SheiKra was the first Dive Coaster to be constructed in North America; its track includes a splashdown and an Immelmann loop, both a first for its kind.

Mark Rose, vice-president of design and engineering at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, proposed a roller coaster that would be 160 feet (49 m) tall; the experience would be "like riding a barrel over Niagara Falls...straight down into water.

[13] A month later, Tiki masks with quotes relating to the project were placed on the construction walls, including: "I'm a bird with no feathers, a beast with no equal, a fall that never hits the ground.

[11][14] On October 20, 2004, SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment (owner of Busch Gardens Tampa Bay)[15] filed a trademark for the name "SheiKra".

[16] A week later, Busch Gardens Tampa Bay announced SheiKra, North America's first Dive Coaster, as part of a deal with Bolliger & Mabillard.

[5][7] After Busch Gardens Tampa Bay announced SheiKra, the park contracted with Bolliger & Mabillard so that the layout of the roller coaster could not be reproduced for several years.

[20] In 2009, after the deal expired, Happy Valley Shanghai built an identical copy of SheiKra called Diving Coaster.

[28][29][30] In late April 2007, a month before the temporary closure of the ride, Busch Gardens Tampa Bay placed billboards along Interstate 275 and advertisements in newspapers announcing that SheiKra's floors would soon be removed.

Sheikra (w/ floor)..."[31] Callers to a telephone number on the billboards would hear a recorded female voice saying, "Hi, doll face", "it's been a fun ride", and "one last fling-a-ding".

[31] On April 24, 2007, during the park's High School Journalism Day, Busch Gardens Tampa Bay unveiled the first floorless train for the roller coaster.

[30] On January 7, 2013, the roller coaster temporarily closed so it could be completely repainted in its original colors; it reopened on February 16, 2013.

Then, the train enters a 145-foot (44 m) Immelmann loop before making a banked, upward, 3.5 g left turn into the mid course brake run.

Next, the train makes a right overbanked turn leading into a splashdown that sprays two 60-foot (18 m) lines of water in the air[6][41] and takes approximately 1.9 seconds to pass through.

[1] The train rises, makes a downward right turn, then enters the final brake run that leads directly back to the station.

The ride is equipped with an eight-passenger elevator that can return riders to ground level if a train must be evacuated while on the lift hill.

He wrote that the attraction was "underwhelming" and "didn't live up to the hype" due to the ride's short length and the lack of special elements.

[60] In a 2005 article, Cridlin mostly praised the 90-degree drop and wrote that, "Despite its sheer size and dominance of the Busch Gardens landscape ...  the coaster likely will still inspire debate among park visitors.

"[54] Eric Michael from Orlando Sentinel wrote, "The 200-foot monster, Florida's tallest, wins my vote for best drop, straight down at 90-degrees, and most shameless tease (riders hang at the top for a few seconds)".