Grand Opening 1990
With the opening of Universal Studios Florida in 1990, the company had a public relations nightmare on its hands.
Some of the most highly-touted rides -- Kongfrontation, Earthquake and JAWS weren't ready.
The original JAWS ride design kept having major problems and after a few months, Universal closed it, blaming mechanical
difficulties.
Peter Alexander a former college roommate of Steven Spielberg's created the original ride and the initial concept for the
redo. From an exclusive interview with AmityIsland.net, Peter gives us an insight into how the ride originally came about:
"Originally, I wanted to make Jaws just one scene in a longer water ride, but my boss, Jay Stein, figured the movie was worth
a whole ride (I actually had Bill Martin, who designed the castles for Disneyland and Disneyworld, lay out my longer water
ride).
So I came up with an 'all Jaws' design, including the 'shark bites boat' scene. I asked my friend Tom Reidenbach to lay out
the action for what went on inside the boathouse (which is still the same today). At first, like most of the rides we did,
the design was only represented by me telling the story-line (live) and a bunch of story boards. Later I had two guys named
Rick and Rick write the script (it was my live "pitch" word for word) and they went on to become theme park designers just
based on that... or maybe based on a little elaboration of their actual role.
As the design progressed, we designed the set in-house, and then had 'Ride and Show Engineering' build the sharks and ride,
but they mis-speced some of the underwater parts and the ride proved unreliable.
After we opened, everything else seemed like such a big hit that we felt we didn't need to re-engineer the 'shark bites boat'
or 'meat machine' to make them more reliable, so I came up with the simpler 'Shark bites wire, catches fire' bit.
After that, I left Universal and a guy named Adam Bezark took it from there."
 Show Director Adam Bezark continues our story:
"I was brought in during the production phase, after the new sharks/boats had been designed and were already in construction.
My role was to bring the whole thing together: fine-tune the script, program the boats and sharks, work out the effects timings
and lighting, oversee the new soundtrack and train the performers, etc.
One of my favourite tasks was to program the fire sequence. I sat in a rowboat which was anchored in the spot where the show
boats would go. Ron Griffin, the fire effects guy, sat in the control room behind the dock, setting off the sequence again
and again, while we adjusted the height and duration of the flames. I wanted to make it intense and scary, but not dangerous;
so I kept making Ron turn the fire up higher and higher. When it got to the point where the heat was actually painful, we
dialled it back just a bit. So the impact on the audience was amazing: some people thought they were actually getting burned,
but I knew from personal experience that it was safe, even for prolonged exposure. (Of course, some people with sunburns are
more sensitive to heat, so they might be more uncomfortable.)
I also spent many happy (and long) nights in the JAWS lagoon, programming the complex passenger boats with technical sorcerer
Marc Plogstedt. A show control system regulates their speed precisely, and provides the rolling effects that (hopefully)
feel like they're being created by the shark swimming by or under the boat. Programming the boats was an incredibly tedious
process; there was no way to back the boats up, so if we wanted to change a roll effect in, say, scene one, we'd have to
ride the entire six-minute ride all the way around the lagoon before we could see the results of the change. This meant
literally hundreds of cycles, always taking place in the dead of night (so the other crews could work during the day.) Marc
and I were alone in the programming boat, slowly losing our marbles."
The shark is seen 7 times during the ride, 5 times on the left and 2 times on the right.
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Ride Description 1990
Welcome aboard Tours 1 our skipper talks us through the safety features on the boat, he carries an APC 14 Grenade Launcher
for our protection however there should be no use for that today "they assure us its smooth sailing". We clear the dock
passing Amity houses on our left and the ORCA outside Quint's Boathouse on our right. We hear a radio transmission from
'Tours 3' to Amity Base, what was a normal call back to base turns into an SOS for help "please help, mayday".
We turn the corner around the lighthouse and to our left is 'Tours 3' sinking. There’s nothing in the water, no survivors,
nothing. Amity base control notifies Chief Brody as a shark's fin rises from behind the sinking boat "we got a 25ft
great white out here base", the shark passes under us rocking the boat; the shark fin is now seen along the right hand
side of the boat, the skipper takes a few pot shots with the grenade launcher but misses. He now radios in for help, Chief
Brody advises we go wait in Jay's boathouse. We stop before entering, the skipper shouts out “Jay open the doors!” The doors
open and we enter, the skipper try’s to reassure us that "maybe we'll be safe in here". A loud crash is heard as the shark
breaks threw and side swipes the boat.
We exit Jay's boathouse narrowly escaping the jaws of the shark. The skipper radios in to base "Jay's was no good", base
replies with the chief should be there in 10 minutes; "but we'll be shark bait in 10 minutes!" The skipper tells everybody
to keep an eye out for the shark, the boat rocks and the shark rises up from the left repeatedly biting the front left corner
of the boat while tugging and pulling us counter clockwise about 90 degrees, the shark looses its grip and sinks back in. The
skipper manages to steer us back on course and we still continue on, the shark then appears again on the right hand side
disappearing into the deep.
We are now approaching where the electric barge would be, the fin comes up for the final time like it does in today's
version, the skipper tells us he only has "one shot left folks" as the shark approaches, it rises up the to the boat mouth
wide open. "Smile" the skipper launches a grenade round into the shark's mouth, it then disappears under the boat; the
skipper questions "did I get him?" Then boom, a mortar of blood red water and shark chunks blasts up from the other side
of the boat. Amity base control radios us "Tours 1 Captain Quint and Chief Brody are reporting to your position"
The skipper replies with "do me a favour, radio the chief and tell him I’ve solved our shark problem. I'm taking the rest of
the day off!"
The 1990 version sharks moved like the real thing, their tail fins dashed from left to right.
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Ride Complications 1991
In 1991, Universal were planning on spending big bucks to have the ride fixed for the 1992 season and had lots of signs
on the ride building that said so (coming 1992). But in 1992, the ride was boarded up and had no signs what-so-ever.
The ride was deemed totally un-usable and the design was completely flawed. Universal had successfully sued the company
that has designed the ride and was spending the money to hire another company to build it again.
The technical complication of the shark attacking the boat was a big factor in why the ride eventually was shut down and
re-designed... "You can imagine how complex it must be to get one giant mechanical watercraft to swim up and bite another
giant mechanical watercraft -- which is MOVING -- with absolute precision, hundreds of times per day." Said Show Director
Adam Bezark.
The only tracks and such were scrapped and the ride was recreated all over again, while trying to use the same layout and
some of the same sets and gimmicks when applicable. Between the original construction and that overhaul, Universal may have
spent US$70 million (approx. £34.5 million), outside industry sources estimated.
The second version had a soft opening in September 1993; Roy Scheider and Lorraine Gray were there to officially open the
ride in 1994.
Second Version (1994-present)
In this version the death of the shark is based on JAWS 2 (electrocution), originally the 1990 version had a demise similar
to the story line of JAWS (explosion). The ride takes place in 1976 two years after the shark attacks, you board an Amity Boat
Tours vessel... "Hello folks. I'll be your skipper today as we visit the actual spots where back in 1974 that bad old
shark Jaws, devoured those poor innocent islanders".
The ORCA was originally docked outside Quint's Boathouse in the first version; Quint's Boathouse is now called 'Stevens
Cannery' and was named after Greg Stevens, one of the member's of the 1993 show team. Several of the team have their names
worked into the ride. The second version had the ORCA moved outside 'The Boathouse' originally 'Jay's Boathouse' in the
first version, confusing? This is the boathouse that you travel through to hide from the shark.
While the ORCA works reasonably well as a background atmosphere piece, it is also mostly inaccurate and very small.
According to the website Operation Orca (site dedicated to rebuilding the orca), the boat was based on an existing hull
but was treated to differing levels of refitment. The photo animation on the left shows Quint's Boathouse as it looked in
1990 compared with how it looks today.
In September 2005, JAWS went down to "seasonal" status, operating only during busy weeks. This was due to the rising costs
of fuel and the attraction uses alot of gas for fire effects.
Universal reopened the attraction on February 4th 2007 due to numerous complaints of its part time closure. A complete
closure would be devasting to the park, it's valuable to Universal because its capacity, reported at 2,500 people an hour;
that's phenomenal by thrill-ride standards. A typical major ride at most theme parks would do well to handle 1,800 people an
hour.
For the reopening the ride has been improved, the queue has been cleaned, the boats have been repainted, the sharks now
thrash around and have been bloodied up and repainted to make them feel much more realistic. However the fire effects have
been reduced.
Nearly 2,000 miles of wire and over 1,140 feet of track run throughout the 5 million gallon, 7 acre lagoon.
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Shark Skins
In 1992 when Universal Studios started the task of redesigning the ride they hired a company called Kinetix to work on the
shark skins. The skins were made of latex, sprayed in many layers onto the inside of a giant fibreglass mold. The skins were
about 1/2 an inch thick and were literally pulled over the hydraulic steel shark mechanisms, the teeth were painted urethane.
Painter Luke Sawh talks to AmityIsland.net about the project: "My painting was done under the art direction of Lee Nestler, a freelance
art director who worked for Universal at that time. There were some technical problems initially with the interaction of
the skins with the mechanism. Some skins were destroyed during the testing phase. I painted approximately 7 flexible skins
as well as some of the smaller fibreglass sharks that are seen from a distance on the ride. The 'Dead Shark' required the
most amount of work due to the level of detail depicting its demise. The texturing effects were done using fibreglass and
body filler materials."
The photo above focusing on the gill area is a workshop shot showing one of the skins that Luke painted. The gills
were eventually removed from the big shark sculpt as they proved to be a weakness on the skin. The hydraulic mechanisms
were tearing the skins in these areas, so on all subsequent skins Luke painted the gills onto a smooth surface.
The photo to the left shows how the skins are attached to the steel sharks. Below is a photo of an upper teeth set that Luke
painted. This was one of many sets that he worked on. "As far as I know, the original set was produced at Universal,
CA. The teeth from the original sculpt were molded from actual sharks teeth. Probably a prehistoric shark as the teeth
measured over 3 inches long without the root."
Queue
The attraction queue was designed to hold up to 1000 people for 90 minutes, as you walk through the queue you pass props
from the movie JAWS, such as chief Brody's jacket and Quint's fishing rod. You also pass two boats which were used in the
movie JAWS The Revenge: 'Neptune's Folly' and 'Amity Police Boat'. You can get a better view of the two boats from the exit
of the attraction.
The queue video is a made up broadcast of WJWS Channel 13, a local Amity television channel. It's always airing an episode
of "Hey There Amity", a magazine news show commemorating the 1974 shark attacks. It also features ads for other programming
on the network and local businesses in Amity as if it was a real station. The whole video is 45 minutes and it runs off of a
laserdisc in one of the houses on the island.
Advertisements for Captain Jake's Amity Boat Tours featured on the video show aspects of the ride as they were in 1990 that
have since changed, including the skippers wearing white hats (now skippers have the option of wearing a blue denim bucket
hat, though most choose not to) and boats having curved canopies (which are now flat).
Below are three clips from the queue video showing the adverts for Amity Boat Tours with Captain Jake and his mate Chompy the
Great White Shark. Some bits are quite humourous. Enjoy! Thanks to 'One for the Chum Barrels' for getting these.
Amity Boat Tours Clip 1
5.73MB .wmv
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Amity Boat Tours Clip 2
5.53MB .wmv
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Amity Boat Tours Clip 3
4.60MB .wmv
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