The visually striking water park ride, High Anxiety at New Jersey Action Park, sends riders in four-person cloverleaf tubes down a steep slide and into a massive funnel. The tubes scramble back and forth along the walls and produce some exhilarating sensations of free floating before jets of water shoot them down the narrow end of the funnel.
- What: funnel ride through the water park
- About the guide’s rating (0 = Yich !, 10 = Wow!): 7
- Excitement scale (0 = Wimpy!, 10 = Yikes!): 6 (sharp drop, feeling of floating “air time”)
- High Anxiety Photo Gallery
One of only three such games when it debuted in 2003 (the others were at Holiday World Splashin ‘Safari, IN and Six Flags New England’s Hurricane Harbor, MA), High Anxiety is a fun and unusual-looking attraction. As much a hoot to look at as to ride, the bright red and yellow funnel structure is a commanding sight on the park’s mountainside.
Located near the main gate of Action Park, it is difficult for visitors to know what happens when they first approach High Anxiety. There they see the riders fly through a tunnel, drenched by a curtain of water and bounce off the walls of a basin before coming to a stop. As visitors approach the other side of the ride, the grand scale of the funnel and the crazy concept of the attraction come into view.
Riders climb a tower (one of the few in Action Park, as most rides use the natural terrain of the mountain) with the cloverleaf tubes they collected at the exit of the ride. When it’s their turn, a hauling operation pushes them into a closed launch tunnel for a 40-foot drop at a steep angle into the funnel. The screams usually start in the tunnel and sound a bit muffled. However, when the riders rise to the side of the funnel, the screams really do gush out and reverberate off the mountainside.
The 50-foot-long funnel, which is 60 feet in diameter at its opening and tapers, acts as a large echo chamber.
Depending on the number of passengers, their weight and their distribution, the tubes rise anywhere from 15 to 25 feet along the far side of the funnel before momentarily stopping and sliding in the other direction. At that moment, cyclists experience a delusional sensation of free floating. The tubes go up the other wall of the funnel, although not as far as the first time, and they deliver a smaller dose of airtime. As the tubes float back up the opposite side and up the funnel, a blast of water shoots them through the narrow end.
In a park filled with wild wedge-inducing experiences, High Anxiety is one of Action Park’s signature attractions.
