36 THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINE • Early Summer 2018 TheCoastalBend.com from IH-35 by motorists traveling between San Antonio and Austin. The park was an instant hit and it brought a never before seen level of economic activity to New Braunfels. Before long, tubing on the Comal exploded in popularity; an outlet shop- ping mall was under construction; the German village of Gruene became a tourist hot spot, and; Schlitterbahn more than tripled in size, adding a giant wave pool, new slides, a lazy river, and hotel and cabin accommodations on dozens of newly acquired acres. All the while, Henry & Sons Construction and Jeff in particular were earning a reputation as the most innovative, imaginative, and successful water ride inventors in the world. Rival Wet-n-Wild owner George Millay, an industry stalwart whose old- school, hard-nosed style was the antithesis of Jeff Henry’s self-described country- boy hippie demeanor, had hired Henry to implement foam landing surfaces in his parks in an effort to reduce guest injuries and complaints. As Schlitterbahn grew in notoriety and popularity, its innovative new rides and slides became desired prop- erty for waterpark competitors and non-competitors alike. Through the 1990’s, as Jeff Henry grew his portfolio of patents to over 60, his rides and “Transportainment” systems appeared in parks throughout the United States and around the world. Be- fore Verrückt, the world’s tallest water ride was located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and it was designed and built by Jeff Henry. Atlantis Dubai is considered one of the world’s most luxurious and beautifully designed ocean front resorts, and its water- park, Aquaventure, also designed and built by Henry, is enjoyed by elite jet setters and their children. Without a doubt, Jeff Henry is considered the Steve Jobs of the waterpark world. While Henry’s down-home, blue collar hero style and demeanor are the oppo- site of the black-on-black turtleneck effect, so too was his warm openness to park guests and their kids. Almost always engaging and hospitable, Henry was known to act directly on the advice and complaints of guests he encountered at his parks, fix- ing this or changing that if his patrons were not fully pleased. While in work mode, Henry carried a large sketch book that housed ideas, plans and schedules and where his thoughts would manifest into action. He kept an ongoing note of how many days he expected to have left on this earth, as a constant reminder of how little time he had left to accomplish his increasingly lofty aspirations. In one sitting, he showed this writer and his son, over a rapid fire 45-minute glass of iced tea, CAD drawings for the next (after Verrückt) world’s tallest water ride, this time to be built personally for the Sultan of Dubai, who hired him to build Aquaventure. In the same conversation, more of a presentation really, Henry drew as he explained his plan for an offshore, floating casino complex in the Gulf of Mexico, to be fabricated out of 90 retired drilling platforms that he was already collecting at a boat yard up the Texas coast. More than driven to prove his talent and techni- cal acumen, Henry’s aspirations were inspired by his desire to make his mark as an entertainer and to leave a legacy that would be celebrated long after those days he counted ran out. Even the most bitter Jeff Henry critic cannot legitimately question his achieve- ments in the waterpark industry, over a 40-year career that has taken his innova- tions into virtually every waterpark, and almost every large-scale water ride on the face of the earth. Sadly, however, Henry’s rush to deliver Verrückt to a hungry audi- ence of reality TV producers, and the tragic events of August 7, 2016, may render his ultimate legacy to one of disgrace marred by a thirst for self-aggrandizement, and disregard for human life, including that of an innocent 10-year-old. Verrückt G erman for “insane,” a name that befit an attraction so extremely frightening, so extremely thrilling and so extremely dangerous, that the producers of a show like Travel Channel’s Xtreme Wa- terparks series could not invent a more thrilling plot line: the world’s top water ride guru frantically at work to top his own world record for the tallest and fastest water slide on earth. Alas, Verrückt was born. In the fall of 2012, with Travel Channel producers and a cam- era crew along to chronicle it all, Jeff Henry and his design partner, John Schooley, led the Henry & Sons team into a history-making project that was set for completion in seven short months, in time for the 2013 summer season at Schlitterbahn Kansas City. According to internal email quoted in the March 2018 indictment handed down by a grand jury in Wyandotte County, Kansas, Jeff Henry wrote to his design team: “We all need to circle on this. I must communicate reality to all. Time is of the essence. No time to die. —J,” and, “I have to micro manage this. NOW. This is a designed product for TV, absolutely cannot be anything else. Speed is 100% required. A floor a day. Tough schedule. —J” —Jeff Henry, December 14, 2012 The law enforcement investigation into the Verrückt design process revealed that none of the standard industry practices were followed. It would be expected that before one endeavors to launch rafts occupied by live humans off a 17-story perch, that is 168 feet, 7 inches—higher than Niagara Falls and the Statue of Lib- erty—that one would make great effort to ensure the physical viability and safety of the ride. That process would include both structural and dynamic engineering mod- els from which the final structure would be designed and constructed. Such studies reveal how far the envelope can be pushed in pursuit of the desired experience, and especially what risk to human life is embedded within any given design concept. According to the indictment, Henry brought in a third party to produce the structural engineering for the ride, but dynamic engineering (the physics a rider will LefttoRight: Original Schlitterbahn that opened in 1979 in New Braunfels; Schlitterbahn’s first Lazy River feature; AquaventureWaterpark, built by Jeff Henry at Atlantis Dubai luxury resort.