Tiki Central / General Tiki / Tikis at Sea World San Diego?
Post #537339 by TorchGuy on Fri, Jun 18, 2010 6:08 AM
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TorchGuy
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Fri, Jun 18, 2010 6:08 AM
Not tiki, but a quick OT about the now-gone water show at Sea World, which I unfortunately never saw in person. I'm not just a TorchGuy; I'm a FountainGuy, too! The Water Fantasy, later sponsored by Sparkletts, came out in 1967, and was built by Rain Jet of Burbank, who used their unusual rotary fountain nozzles in the show. The shows used the five nozzles they sold commercially (called Crystal Cone, Bursting Stars, Dancing Jewels, Ballerina and Vesuvius) as well as a few designs made just for the show. The show also used some conventional nozzles, rain and fog effects, and lights both in the three-section pool and in the ceiling. These rotary nozzles are mucho rare now, and in my travels I've only been able to find one, though I'm following a lead on another right now. They're beautiful effects, very sparkly and showy. ...anyone got one of these they're not using...? They were usually sold with plastic bases that had one, two, three or five underwater lights attached, called 'aquavators'. The Disney version mentioned by Magoo began as Fantasy Waters, one of the early "Dancing Waters" attractions, where the effects were 'played' live from a switchboard along with recorded music. I speak with one of the people who used to play the Dancing Waters shows in Florida, and I'm told this is a very, very difficult skillset, as the player had to operate water (behind the beat, since there's a delay) with one hand, while running lights (on the beat, they respond instantly) with the other. So the player didn't run out of fingers, multiple effects could be patched to a single button, but you had to be planning for the next 'scene' and setting up its effects on another button(s) while simultaneously running the current one(s). Some of the operators would practice each show enough that they would add Liberace-like flourishes to their playing, to make it look exciting and effortless. That Disney show got scrapped in the 80s, and replaced by a modern Waltzing Waters brand "Liquid Fireworks" show also called the Fantasy Waters... but Disney was too cheap to buy a new one (approx. $1million US for these) so they had the company cobble together a cheaper unit out of both new and used parts. They soon learned that while the Waltzing Waters product is ridiculously low-maintenance, nothing is NO-maintenance, and when the last few relays in the control cabinet gave up the ghost, rather than pay about 1/8 the value (or less) to have it fixed up again, they junked that one, too. Sadly, that's not the worst fate that's hit one of these high-tech Waltzing Waters shows. One, I'm told, got shipped to a theme park in China, sat in the shipping crate for a few years as the park changed hands a few times, then got sold as scrap. Water Fantasy intro with rain effect: Water Fantasy performing to "Man In The Mirror", with big frothy cascade fountain in the middle. |