SKI SHOW SET TO BRING SEA WORLD BACK TO THE FUTURE
SEA World’s ski show may be a new attraction for the Gold Coast, but for Showtime FMX director Gary Reid it’s a trip down memory lane.
The head of one of Australia’s leading stunt crews got his start working in Sea World’s Ski Show in the 1990s and is now returning to the park to present the multi-million-dollar Thunder Lake Stunt Show.
Mr Reid said the group had been rehearsing the show for a month and he’d had time to reflect on his history at the park.
“I have some lifelong friends I made here … so as soon as the rumours went around that we’d be here there was a lot of excitement, a lot of phone calls,” he said.
“We have a 20-year-old here and it’s his first time on the water, he stopped yesterday and said, ‘I’ve been dreaming of this for the past 10 years’, since he saw one of the water shows.
“For me that brought back a lot of memories – I was 20 when I started working here.”
The show features water skis, sky skiing and the return of barefoot skiing which was also featured in Sea World’s original stunt shows.
Village Roadshow Theme Parks chief operating officer Bikash Randhawa said it was important for the park to keep coming up with new attractions.
“We’ve made a commitment to refresh the parks as we go along,” he said.
“We get a lot of locals coming here and we want to keep doing something new and fresh ... It’s what the consumer wants and that’s what we’re trying to do.”
The Thunder Lake Stunt Show is expected to begin twice daily shows in time for the April school holidays.