![]() ![]() Santa's Village still operates its SkyGlider, and Wonderland Park still operates its Aqua Drag and SkyGlider in addition to its other Hopkins rides. They also dabbled in other amusement ride types such as a SkyGlider, tube slides and water jet ride known as an Aqua Drag. In addition to the water-based attractions, Hopkins built seven roller coasters from 1985 to 1996. The company originally manufactured Sky Rides, but in the 1980s, with the increase in popularity of their water-based attractions, those rides became the company's primary product. WhiteWater sells its products under the Water Rides brand. Although WhiteWater Attractions has adopted the Hopkins Rides technology, it is not a parent company to Hopkins Rides, LLC and the companies operate independently. In August 2012 water slide manufacturer WhiteWater West acquired assets and intellectual property from Hopkins Rides, LLC. The company reorganized and emerged as Hopkins Rides, LLC in May 2002, and was for a brief time in partnership with Reverchon Industries of France. The aerial ropeway/sky ride division was spun off to Skyfair, Inc. The success of that project started Hopkins in the water ride manufacturing business. In 1979, Hopkins was approached by Paul Roads, owner of Wonderland Park (Texas), to build a reasonably-priced log flume for his park. In 1971, the name of the company was changed to O.D. Hopkins' first customer in the amusement business was Charles Wood of Storytown USA. Soon afterwards a competitor, Universal Design Ltd., discontinued manufacturing Sky Rides, and their customers turned to Hopkins Engineering for parts. In 1965 Hopkins purchased the ski lift division and all the related assets from Roebling & Sons. Hopkins incorporated Hopkins Engineering and started installing ski lifts for J.A. The company has had experience in amusement rides for over 45 years and currently specializes in water rides. Glad I got to do it.Hopkins Rides is an amusement ride manufacturer based in Palm City, Florida. It's a shame that Mt Olympus seems to be doing just fine and this apparently wasn't. Overrated because it's a bit out of the way for most enthusiasts. I still think it's sad they're just tearing this out. That Moosejaw restaurant down the road was legit though. We finally escape to Timber Falls and Avalanche was mediocre at best. I could not work out what weird dimension I had slipped into. When they found out we were a 3, they did nothing about it until they'd already started checking bars. But they lacked the communication skills to find people to fill it. They also insisted on leaving NO seat empty - which I can only assume is some obscure H&S policy because they would not send the damn train until every seat was full. I was looking forward to getting the hell out of there, standing in the HOUR line for Hades 360 only to get to the station and see staff checking the restraints by pulling all of their weight back on them. The park was rammed and the clientele were obnoxious. The parking cost more than the entrance fee!? It was literally like $7 or something for a wristband. The way that park is managed is clearly absolute garbage. The staff were clueless, but the practical limitations of having coasters with only one train and the like wasn't their fault. Their operations are the worst I've ever seen anywhere. I was in a bad mood by the time we got to Timer Falls, because Mt Olympus is a dump. I figured I would never get to ride it, but I finally went a couple years back. YEARS ago I had an obsession with a video of this thing. ![]()
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