off completely. But in the hot summer months, Knott’s can count on Bigfoot Rapids to help its cup runneth over.

Knott’s Berry Farm is at 8039 Beach Blvd., Buena Park. Information: (714) 220-5200. Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays; 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturdays; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sundays. Admission: $13.95 to $17.95.