Today SFGA announced they're new waterslide "King Cobra".

The name reminds me of a ride that used to be at KI Hmmm....

Found this photo of it, I must say it looks pretty cool!

Looks cool, but it also seems a bit short; usually water slides are a little bit longer,

Longer? It looks the perfect length.

I don't know, just looks short.

I don't think it's shorter, it's just more compact than most slides. If it was spread out more it wouldn't look as short, but I think it would look odd (being in the corner of the park). And most of the slides with the "wedgie" ending are a lot shorter than this.

The thing that surprised me with this announcement, is that this water slide is not made by the two leading water slide manufacturing companies; ProSlide or White Water West. Instead, it is manufactured by Polin.

These products look good. I'm curious as to the artwork on it, and how long it will last in that shape. Is it a gelcoat? That's what is typically used in these applications, but I can't fathom how that would work with this design. Is it some sort of applique? If so, how will they handle touchups? So many questions.

its an interesting idea i will say.

Between Jersey's harsh weather and sometimes harsher guests, those are very good questions.

Between Jersey's harsh weather and sometimes harsher guests, those are very good questions.

Doing some homework, Polin manufactures their slide segments using RTM (Resin Transfer Molding) as opposed to the hand-lay molding of conventional slides (which is what leaves the "rough" fiberglas backside surface). RTM is used to make exterior panels for the space shuttle, or at least it was . RTM would not allow for a "baked in" finish like is seen on King Cobra, so it appears to either be paint (less likely) or a printed medium under a clear gelcoat.

Now, gelcoat (I belive it's a marine gelcoat used here is great), but as a resilient finish eventually something is going to gouge through it and require repair. My concern would be if the gouge is deep enough to damage the artwork, a large area of the gelcoat would have to be removed for the art to be replaced before reapplying the gelcoat. I would have long term concerns with keeping these slides up, but they do look great at the outset.

This slide looks awesome. Much rather have this than a wave pool