Houston's Six Flags AstroWorld is taking visitors for a spin in 2003 and giving thrillseekers a new form of escape from the summer Texas heat with the introduction of Diablo Falls. Making residence on the footprint of land formerly occupied by the multilooper Texas Tornado (now Zonga of Six Flags Marine World) along with the looping flat ride SWAT, also new for 2003, Diablo Falls joins forces with the near-identical Penguin's Blizzard River of Six Flags America as a fresh type of water attraction from Whitewater West Industries putting a twist on your normal flume-based ride. What draws a line between this water thrillride and its past counterparts is a 669-foot layout through whirling waters specially designed to rotate six-person rafts in a consistant, disorienting motion throughout the two-minute, fourty-one-second ride on Diablo Falls. To add to the roundabout mayhem, once passengers are taking up a 61-foot-high trip to the highest point, three left-hand curves of 540, 360, and 180 degrees follow. After completing 469 feet of alternating yellow, red, and blue flume track, the Falls splash down from a double-down element into a final 200 feet of river leading back into the Spanish-influenced station building. Opening in spring of 2003, Diablo Falls became Six Flags AstroWorld's fourth water ride, following that park's Tidal Wave splashdown, Thunder River whitewater river, and Ozarka Splash log flume.

Unfortunately, Six Flags Astroworld opened for its last season in 2005 and was then shutdown permenantly. The rising debt of Six Flags Inc. forced the company to try to cut the deficit by selling off the valuable real estate that Astroworld called home. Many of the existing rides were packed up and shipped to other Six Flags parks around the United States. The park's two newest rides, Catapult and Splashwater Falls, fortunately both found new homes at Six Flags New England where they reside today.

Six Flags New England guests venture to the back of the park to take on the wild waters of Splashwater Falls. Riders-to-be can either jump right into line of man one of several water blasters to aim at helpless riders coming through DF's final river section. But once through the queue, H20-seekers, get their own chance to get wet. Boarding one of twelve circular rafts seating up to six passengers, the craft begins to move out of the station building and meets up with the lift. The belt lifts the boat up a slope to level at six stories above Mexicana, then sends passengers heading down into Diablo's first roundabout element to the left.

A first double helix starts riders curving as the currents below start doing their spinning duty on the raft, all combining to wind the boat around while disorienting passengers. The flume keeps curving leftwards and under the top layer of the element while the craft continues its spinning disorientation. Curving on down one complete spiral plus another half, the 540-degree first helix wraps up and aims rivergoers back in the direction from where they came, then dive into the second helix, still while spinning in clockwise meyhem. Winding in towards the lift, the track banks around to complete 360 degrees.

Splashwater Falls exits helix number two and then heads down, dipping and leveling twice in the double-down final drop into a splashdown. And if riders aren't wet enough already, the raft is slowly navigated under the ride's exit bridge through a wall of mist is sure to do the trick or the water cannons manned by the guests as passengers round the final U-turn back to the station.