Schlitterbahn
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| Privately/Family Owned Company | |
| Industry | Amusement park Waterpark operator |
| Founded | 1979 |
| Headquarters | New Braunfels, Texas |
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Area served
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Texas Kansas |
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Key people
|
Henry Family |
| Website | http://www.schlitterbahn.com |
Schlitterbahn is a family-owned and operated company based in New Braunfels, Texas. Schlitterbahn began its first park, Schlitterbahn Waterpark Resort, in 1979. Since then, Schlitterbahn has developed three waterparks located in Texas and one in Kansas City, Kansas.
Schlitterbahn Waterparks are summer seasonal water parks. They typically operate from late April to mid-September. Schlitterbahn Galveston Island Waterpark, which opened in 2006, has one indoor section that has limited operation during fall and winter.
The first of the parks was in New Braunfels and opened in 1979. The park was named "slippery road" in German because of the local area's German heritage. It originally consisted of four waterslides. As of 2014, the park had won Amusement Today's Golden Ticket Award for 15 years straight. The park currently employs 2000 seasonal workers.
The park in South Padre Island opened in 2001. An indoor section opened in 2012.
On March 6, 2013, Nicolas “Nico” Benavidez, a 20 year old seasonal employee was fatally injured when an overhead gate slammed down and pinned him and another worker. He was left on life support for organ donation and later died from the injuries on March 11th. OSHA investigated and fined Schlitterbahn for six safety violations related to the fatal incident.
The 26-acre Schlitterbahn park in Galveston opened in 2006, and is open for part of every month of the year.
The first phase of the park in Kansas City opened in July 2009. The park opens each year in May. The park is home to more than a mile of interconnected river rides.
On August 7 2016, a 10 year old child, Caleb Thomas Schwab, son of Kansas representative Scott Schwab, was killed in the park while riding the Verrückt, a water raft ride touted as the world's tallest water slide. Caleb died before reaching the bottom from a fatal neck injury sustained during the ride. Investigtors concluded he was decapitated. Two other unrelated riders in the same raft sustained injuries. The ride was decommissioned and is being demolished.
In May 2012, Schlitterbahn announced that it would move forward with plans to begin construction of a new water park in the Corpus Christi-Padre Island area. It was announced that the park would open during the summer of 2013, but due to various delays ground breaking didn't take place until February 2013. A 574-acre plan for the city includes a marina, the Schlitterbahn water park with lodging, and a golf course. Vendors complained, and even sued, Schlitterbahn over $500,000 in unpaid bills on the Corpus Christi project. After several months, Schlitterbahn paid the vendors and threw them a party. The opening has been delayed until sometime in the summer of 2015. Schlitterbahn North Padre opened on June 20, 2015 with limited rides and attractions.
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Wikipedia