Verruckt: World’s Tallest Water Slide Opening Soon In Kansas City [Video]

Verruckt is the record breaking, tallest ever water slide in the world – and it’s due to open at Kansas City’s Schlitterbahn Park any minute now.

There’s good reason for the water slide to be in the Guinness World of Records, as it stands at a heart-stopping 168 feet and offers a multi-faceted experience for people brave enough to ride it.

Four riders are strapped tight into a raft which is sent at around 70 mph down the steep drop. Just when people are removing their hearts from their stomachs, riders are sent back up a second rise, just to tumble down another 50 feet before arriving at the pool at the bottom.

But the opening of the Verruckt water slide was delayed for a third time due to technical issues, and it’s not clear when the slide will officially open for business.

As reported by the Associate Press on June 27, the Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City announced that the Verruckt did not open on the Sunday as planned although the news release failed to give a specific reason for the delay.

What is known is that earlier this week two media sneak-peek event were cancelled due to problems with the conveyor belt system that carries the 100-pound rafts to the top of the slide.

The initial opening was already moved from May 23 to June 5 as more testing on the ride was needed. It was then pushed back again to June 29, but got delayed once again.

Schlitterbahn spokeswoman Winter Prosapio said earlier that park officials wouldn’t hesitate to delay operation again for however long it takes to make sure the slide is safe: “We’ll take embarrassment before putting someone in the slide when it is not ready,” she said.

It seems that part of the issue is the fact that senior designer of the Verruckt water slide, John Schooley, based his calculations on roller coasters, but that didn’t translate so well into a massive water slide.

The park tested the ride with sandbags in place of humans, and it was just as well they did because, when they did the tests, the sandbags flew out of the sides of the Verruckt, proving it wasn’t quite ready just yet.

The season at the park is well underway, having opened back on May 23, and the park will be open daily through August 17. When the Verruckt, which means “Insane” in German, will be fully ready remains to be seen; the public is waiting anxiously for its unveiling.