New Wet and Wild Rides for Thrill Seekers

Southern California’s parks annually unveil cutting-edge versions of the rack, usually around Memorial Day.

In keeping with the tradition, Buena Park’s Knott’s Berry Farm today inaugurates XK-1 and Whirlpool, not to mention a new “Waterworks Show� on Reflection Lake. XK-1, called “a state-of-the-art participatory flight ride,� allows the “pilot� to take control of the aircraft while 70 feet in the air, and “climb, roll, dive, even fly upside down.�

Whirlpool, despite its name an indoor ride, is “basically a high-tech takeoff on the old carnival scrambler rides,� spokeswoman Diane Greene says. “It’s a dark ride, with lasers and lights and ‘Lost Atlantis’ and a feel of being under water.�

Not to be out-hyped, Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia weighs in next Friday with Tidal Wave, modestly billed as “the wettest thrill-ride adventure ever conceived.� Riders will board 20-passenger boats to traverse an 800-foot water passage ending in a plunge down a 50-foot waterfall. Splashdown is said to create a 2 1/2-ton, 20-foot wall of water that sops not only the passengers but anyone rash enough to watch from a bridge overlooking the ride.