Thursday, June 25, 2009

The Big "O" in Orange

Brett M remembers a waterslide in Orange...

I remember in the mid 80's growing up in the City of Orange. Off of Chapman Ave., just off the Fwy there was a waterslide. It was originally made of glass(?) and I think someone actually either died or was severely hurt. None the less, I remember walking there from my old home off of Palmyra and Yorba.
I think he's referring to the Big "O" in Orange, which was a skateboard park that had a fiberglass waterslide.

I think it shut down because the fiberglass would crack and cause people's bathing suits to tear. I didn't hear about someone dying or severely injured, but I wouldn't doubt it.

15 comments:

  1. I remember when the person was killed-- that's why it shut down. It was too bad, because it was spectacular to see the people sliding from so far away.

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  2. I remember that, too. It was soon after we moved to Orange. There was a gaping hole in the slide with really sharp edges. One of our friends claimed to have seen the accident and the victim stuck with his stomach on the sharp edges, but although she was an adult she was rather prone to exaggeration and hysteria, so I take her graphic description with huge grains of salt.

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    1. One guy was impaled, however, he survived. There were no fatalities. The whole thing really sucked because people started suing for all sorts of injuries and led to the skate portion park being closed. I don't know if it reopened or not. I was off to the Army shortly after and my fun filled days, spent mastering the "cloverleaf" and "capsule" bowls on the Dogtown bored I loved so much, were long gone.

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  3. It is true, someone did die at the first water slide in Orange behind Thrifys and next to the 55 fwy. They later rebuilt it with using different material. After many years it was closed down.

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  4. I remember the story where the person was sliding down the slide and they slide into a gap and were chopped in half. I don't know if that was a story or true...

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  5. here is the story...no one was killed.
    http://articles.latimes.com/1985-06-15/local/me-12419_1

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  6. I was actually working at the Mobil gas station next to the water park. I also seen the persons legs hanging out of the water tube and people sliding into the person. It was bloody

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    1. Which side of Chapman was the mobile and the water park? I'm having a huge debate over this with a friend.
      I say the park was on the same side of Chapman as selman Chevrolet. Is that right?

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  7. I remember hearing about someone getting impaled on a sharp piece of the broken waterslide and dying. Wasn't it like a teal blue color but you could see through it? My OC cousins told us about it, we were Hemet girls but went to OC all the time to see them. It freaked me out.

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  8. I went on that slide opening day.It wasn,t well engineered. I love thrill rides,but that thing just beat the crap out of you the whole way down!At the beginning you went straight until you hit a u-turn. This is where you got slammed into the wall instead of a smooth turn. This is also where the heavy young man busted through and dangled all cut up until they brought in the crane.I'm not sure, but I think he lived.They made us buy 10 ride tickets,we only used one.

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  9. Mitch - Floral ParkJuly 06, 2010 12:24 PM

    Wow, yet another great memory. My family would stop by here when ever we went to Cross-Roads Video store to rent movies. I also remember when the kid died there. There was more than once incident of kids busting thru the slide. It was only after the kid lost his life that it was closed.

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  10. We were there the day of the accident, my brother and neighbor were the last ones down the slide. The accounts I have seen are actually pretty accurate except that there was no loss of life. What happen is that a large hole opened up in the slide, 2 people went flying over the hole with no major issues but the next 1 went through. The second got caught by his stomach and hung until the paramedics freed him, but he survived. My brother and neighbor went over next and flew over the heads of the person dangling. Apparently by this point the first person over the hole had gotten to the bottom and they shut the slide down. There were 4 people with minor scratches and 1 that obviously had to be taken to the hospital so only 5 were injured. The waterslide was shut down due to lack of business, given that the park was packed on that hot August day I have to think it ruined them.

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  11. The last post from March 05, 2011 is the same as the report that I read in the paper, the day after it happened. The place got shut down shortly after....

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  12. Yeah I remember hearing about that accident. We had always thought that someone had died on that waterslide. That always freaked me out! Does anyone remember Camelot...or Scamalot?! They also had a waterslide didn't they. We use to hang out there alot in high school. It was so much fun!

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    1. "Scamalot"! Wow, I haven't thought about that place in years!!

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