The Super Twist tower had three stops on the way up. The first stop was for “Corkscrew” (an enclosed, very steep and fast 360 degree spiral) and “Free Fall” (a white open slide, sort of like Double Dive for beginners), the second was for “Triple Dipper” (two open, white slides with three dips), and the highest and final stop was “Super Twist” (the enclosed twister). By the time you got all the way up to Super Twist, you were exhausted and out of breath from climbing so many stairs.

Super Twist was weird — one of them started out on the down slope, so that one got you started with good momentum. The other one kind of went in the other direction, so I remember having to push myself along over the hump until I got going. Once on the slide, each twist would dip you through faster and faster, and more and more water would fly into your face until the big final dip at the end. Your experience depended highly on the type of bathing suit you were wearing. I used to enjoy the slide while wearing a rugged Gotcha bathing suit that had a lot of traction (thus slowing me down). I once wore a more slippery bathing suit, and I could have sworn I was going to die! Water spraying in my face the whole time, and my legs flying up into the air inside the tube each time I’d go over the top of each twist.

The other really notable slide was Double Dive — that was the huge speed slide. It was also known by locals as the “Wedgie Wall”, and it was a common sight to see girls losing their tops on the ride. Totally scary the first time, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be once I reluctantly pushed myself over the precipice.

The Octopus was also a great one. Two of the three Octopus slides still exist at Breakwater Beach. Unloading into the same pool were “Cannonball” and maybe another name for the other one. It was basically just a short, white, open slide that dumped you straight into the water. Its partner was an enclosed blue slide that did exactly the same thing.

Another often forgotten one was the first one I rode at Water Works — “Tubs O’ Fun” — I think that was the name. You started by riding an innertube through an enclosed blue tube. This carried you around 180 degrees, usually turning you backwards, and dumping you into a pool. If you were going backwards by the end of it, you were definitely dumped ass over tea kettle into the pool. Then you’d float around in the pool until eventually going down a waterfall into the next pool. This would happen over and over until you finally got dumped out into the final landing pool. I enjoyed this one for a year or two before they finally drained the pools, filled them with dirt, and turned them into flower planters.

I wonder what ever happened to the giant guy holding the Pepsi can…