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Seaworld's New Steel Eel D-eel-ights coaster connoisseurs (3-19-99)
Whale Of A Ride (2-8-99)
Seaworld San Antonio To Unleash 'Steel Eel' Hypercoaster (8-18-98)

SEAWORLD'S NEW 'STEEL EEL' 'D-EEL-IGHTS' COASTER CONNOISSEURS

SAN ANTONIO (March 19, 1999) -- "The Steel Eel" has tremendous "app-eel!"

So say roller coaster connoisseurs who've ridden the new hypercoaster at SeaWorld San Antonio.

Unveiled in conjunction with SeaWorld's '99 grand opening March 6, the multi-million-dollar Steel Eel became the first shiny new coaster to be introduced in the U. S. in 1999. It's also the only hypercoaster in Texas or the Southwest.

"Standing 15 stories tall, The Steel Eel gives you a breathtaking view of San Antonio and the Texas Hill Country before it dives 150 feet and takes your breath away," said Keith Kasen, SeaWorld San Antonio's general manager and an avid coaster fan.

The custom-designed coaster reaches speeds up to 65 mph as it races up and down camelback humps which give the ride a serpentine appearance, thus the name Steel Eel. Its thrilling three-minute, 3,700-foot run produces exhilarating periods of weightlessness, the signature feature of a hypercoaster.

Members of the American Coaster Enthusiasts (ACE) who encountered the Eel for the first time said its "bite" definitely complements the park's other state-of-the-art coaster, "The Great White" inverted coaster, which sends riders heels over head five times.

ACE members used adjectives such as "fabulous," "smooth," "incredible" and "breaktaking" to describe The Steel Eel. Others chimed in with "loads of fun," "perfectly designed" and "love that air time."

"The ride is very smooth, and you wouldn't believe the view," said an ACE member from Dallas. "It's a great coaster!"

Another ACE expert from the Dallas-Fort Worth area called it "the most anticipated coaster in Texas. It's a winner."

Hundreds of other ACE members from around the world will get to challenge The Steel Eel and The Great White in June 1999 when the organization holds its national convention -- CoasterCon XXII -- in San Antonio.

SeaWorld San Antonio guests can take a sky swim with The Steel Eel as follows: daily through March 21; Friday through Sunday, March 26-28; Easter weekend, April 1-5; Fridays through Sundays, April 9-May 23; daily, May 28-Aug. 15; weekends, Aug. 21-29; Labor Day weekend, Sept. 4-6; and weekends, Sept. 11-Oct. 31.

For more SeaWorld San Antonio information, call (210) 523-3611.

Whale of a ride

Sea World's Steel Eel plummets 150 feet at 65 mph

By Ihosvani Rodriguez
Express-News Staff Writer

Centuries from now, anthropologists (or space aliens) will marvel at the display of human ingenuity currently being erected at Sea World, the marine park west of San Antonio. They'll be baffled by the humongous contraption's intended purpose.

How could they know that — way back when millennium fever gripped the earth — humans enjoyed strapping 36 screaming modern-day apes in a train that, for all practical purposes, had no brakes, and slowly sent them up a structure as high as the Statue of Liberty; then suddenly, with no warning, from 150 feet up in the air, dropped those thrill-sniffing pups down, down, down toward the unforgiving ground at 65 mph. Giddiness, weightlessness, heaving hearts and squirming insides.

Will little green men (or anthropologists) understand the concept of the Steel Eel?

Dana Morgan and his band of merrymakers certainly do. Morgan has been building these roller- coasting apparatus since 1983.

These types of modern-day coasters are to kiddie coasters what Pentium is to Atari, the stealth bomber is to the Wright B Flyer, Busta Rhymes is to Cab Calloway. They're hyper-coasters, and Sea World's will be ready for public consumption March 6.

Coaster purists will tell you there's nothing like an old-fashioned, wooden roller coaster ride. But don't expect them to turn down a free ride on a hyper-coaster.

"It wouldn't be fair to compare wooden coasters with hyper-coasters," says Bill Linkenheimer, president of the American Coaster Enthusiasts, the same group that will have its annual convention in San Antonio later this summer. (Their mouths are watering for a taste of the Steel Eel.)

"They both provide a completely different ride experience. Riding a wooden roller coaster is like riding in a '57 Chevy. Riding a hyper-coaster is like riding in a Ferrari. They're both incredibly fun, but they're incredibly different types of fun."

Morgan's California-based company, Morgan Manufacturing, has made a science of producing the hyper brand of excitement.

To do so, Morgan and his crew first computerize the entire layout of a coaster long before construction is even considered.

During the programming, designers take into account what a guest will experience at certain segments of the track. For example, designers of the Steel Eel knew that a 150-foot drop at a 60-degree angle would produce a feeling of 3.5 Gs.

Similar formulas will also produce a weightlessness effect toward the middle of the ride, and then a floating feeling over a number of strategic bumps at the end.

Because erecting 3,700 feet worth of track inside a warehouse is nearly impossible, designers use lasers to "measure" the track's dimensions; in turn, these measurements are used to program steel bending machines to precisely manipulate and shape the beams.

Forty-five feet at a time, workers weld together segments of the track, paint them, and then load them in a fleet of trucks.

About 1.6 million pounds of Steel Eel steel was shipped halfway across the country to the Sea World construction site. The coaster already can be seen from miles away.

Once assembled, the ride will go something like this: The trip to the top of the lift will provide a panoramic view of the park and the San Antonio area. The first drop will be a 150-foot, 65-mph dive toward the Water Ski Lake. As the track drops, it veers to skim the shoreline of the lake. The track then rises into a camelback-like hill.

At more than 110 feet above the plaza below, the riders will float over the first hump. The train will then race to 50 mph, speeding high above the Penguin Encounter and flume ride before floating over the second hump. The Steel Eel then drops more than 112 feet and speeds to 62 mph, diving into a wooded ravine. As the park boundary approaches, the Steel Eel will rise and twist into a steep curve.

Exhibiting the speed of today's fastest coasters, the Steel Eel will reach a velocity of a mile a minute for yet a third time. Turning and plunging down the hillside toward the coaster's lowest point, the train accelerates to 60 mph before slithering onto the undulating bumps along the park's perimeter road.

Riders sliding down the Steel Eel's back will encounter four more shots of "air time" over the bumps. An S-curve over the perimeter road will lead back into the park and to the station, where the next group of 36 passengers wait to catch the three- minute ride.

But before anyone can ride on March 6, an assembly of human guinea pigs will get first crack at the Steel Eel — mostly engineers, designers and park officials.

Its first passenger, however, will be Morgan himself.

"For me, the best ride is always that first one," says the coaster builder. "'It's fun because you're looking at it from a technical standpoint. As you go along the ride you know what it's supposed to feel like. When it feels like it supposed to, it's the most satisfying feeling in the world. You know you perfected the science of fun."

Monday, Feb 8,1999

SEAWORLD SAN ANTONIO TO UNLEASH ‘STEEL EEL’ HYPERCOASTER

SAN ANTONIO (Aug. 18, 1998) – With "The Great White" already circling and putting its exhilarating bite on victims, SeaWorld San Antonio plans to unleash another "terror of the deep" dive, "The Steel Eel," the first and only hypercoaster in Texas or the Southwest.

This voracious new breed of roller coaster, now under construction at the world’s largest marine life adventure park, is scheduled to begin devouring prey Saturday, March 6, when SeaWorld San Antonio launches its 1999 season. The Steel Eel will be the biggest addition since the park opened in 1988.

"Talk about a hair-raiser!" said SeaWorld San Antonio General Manager Keith Kasen, describing the new, multi-million-dollar ride. "After an initial breathtaking dive from 15 stories high, you’ll quickly discover the meaning of hypercoaster. Our guests will experience giddiness during periods of weightlessness, or ‘air time,’ as they race up and down the camelback humps that make this coaster a one-of-a-kind adventure."

In further preparation for the park’s 1999 season, SeaWorld San Antonio will offer a new two-seasons-for-the-price-of-one Century Pass through Nov. 1, 1998, at special prices -- $79 plus tax for adults and $59 plus tax for children (3-11) and senior adults (55 and over). Those who take advantage of this limited-time offer for 1999 and 2000 also can use their new passes to visit the park during the remainder of the ’98 season. SeaWorld San Antonio surprised and delighted coaster lovers with last year’s debut of The Great White, the first coaster ever built at a SeaWorld park and the Southwest’s only inverted coaster. "Inverted" means riders dangle their legs from the ride and go heels-over-head five times during a thrill-packed series of dives, loops, corkscrews and other high-speed, aerobatic maneuvers. "We’ve received such a tremendously positive response from those who’ve ridden The Great White that we decided to add The Steel Eel, another state-of-the-art coaster," Kasen said. "Marine animals and the ocean environment will remain at the core of everything we do at SeaWorld San Antonio, yet our guests wanted new adventures. We are broadening the park’s appeal among all age groups."

The Steel Eel, soon to be lurking high over the treetops in the vicinity of Sea Lion, Walrus and Otter Stadium and the Penguin Encounter, will extend 3,700 feet. An encounter with the slithery beast begins with a heart-pounding 150-foot dive at 65 mph toward the Water Ski Lake and into a dogleg curve. Then The Steel Eel floats over the first hump of a "full" camelback hill before taking another 65-foot plunge toward the second camel hump.

Next come more screams during a 113-foot, 62-mph drop into a wooded ravine, followed by a steep, 44-degree banked curve. The return run to the station features four undulating, eel-like bumps, which helped inspire the coaster’s name, and an S-curve leading back to the starting point. The ride’s up, down and around configuration creates up to 3.5 positive Gs.

"The camelbacks and bumps create maximum air time, or that stomach-in-your-throat sensation when you go over a hill fast," Kasen said. "Unlike The Great White and its ski-lift-style seats for inverted ‘flight,’ The Steel Eel utilizes more traditional cars with two-abreast seating."

Two, six-coach trains accommodating 36 passengers each will whisk riders 4 feet and taller along The Steel Eel’s high-profile layout, which will be visible for miles around SeaWorld San Antonio’s location northwest of the city at the edge of the scenic Texas Hill Country. The ride will last approximately three minutes and thrill a maximum 1,200 riders per hour.

D.H. Morgan Manufacturing Inc. of La Selva Beach, Calif., designed and manufactured The Steel Eel. Browning Construction of San Antonio is general contractor, with SeaWorld San Antonio’s Kathleen Mundy serving as project manager.

"The Steel Eel will be the eighth major addition to SeaWorld San Antonio since the park became an Anheuser-Busch Adventure Park in December 1989," Kasen said. "This spectacular new coaster not only adds to our reputation as an adventure park but also indicates a strong commitment from our parent company in the future of San Antonio as a major visitor destination."

The specially priced Century Pass will go on sale Saturday, Aug. 22, at SeaWorld’s front gate ticket windows and will be available on regular park operating days through Nov. 1. Or, passes can be ordered by calling (210) 523-3900 between 8 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

As a bonus, each Century Pass purchaser will receive a booklet at the beginning of the 1999 season with money-saving coupons offered by SeaWorld, other area attractions and restaurants. For more SeaWorld San Antonio information, call (210) 523-3611.

SeaWorld San Antonio is an Anheuser-Busch Adventure Park. Other Anheuser-Busch parks are Busch Gardens in Tampa Bay, Fla., and Williamsburg, Va.; SeaWorld marine life adventure parks in Orlando, San Diego and Cleveland; Adventure Island in Tampa Bay; Water Country USA in Williamsburg; and Sesame Place near Philadelphia. Anheuser-Busch Adventure Parks employ more than 15,000 people nationwide.

A leader in conservation and education, the Anheuser-Busch Adventure Parks maintain an animal information site on the World Wide Web designed especially for students and teachers at http://www.seaworld.org. To learn more about the Anheuser-Busch Adventure Parks, visit the parks’ interactive Web site at http://www.4adventure.com or call toll-free (800) 4ADVENTURE.

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