SeaWorld San Diego goes for another coaster in 2019

October 9, 2018, 2:26 PM · One year after opening Electric Eel, just its third roller coaster, SeaWorld San Diego will expand its coaster count again in 2019, with the opening of Tidal Twister next year.

The park uploaded a page for the new ride to its website today, along with a hype video to YouTube.

Tidal Twister will be a Skywarp Horizon ride from Skyline Attractions. SeaWorld is promoting this as a first of its kind installation, but the ride will be a sibling of Harley Quinn Crazy Coaster at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, upstate in the Bay Area, if you're looking for a reference point. That's a "regular" Skywarp model — the difference being that the Horizon is kind of a Skywarp that's been dropped on its side.

Two trains will duel on a figure eight track, which will have a maximum height of just 30 feet, to comply with the restrictions of the California Coastal Commission. (Manta also tops at 30 feet above grade. The much taller Electric Eel was built farther back from the Mission Bay coastline.) The ride will feature a launch to 30 mph and a zero-G roll at the top of the track.

Replies (14)

October 9, 2018 at 7:20 PM

that look hot, bring it to idrive

October 10, 2018 at 1:22 AM

I got a chance to Harley Quinn Crazy Coaster last month, and sadly I'd probably rank it as the worst thrill coaster on the west coast (if you can even call it a coaster...I don't). It was very rough, lacked any force, and just wasn't particularly exciting, though the concept isn't bad. Unfortunately, due to that I can't really get excited about this ride. That said, I'll remain cautiously optimistic that Skyline has sorted out the problems and will deliver a much better product this time. If this ride is smooth and has some thrill to it, the ride will be a solid addition to SeaWorld San Diego. If not, well...hopefully SeaWorld will keep their receipt.

October 10, 2018 at 2:18 AM

i think its bizarre they can't build higher but the the hyatt regency on the mission bay front towers over the area and is a very ugly building..I went to Seaworld San Diego last year while on holiday from the uk and loved it..

October 10, 2018 at 2:22 AM

If you're going to add a crappy carnival ride that's fine, but these parks who do this and advertise it as a big new coaster is getting really annoying.

I remember when Shockwave opened at SFGAm. It was the worlds tallest & fastest coaster, had 7 inversions which was unheard of at that time, and dominated the entrance of the park. It scared the sh*t out of everybody as they drove up to the park.
Then here we are 30 YEARS LATER and SFGAm is advertising they are building the "worlds tallest loop coaster" and it's a sh*tty carnival ride no one likes or asked for. These promotional campaigns assume people are stupid and in the age of social media it makes no sense at all.

October 10, 2018 at 2:57 AM

A marine life park building roller coasters - Sea World has lost it's identity.

October 10, 2018 at 6:23 AM

World's tallest, longest, fastest, first, only .. it is getting a bit old at this point.

When is Sea World going to realize that adding bargain bin rides or VR overlays just to have something "new" is not going to overcome their constant cuts that are destroying the guest experience. Oh, I know … they can always add yet ANOTHER event to the calendar with sampler lanyards!

October 10, 2018 at 7:07 AM

"Then here we are 30 YEARS LATER and SFGAm is advertising they are building the "worlds tallest loop coaster" and it's a sh*tty carnival ride no one likes or asked for."

Since when is a custom-designed roller coaster a "sh*tty carnival ride"? I'm not aware of any carnival on planet Earth that has a pneumatic launch full-circuit coaster.

October 10, 2018 at 8:25 AM

Maybe this one will work. I was invited to at least 4 press events for Harley Quinn, all of which were quickly cancelled. Closest I've gotten to riding was having it go down just before I boarded. Put it this way. That morning HQ and The Joker, which has been around a couple of years, opened late. Everyone that waited was at Joker, no one at HQ. Maybe Friday I get on, although most reports I've heard are like AJ, so perhaps it's better if it's down.

October 10, 2018 at 8:28 AM

Sorry I should have clarified the worlds tallest loop coaster was the larson loop.

October 10, 2018 at 9:31 AM

Gotcha the_man. SFGAm is marketing Maxx Force as having the world's tallest double inversion, so I thought you were referring to that, and not Mardi Gras Hangover.

October 10, 2018 at 10:20 AM

Better than nothing, but I’d rather wait for a ‘real’ coaster. Also, I dont know if its just me, but I dont understand why a park needs two similar coasters like this. They already have electric eel to fill the forward/backward lcompact aunch type coster, why add something less exciting like this? Add some diversity Sea World! At SFDK for example, it feels so redundant to plop HQ right next to Superman, just save your time and go straight to Superman.

October 10, 2018 at 10:56 AM

SeaWorld is going to stink and it's not the penguins. Barf.

October 10, 2018 at 2:05 PM

Honestly, do these even count as coasters?

October 10, 2018 at 4:57 PM

This ride seems pretty cool, I'm excited. It seems like a fun concept that fits a ride in a relatively small area. What's best is that this ride will replace nothing. In other words nothing was torn down, with the exception of some restrooms, to build this ride.

Can't wait to visit Sea World San Diego again!

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