For both of them, Holiday Park in Haßloch has been a milestone in their career.  The "King of Roller Coasters", Richard Rodriguez, and Waterski Director Gary Thompson.

Haßloch/Palatinate.   For twenty years now, two men from the United States of America have been connected with Holiday Park in the Palatinate town of Haßloch.   Gary Thompson was the first waterski director at the first Waterski Show in 1983.  This year, he and his troupe celebrated their 20-season jubilee with the show "Aqua Angels" in Holiday Parks Aqua Stadium.   Richard Rodriguez set his 14th world record in roller coaster riding this year.

But let's start with Gary Thompson.  Today, he is the boss of the only professional waterski show in Europe at Holiday Park.  No other show in Europe has thrilled so many people and celebrated more success over the years.  Over 20 million people were as fascinated as they were amazed by the sensational skills of the sportsmen and women on the park's 30,000 square metre lake.  What has been conspicuous over the years is that the athletes do not only thrill the audiences with their sporting performance, their acting skills, gestures and mimicry are equally outstanding.   The man behind this is Gary Thompson, who designs the shows with professional choreographers and selects the players from a large number of applicants.

Over the last 20 years, over 400 athletes from the US, Canada, Turkey, the UK, France, Australia, Netherlands, Trinidad, Tobago, South Africa and Germany have reaped standing ovations and frenetic applause from the crowds in the Aqua Stadium.

Richard Rodriguez, the "King of Roller Coasters", set a new world record on 3 September this year in the first mega coaster marathon.  In doing so, the man from Chicago celebrated the crowning glory of his roller coaster career at Holiday Park.  After 104 days, he stepped out of the mega coaster "Expedition GeForce", a roller coaster with the steepest drop in the world (82 degrees) with a simultaneous twist of 74 degrees.  The highest point of this steel giant is 62 metres above the ground and although the man who built it, Werner Stengel, only gave the university lecturer 10 days, he just kept on riding for an incredible 104 days.  Overall, he covered a total distance of 28,912 kilometres in 1,112 hours and 22,240 circuits in one of the cars.  That is the equivalent of the distance from Frankfurt to Perth in Australia via Bangkok and back again.  The great media presence during and after his ride is fitting testimony to this tremendous success.

Rodriguez had already set a world record on Holiday Park's corkscrew roller coaster "Super Whirl" back in 1982, when he rode the bright yellow coaster for 16 days and nights.  Only recently, the two men met for the first time in person in Haßloch - and got on like a house on fire right from the start.  Both of them agreed that Holiday Park has played a very major role in their lives.

Park Director Wolfgang Schneider was visibly moved and thrilled to welcome the two of them to a friendly meeting in the Park: "I am delighted that Gary and Richard keep coming back to Haßloch, because it shows what good connections they have to Holiday Park.  That this just happens to be now, when both of them have been associated with us for exactly 20 years, is a beautiful experience for us, because friendships that last for over two decades are unusual in this line of business.  For this reason, we can include the two of them in the list of Holiday Park legends".

Holiday Park closed for the winter on 3 November.  It will open its gates again to welcome visitors to the 2003 season on Saturday, 5 April 2003.