New building allows recommend that Walt Disney International is more likely to rebuild or substitute Humunga Kowabunga, the topic of a lawsuit that went viral again in 2023 after a visitor sustained accidents at the water slide at Hurricane Lagoon. This covers the most recent information, in conjunction with our remark.
Let’s get started with the lawsuit, which isn’t essentially hooked up to the development allow (I’m lumping them in combination as a result of each are contemporary traits relating to Humunga Kowabunga; there can be a nexus between the 2, however there’s no proof of that). That case was once the topic of viral headlines, gaining global consideration of everybody from the mainstream media to overdue evening comedians. There’s an excellent chance you heard concerning the lawsuit, as tales about it incessantly led with the phrases “violent” or “painful wedgie.”
The litigation was once no longer lined right here as a result of I in reality learn the grievance–or began to–and it made me in poor health to my abdomen. In case your best wisdom of this lawsuit is from the “wedgie” headlines or jokes and also you seen this as but some other instance of criminal device run amuck or frivolous litigation for a fast greenback, I’d inspire you to dig a little bit deeper.
The allegations within the grievance are anxious, and no longer what you’d be expecting when listening to “wedgie,” which has a extra lighthearted and juvenile connotation. Right here’s an easy information article with a graphic recap of the incident and aftermath.
This kind of factor is in reality (oddly) commonplace. I noticed some Walt Disney International lovers liken this Humunga Kowabunga lawsuit to the notorious McDonald’s scorching espresso incident, which is in reality a really perfect comparability…however to not make the purpose some concept they have been making. (Right here’s what actually took place within the McDonald’s espresso case, in the event you nonetheless view it as an indictment of our criminal device and unscrupulous plaintiffs.)
Media has this abnormal addiction of turning respectable litigation into catchy headlines or punchlines, and it’s the ones buzzwords or snippets–and no longer the info as conclusively established–that finally end up sticking. (The similar factor occurs with the misrepresentation of medical research for inexpensive laughs or lighthearted tales; if you get started seeing this kind of factor, it’s tricky to unsee.)
There’s additionally an abnormal tendency to vilify plaintiffs, assuming they’re ambulance chasers or taking a look to make a handy guide a rough greenback. That is most likely an issue of convenience; assuming different persons are at fault for the issues that occur to them, versus sufferers, way the similar factor wouldn’t occur to you.
There are abuses of the criminal device, to make certain, however I don’t agree that people have an excessive amount of energy in The us’s criminal device, and companies too little. And whilst reform can be advisable, as it could with nearly any device, some proposed answers are reductionist and overly simplistic, and fail to account for myriad unintentional penalties. (There’s additionally an inclination to view complicated methods as simple and simply fixable, when they’re the rest however. See additionally, Chesterton’s Fence.) However I’ll spare you the remainder of that specific soapbox.
Anyway, the Humunga Kowabunga case was once voluntarily brushed aside with prejudice through the plaintiff after two years of litigation. A couple of issues are price stating right here. First, that this was once no longer “thrown out” through the pass judgement on. A voluntary dismissal, particularly one with prejudice, might be indicative of a agreement (however is no longer conclusive of 1).
2nd, the case advanced beautiful a ways throughout the criminal device over the previous few years, suggesting it was once no longer frivolous. If it have been, Disney most probably would’ve been ready to have it summarily disbursed with. As a substitute, the litigation went to (failed) court-ordered mediation and was once slated to continue to trial. That most often does no longer occur in a case wholly with out benefit. (This isn’t to mention the plaintiff or Disney would’ve prevailed, or to apportion blame–simply that the case most likely was once no longer frivolous.)
In any case, Disney closed all through discovery that two different ladies sustained identical accidents inside of one month of each other in 2017. After all, hundreds of alternative visitors skilled Humunga Kowabunga with out incident over the past a number of a long time, but it surely nonetheless reinforces the perception that severe accidents are or have been conceivable at the water slide.
All of this brings us to January 2026, when Walt Disney International filed a new building allow the previous day that means Humunga Kowabunga water slide at Hurricane Lagoon is being repaired, changed or rebuilt.
The allow particularly names Humunga Kowabunga in conjunction with the deal with, with the scope of labor as “common building.” The attempted and true imprecise catch-all description that’s mainly code for “we don’t wish to say what, precisely, we’re doing.”
The allow is assigned to ProSlide Generation, Inc as contractor. ProSlide touts itself as the sector’s main water slide producer, supplying high-performance water rides and sights to new and increasing water parks around the globe.
In line with the corporate, ProSlide has led the marketplace in water experience innovation and era–and pioneered just about each main water experience innovation within the trade for the previous 35 years.
ProSlide has over 100 awards and recognitions, together with 16 IAAPA Highest New Water Journey awards within the remaining 19 years–5 occasions greater than all different producers mixed–and four IAAPA IMPACT Awards.
ProSlide has labored with Walt Disney International numerous occasions up to now. Their claims above don’t seem to be advertising and marketing puffery. It sounds as if that almost each water slide and experience at Walt Disney International has ProSlide because the producer (except for the defunct River Nation), and that incorporates Humunga Kowabunga. Right here’s additional studying for many who are curious (it’s attention-grabbing!).
It sort of feels not going that ProSlide can be concerned if this have been simply regimen upkeep and maintenance. Similar to different contemporary ‘thriller’ allows involving giant identify contractors (similar to this one for Tree of Lifestyles assigned to Whiting-Turner), Disney wouldn’t faucet a ProSlide to finish that form of venture–it’s beneath their pay grade, to be able to discuss.
On the similar time, it is usually notable that this allow was once filed through the Facility Asset Control group inside of Walt Disney International, versus Walt Disney Imagineering. That difference could also be essential. FAM most often simply handles tasks to increase the lifetime of an asset, while an Imagineering-led venture is ingenious on the core, leading to substantive adjustments. Which means that if this have been a alternative, it could contain Imagineering as a substitute of FAM.
There’s additionally the timeline for the venture. Even if dates have no longer been introduced and the allow accommodates the usual twelve months default expiration, we will most probably slender the ones dates a little bit additional: February 15 to Would possibly 26, 2026. That’s when Hurricane Lagoon might be closed for its seasonal refurbishment, and it’s most probably the venture might be achieved all through that window.
In the long run, the totality of these items suggests to us that Humunga Kowabunga is being rebuilt versus changed outright with a brand new appeal or just being maintained or repaired. A alternative can be difficult all through that restricted time-frame, particularly with the appeal being built-in into the rockwork of Hurricane Lagoon. However it could be conceivable to rebuild the appeal within the present footprint, probably with probably the most inventions ProSlide boasts about that they’ve made over the past couple a long time.
Whether or not this has the rest to do with the brushed aside litigation is any individual’s bet–we’ll by no means know a technique or some other. It can be a topic of Disney in need of to err at the aspect of warning, modernizing and mitigating problems to the level conceivable (even if it’s laborious to mention what that extent even is when preventing wanting changing the slide).
If there have been severe issues and criminal publicity that got here to gentle when the lawsuit was once filed, I’d believe that Disney’s criminal group would’ve close down Humunga Kowabunga proper then and there, no longer waited for solution. After all, it’ll be attention-grabbing to peer whether or not there are any noticeable adjustments to the water slide when it reopens in Summer time 2026. Keep tuned!
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Your Ideas
Ideas at the building allow filed through Walt Disney International for Humunga Kowabunga? Be expecting this to be a easy restore or rebuild, or are you continue to making a bet on entire alternative of the water slide? Do you know the overall tale of the viral “violent wedgie” lawsuit, or had you best heard the punchline model? Agree or disagree with our remark? Any questions? Listening to your comments—even whilst you disagree with us—is each attention-grabbing to us and useful to different readers, so please proportion your ideas beneath within the feedback!
