Sea World, June 2013

Parkz ventures to Sea World on a particularly wet day to check out construction of Storm Coaster as it starts to tower over the park.

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Great work, as usual

Storm Coaster now edges out Sea Viper as the tallest ride in the park.

Edges out - as in 'exceeds' ? I thought Viper had a 'relaxation' on the height limit on the spit because it was pre-existing - does storm actually go higher than that? Is there a relaxation required for this? What is the spit height limit, and what are the heights of the two respective coasters?

(yes I know what RCDB would say - but this is usually based on a model type - whether the footings are all 'at sea level' would make a difference though, compared to whether it was elevated - in terms of the spit height limit...

Edges out - as in 'exceeds' ? I thought Viper had a 'relaxation' on the height limit on the spit because it was pre-existing - does storm actually go higher than that? Is there a relaxation required for this? What is the spit height limit, and what are the heights of the two respective coasters?

(yes I know what RCDB would say - but this is usually based on a model type - whether the footings are all 'at sea level' would make a difference though, compared to whether it was elevated - in terms of the spit height limit...

I have done a bit of digging. According to this Council document from 2004, the height limit imposed on Sea World is 3 storeys. According to RCDB, Sea Viper and Skatteøen (the water coaster that the Storm Coaster seems to be based off) both have heights of 28m. Now, no matter what way you measure it (either from sea level or coaster model), 28m would exceed 3 storeys so they must've got some sort of approval to exceed this limit.

Visually from across the Broadwater, Storm Coaster does look a bit bigger than Sea Viper (but that of course could just be perspective).