A waterslide amusement course proceeds from a higher elevation to a lower elevation, with a water pooling area to produce fluid drag that slows or stops the riders, especially at the end of the course. The course is divided into lanes at the pooling area, for example by curbs protruding above the water level. Arriving riders displace water from their lanes and the lanes are coupled to permit level-equalizing flow. The pooling area can have a weir, lip, upwardly sloping bottom or similar obstruction forming pools in the lanes. Water can pass through gaps in the curbs, around ends of the curb and preferably flows through a connecting conduit that couples between the lanes at an end wall of a box-like enclosure subdivided by lanes in the pooling area.