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Ride The New Wave Breaker Roller Coaster At Sea World With Us!

By Julie Akiri June 19, 2017

My family and I were thrilled to be invited by Sea World to ride their newest roller coaster, the Wave Breaker!  The Wave Breaker takes you on a rescue mission where you get to rescue a sea turtle, dolphin or sea lion focusing more on the great work that Sea World does rescuing and rehabilitating sea animals and then releasing back to the wild.  

The Wave Breaker took a few years to design and 7 months to build.  Soaring at heights of 61 feet this ride goes up to 44 miles per hour on jet ski themed cars over the water making the rider feel like they are racing across the ocean to rescue an animal in need but don't worry, you don't get wet.  "This coaster is a unique, first of it's kind experience with a unique riding position that ties in with the rescue story," Mike Denninger V.P. of Theme Park Development.  I love that Wave Breaker encourages children and adults alike that they can make our planet a better place.

When we arrived, I was a little nervous about how my 7 year old would handle this coaster.  She's at that in between age where she doesn't want to go on the big thrill rides and yet, the kiddie rides just don't have enough action for her.  "Mommy look," she said excitedly as we approached the Wave Breaker.  Three words: Jet. Ski. Seats.  That was all it took.  "I want to ride that Mommy!"  She was so excited to sit on a "jet ski."  Wave Breaker took off and went into a tunnel area where they watched a short clip about the animal that was in need of rescue.  Then, blast off, Wave Breaker was launched out of the tunnel area and away they went over the water on their rescue mission.  When Wave Breaker pulled back into the station, both of my kids were all smiles.  My youngest greets me with, "I want to ride again Mommy!"  And they did, 2 more times!  This coaster is a great step up coaster for little ones who are not ready to take on the bigger thrill rides and also for adults who might not want that 70 mph coaster.  Wave Breaker is a great family coaster where moms and dads can ride with their kids and learn more about animal rescue and making this world a better place.

I had the opportunity to talk with Laura Croft, Sr. Veterinarian and Jon Peterson, Manager of Resource Operations at Sea World to get their thoughts on the Wave Breaker Coaster.


What do you think of the new Wave Breaker Coaster and it's ability to bring attention to the animal rescue missions that Sea World facilitates?

Dr. Laura Croft: Wave Breaker is a really neat rescue coaster and it tells the story of what we as rescuers do each and every day.  We're on call 24/7 and when we get a call from a government agency, we drop everything and we'll go out to rescue anything from manatees, dolphins, pilot whales, sea turtles, birds and Sea World in over 50 years has rescued over 30,000 animals so that is more than 1 animal every single day for over 50 years.  So this is a big part of what we do is helping any animal that is injured, orphaned or ill.

Jon Peterson: Here in San Antonio they built this ride to try and let everybody know what it's really like and this ride mimics as close as you can to the thrills of the ups and downs that we go through in rescues.  So when we rescue animals, it's very exciting, it's very fast, it's very quick.  We bring back and rehibiliate, sometimes it slows way down, sometimes we have bad days and all of a sudden we get to return that animal and that is just the thrill ride in itself to watch these animals swim off on their own.  San Antonio {Sea World} works with Texas Marine Mamels Stranding Network along with Sea World Florida along with Sea World California, along with Southeast Stranding Network, and you put all of that together..that is why it's so important to hit the demographic here in San Antonio.  Show you guys what rescue is because I don't think a lot of people know how much Sea World of San Antonio and Texas Marine Mammels Stranding Network work together to rescue these animals.


What advice do you have for children who want to do what you do?  To rescue these animals?

Dr. Laura Croft -  There are little things you can do to help the animals and our planet and those are just picking up the trash whether they're doing beach cleanup or reducing the amount of plastics that are going into the environment.  Maybe forgoing the use of plastic straws or taking a reusable bag to the supermarket so that you're not using plastic bags.  All those things can end up in the ocean.  Stop releasing balloons is another big one.  While it's fun to watch them float up into the air, at some point they are going to come down and if they come down in the ocean, they can create hazards for our animals.  Those are some of the things that necessitate these rescues that we do.


What do I do If I see a Marine Animal in Need:

Jon Peterson - You can call your local regulatory agency - police, fire department, beach patrol and let them what you see.  Stay with the animal but do not try to rescue yourself.  Just wait and we'll get the right people out there to help you.  Sometimes we actually monitor animals for days and weeks before we rescue because rescuing them is our final thing that we want to do.  Sometimes they can heal themselves and everybody will just be out there watching them.  So just call the regulatory, they will help you.  If you're really into apps, get whale 911 app that will allow you to take a picture of the animal.  It will give you the gps hit and will send it directly to the reglatory agence and we'll have real time feeds when we go out to do our rescues."

Dr. Laura Croft - Come to Sea World, it's our guests and their ticket prices that help to fund all of our resues.  That's a big thing that you can do so come out and visit us

Special Offer:

Save up to $35 on a 2 Park Flex Ticket!  Valid for unlimited admission to both SeaWorld & Aquatica, SeaWorld's Waterpark, for 5 consecutive days.  Restrictions apply.  Visit SeaWorldSanAntonio.com for details.