In sad, but not entirely unexpected news, Six Flags has bumped the Georgia Surfer, the new Intamin launched “surf” coaster, until 2025. The same day it was also announced that Six Flags Great Adventure was delaying The Flash Vertical Velocity, a Vekoma boomerang. Being already August with construction still ongoing the writing seemed to be on the wall although there was still hope after a Novermber 4th opening of Kid Flash Cosmic Coaster last year. The social media posts from the park read as follows:

“When it comes to delivering fun and safe attractions, we won’t rush the construction process. That means we’re moving the official opening of Georgia Surfer to 2025. Our team is working diligently to address construction and supply challenges, and we appreciate your patience and understanding. We’re confident it will be worth the wait.”

-Six Flags Over Georgia

The press release points to “supply challenges” as the issue and as someone who for their day job works in machinery I can tell you there are still some issues out there. The ride also has an interesting story with rumors about it being bought from a cancelled park in Vietnam at a very good price. Some of the parts were supposedly already delivered to that site and had to be reshipped from Vietnam while others shipped from Intamin. A quick web search will find shipping documents showing parts describes as “Ultra Surf” moving from Ho Chi Minh to Savannah, GA with Six Flags Over Georgia as the notify party. If all this is the true backstory I applaud Six Flags for a shrewd business move and giving us a great new coaster, even if it is slightly delayed! You can check out a great video from Coaster Studios about the speculation around the Georgia Surfer and Flash delays.

Note: Rumors that Georgia Surfer was intended for another park and parts of it came from another country were confirmed be SFOG GM Greg Fuller during a Coaster Fest presentation on 8/17/24!

Ride delays are nothing new in the theme park industry. Iron Gwazi was supposed to open in 2020, but never opened until 2022. Iron Gwazi turned out to be an awesome ride and that SBNO period is now more of an afterthought and a footnote in its history. Hopefully Georgia Surfer will be worth the wait similar to Iron Gwazi at Busch Gardens.

Hopefully Six Flags handles the PR end of this well and takes care of season pass holders similar to how Sea World San Antonio handled a similar issue in 2023. SeaWorld was building the first “launched” flume ride (interestingly also by Intamin) that missed its 2023 opening. However, SeaWorld took care of their pass holders by offering them a free one day 2024 ticket. The premise was that if you bought the 2023 pass in hopes of riding the new for 2023 ride that you should still get to do that in 2024 since the ride was delayed.

This project marks the return of Intamin to Six Flags parks as well as the first launch coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia (well unless you count Viper like me). It looks like one of the most exciting projects of 2024 has become one of the most exciting projects of 2025. Hopefully we see this awesome new addition ready for opening day 2025!

Note: SFOG GM Greg Fuller confirmed the ride would be ready for opening day 2025 during a Coaster Fest presentation on 8/17/24!