New Wet and Wild Rides for Thrill Seekers

Southern California’s parks annually unveil cutting-edge versions of the rack, usually around Memorial Day.

In keeping with the tradition, Buena Park’s Knott’s Berry Farm today inaugurates XK-1 and Whirlpool, not to mention a new “Waterworks Show” on Reflection Lake. XK-1, called “a state-of-the-art participatory flight ride,” allows the “pilot” to take control of the aircraft while 70 feet in the air, and “climb, roll, dive, even fly upside down.”

Whirlpool, despite its name an indoor ride, is “basically a high-tech takeoff on the old carnival scrambler rides,” spokeswoman Diane Greene says. “It’s a dark ride, with lasers and lights and ‘Lost Atlantis’ and a feel of being under water.”

Not to be out-hyped, Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia weighs in next Friday with Tidal Wave, modestly billed as “the wettest thrill-ride adventure ever conceived.” Riders will board 20-passenger boats to traverse an 800-foot water passage ending in a plunge down a 50-foot waterfall. Splashdown is said to create a 2 1/2-ton, 20-foot wall of water that sops not only the passengers but anyone rash enough to watch from a bridge overlooking the ride.