Grunt, Ive read alot of your post and I feel for you. Grunt you seem like a honest and consiousness person. Im a christian, not always the best, as you can tell by some of my post.lol but, Ill be praying for you.
Anyhow, I had a similar experience. When I was 19(1984) I worked as a life guard at a place called Lake Delores in Newberry Springs, California located in the Mojave(J pronouced as an H) desert. I grew up out there in the desert. I loved it. Tho I reside in Virgina, my heart will always be in the desert. Oh Boy, Im getting side track here folks. new paragraph needed.
Lake Delores, was an old school type of water park. All the slides were galvanized steel, none of this fiberglass sh*it. LOL All the people down in the beach areas would come up to this place and party, ride the slides and camp. It was crazy. Booze and water as you know dont mix. I have to tell you about a couple of the rides. One slide you actually stood up going down, kind of like a slip and slide, that was a 150 ft long with sides on it to run your hands along to keep balanced. Your speed would vary between 20 and 25 miles an hour (depending on weight), it had a roughly 30 to 40 degee sloop. It was wild and fun. Then there was the tram, it consisted of a 150 ft of cable that was held by two telephone poles. The cable was about 25 ft off the ground as it reached the top of the hill it would obviously get closer to the ground. There was 2 little steel wheels that rode along the to top of the cable and connected to them was a wood handle, thats what you held onto, no safety stuff. A garden hose was attached to the tram and hung down in the water. The rider had to grab the hose,swim across the lake,walk up the hot dirt mtn, get on the platform at the top and ride down. Well this is where the lawsuit came into play, this over weight, lets just say overly healthy lady wanted to ride the tram, I said OK, but make sure you can hold your own weight, because when you start off theres no water underneath you, if you fall your SOL. Guess what folks,see didnt make it, she fell while still over the ground,her big 200 plus pound body went tumbling end over end, down the mtn. She finished rolling 2 feet from the water. Im remember running up to her and one of the first words that came out of her mouth was,"My left leg is broke, and dont worry Im not going to sue."
Fast forward, A few years later, Im in Virgina and I get a call, Guess who it is? A Lawyer representing the lake, the Lady decided to sue. A Long story short, they paid for all my expenses, flight,hotel,food and transportation. They just wanted to get my deposition(teletype court reading). It was kind of like a 4 day vacation, beside the one day I had to give the deposition. I never new what ever became of the whole thing, I felt bad for the owners of the lake. Very good people. They had you sign a wavier, before you went into the lake, but I dont know how much that really matters.
Sorry for going so long Grunt. Hang Tuff, stay cool and everything will be allright. ( :