Welcome to the first episode of Coaster Redux. My name is Erik and I'm a life-long roller coaster enthusiast, but up until lately, I've been kind of a lazy one. Through high school and college in the late 90's and early 2000's, I was a full-on coaster nerd, then I entered the working world and went on a lengthy hiatus, only visiting parks every few years. During the pandemic, I got back into following the theme park industry, and I'm about to head out on a week-long road trip to experience some of the most elite roller coasters in America. This is going to be a different kind of roller coaster podcast. It’s part trip report, part on-ride experience, part ride review, and all storytelling. In this episode, I tell the story of how I became a roller coaster enthusiast to set the stage for that epic road trip.
Superman sound effect credit: Coaster Thrills - YouTube
If you enjoyed this episode, please help me out by rating, sharing, and subscribing. You can also follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @coasterredux.
Welcome to the first episode of Coaster Redux. My name is Erik and I'm a life-long roller coaster enthusiast, but up until lately, I've been kind of a lazy one. Through high school and college in the late 90's and early 2000's, I was a full-on coaster nerd, then I entered the working world and went on a lengthy hiatus, only visiting parks every few years. During the pandemic, I got back into following the theme park industry, and I'm about to head out on a week-long road trip to experience some of the most elite roller coasters in America. This is going to be a different kind of roller coaster podcast. It’s part trip report, part on-ride experience, part ride review, and all storytelling. In this episode, I tell the story of how I became a roller coaster enthusiast to set the stage for that epic road trip.
Superman sound effect credit: Coaster Thrills - YouTube
If you enjoyed this episode, please help me out by rating, sharing, and subscribing. You can also follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @coasterredux.
Welcome to the first episode of Coaster Redux. My name is Erik and I am a life-long roller coaster enthusiast, but up until lately, I’ve been kind of a lazy one. Through high school and college in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, I was a full on coaster nerd. It was the boom time of the coaster wars when every park was trying to outdo the next by building them taller, faster, and longer, and I couldn’t get enough. Then I entered the working world, and I went on a lengthy hiatus, only visiting parks every few years. During the pandemic, I started following the theme park industry again through podcasts and social media. I watched incredible-looking new roller coasters being delayed over and over again, and I kept saying to myself, “Why not me?” The word “Redux” means brought back or revived, so join me on this journey as I take a deep dive and revive my roller coaster fandom and embark on an epic road trip to hit four bucket list parks over the course of one week. I’ve never done anything like this before, but it’s time to get back out there.
I know as a roller coaster fan that one of my favorite parts of the hobby is getting the reaction of somebody coming off of a ride they’ve never ridden before. That’s what I want to share with you.
And with that, I officially welcome you to my new podcast, Coaster Redux.
So before I start talking about that road trip, I want to set you up with some context on how I got here. This is going to be a different kind of roller coaster podcast. It’s going to be part trip report, part on ride experience, part ride review, and all story-telling. I’m going to dig deep and tell you my roller coaster story, from how I became an enthusiast and eventually conquered my first looping coaster, to my thoughts on some of America’s most elite attractions operating today.
So join me on this journey as I hit the road to experience some of the best roller coasters out there, starting from the beginning.
I grew up in the Boston area, and in the early 1990’s when I was starting to come of coaster riding age, I basically lived in a theme park vacuum. Not that that would have been that much of a problem because I was scared to death of roller coasters. Initially. After some family trips, and some early school trips to some of the local parks like Riverside, now Six Flags New England, and the long defunct Whalom Park, I took a liking to some of their small wooden coasters. Rides like the Thunderbolt, the 1941 figure-8 at Riverside, and the similarly sized Flyer Comet at Whalom. I wasn’t interested in going bigger. And I definitely didn’t want to go upside down. My younger brother was fearless though, and he would happily hop on any steel coaster that was still too much for me.
He went to our local public library and brought home some inspiration: America’s Greatest, and the World’s Greatest Roller Coaster Thrills in 3-D. A pair of VHS documentary films that featured on-ride POV’s of some of the best coasters of the time: Magnum XL-200 at Cedar Point, Steel Phantom at Kennywood, Kumba at Busch Gardens Tampa, and Desperado in Las Vegas. The new inverted coasters like Raptor at Cedar Point, and Batman: the Ride at Six Flags stuck with us the most. We thought the idea of riding with a coaster track above our heads looked completely bonkers.
Maybe there was something about watching those videos that motivated me to conquer my fear of going upside down. They showed me what a big roller coaster looks like, and what to expect, and that helped me build confidence. I know of a lot of other coaster enthusiasts who grew up during this same time who cite these videos for contributing to their life long obsession.
So my first time going upside down was not on a roller coaster, but in another unlikely, yet AWESOME place. Space Camp. Yup, I went to Space Camp. The dream of every 90’s kid who watched Nickelodeon and saw those ads about an experience that was out of this world. Before flying a mock space shuttle mission, we had to go through a number of training exercises to learn about every aspect of America’s space program. It was there that I conquered the multi-axis trainer which was essentially a free-spinning gyro-scope, and the 5-degrees of freedom chair in which we experienced, one at a time, the five degrees of freedom….Side to side, front and backwards, pitch, yaw, and roll. They also had and a 3-D motion flight simulator that went upside down. It was the perfect combination of peer pressure; me not wanting to be the only kid who didn’t go on the upside down stuff, and the relatively small size and speed of these experiences that made them a perfect stepping stone.
That spring, on two school trips, I got to ride my first looping coasters. The first was the Black Widow, an Arrow shuttle loop at Riverside, followed by the Corkscrew at Canobie Lake Park. While I was proud of my accomplishment getting on these rides, the roughness and head banging on them made me question whether this whole going upside down thing was worth it. At the end of that summer, we took a family trip to the National Parks in the southwest. I’m talking about incredible sites like the Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon, and Mesa Verde. All of those spots were beautiful and I still remember them to this day, but at the start of the trip, we flew into Las Vegas to visit my parents’ longtime friends, and interestingly enough, former ACE members who lived there. My parents told them that my brother and I were budding coaster enthusiasts, and our hosts could not have been more excited to take us to ride all the roller coasters in the Vegas area at that time, including Manhattan Express, now known as “The Big Apple Coaster” at New York New York, Canyon Blaster at Circus Circus, and ummm Desperado. At that time, the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world, depending on which marketing person you asked. I remembered watching it on the World’s Greatest Roller Coaster Thrills. It was huge!
So, we’re in my parents’ friend’s house outside Vegas, and my brother and I are getting ready for bed. We’re sleeping on the floor in their living room, and I am freaking out. I don’t know if I can handle Desperado. I mean, I’ve only ever ridden some small wooden coasters and a few upside down coasters. I think this is too much. The tallest coaster in the world?! I mean, a 225 foot drop into a tunnel? No. That’s ridiculous. But I was committed. And my younger brother was so ready. So the next morning, we piled into their light blue two door Ford Explorer, with my brother and I riding in the trunk, and headed for Primm, Nevada, and Buffalo Bill’s Hotel and Casino.
The ride was breathtaking. It was visible from all around the casino. That drop. Can I handle it? One way to find out. We walked into the mostly vacant casino and bought our tickets. There was no line to give me a second to think. Here goes nothing!
So I rode Desperado. I had a death grip on the grab handle. I had my eyes closed on the first drop. Did I enjoy it? I think it was still too much for me at the time, but it was definitely an accomplishment to walk down the exit ramp alive. We piled back into the Explorer and headed back towards the strip.
Next stop, New York New York and Manhattan Express. I didn’t know anything about this roller coaster. It was brand new that year. Approaching the hotel from the Strip, the red track on the roof of the casino was mesmerizing. I remember watching the taxi-cab themed trains rushing through the track. This ride is HUGE too! Not as big as Desperado, but still a big ride.
I remember boarding Manhattan Express’ train, lowering the lap bar, and then thinking how great it was that the over the shoulder restraint raised vertically up and down, so it would lower to my shoulder height and my head would not be beaten up by any rough track work. We left the station, for me, and for me this ride was magical!
I loved it. There were two big drops, a smooth vertical loop, and then that heartline roll into a half loop. Maybe the brand new TOGO track was actually smooth. Maybe it was rough and I didn’t know any better. It doesn’t matter. For the first time, I had a #1 favorite big kid roller coaster. I loved Manhattan Express, and I could not wait to ride more!
We then headed to Circus Circus and Rode Canyon Blaster. It was OK. Arrow headbanging still took place through the corkscrews and transitions, even though this was one of their newest rides. But WOW! In just one day, I had actually ridden two of the rides featured in the “World’s Greatest Roller Coaster Thrills” and not in 3-D. In real life. My fear of riding big roller coasters was starting to fade. I was starting to really enjoy this. One thing was for sure, I needed more.
The next game changing ride came over that winter, when we took a trip down to Orlando to visit family. My brother and I pleaded my parents, aunts, and uncles to take us to Busch Gardens Tampa, and they did. There were two roller coasters there that we absolutely had to ride. Kumba, featured in America’s Greatest Roller Coaster Thrills. The Bolliger & Mabillard sit down coaster with seven inversions whose name means “roar” in the African Congo language. And the newly opened Montu inverted coaster. We were finally going to get to try one of those!
Upon entering the park, we headed all the way to the back to ride Kumba first. Hey, they weren’t kidding on the video. This coaster really roars. That B&M sound was like nothing I had ever heard, and music to my young ears as I sank into the comfortable bucket seat and lowered the padded over the shoulder restraint.
Two minutes and fifty-four seconds, 3,790 feet of track and seven inversions later, my coaster enthusiast life changed. What was that?! A smooth, forceful, smooth looping roller coaster that was smooth? And that zero-G roll? Was that airtime on an inversion? Wait? What?! And it was smooth? There was no head banging? I have to do this again. And again. And again. And again.
Unfortunately, that desire ride Kumba over and over lead to me missing out on riding Montu that day because the ride went down for a mechanical issue as we were heading over to it, and it was approaching time to leave the park. I would leave Busch Gardens that day with one of the greatest roller coaster experiences of my life, but much to my chagrin, I still had not ridden an invert. What I did take away from that visit was an absolute obsession with B&M. These were without a doubt the BMW of roller coasters, and I wanted to ride more. I hoped someday, we would get something like this closer to home.
Fast forward to the summer of 1998, one that would continue to shape my coaster enthusiasm. We went to Riverside early in the season and I finally got to ride my first inverted roller coaster, Mind Eraser. I remember it being pretty smooth, and loving the free flying sensation. The park also introduced the “Hellevator” S&S turbo drop that summer. What a phenomenal name for a drop ride. That thing scared me to death and was the last ride we rode that day.
I also was fortunate enough that summer to visit Kennywood. My father’s family lives in Pittsburgh so I was able to finagle a visit there. I loved their three wooden coasters, but the Thunderbolt still sticks with me for its unique layout, airtime, and laterals. Then there was the Steel Phantom. Even at that point, it was my favorite ride in the park, despite having ridden Kumba, and learning how smooth a steel coaster could be. I remember that my brother and I found that riding in the front of the train was pretty smooth and we enjoyed the drops on the first half of the ride while finding the inversions tolerable. I guess at this point I was growing to not be afraid of the big stuff.
Around this time, the internet was really starting to take off, and I created my own little webpage called Theme Park New England. I had photos, stats, and reviews on all the coasters and parks in New England. And as I got to visit other parks, I added a section for those too. I really enjoyed putting my thoughts and opinions on roller coasters out there, even if not that many people read them.
Summer of ’99 I was between my sophomore and junior years of high school. I got back to Riverside early in the summer, and towards the end of the summer, as we often did, my family took a road trip. We went to Niagara Falls, and were set to visit Syracuse University as I was starting to look around at colleges. Of course, 16 year old me was trying to get a theme park visit squeezed into the trip. Because we were at Niagara Falls and stayed on the Canadian side, I was lobbying hard for Canada’s Wonderland. My parents just kept saying, “maybe” and “We’ll see.” They were pretty coy about things like this. My mother does not do roller coasters at all, but my dad does. He grew up in Ohio, and after we left Syracuse, they let the cat out of the bag. We were not going to Canada’s Wonderland. We were going to Cedar Point!
Yup, Cedar Point. America’s RollerCoast. The holy grail for every roller coaster enthusiast. My brother and I could hardly contain our excitement! Heck, they had a whopping three rides on America’s Greatest Roller Coaster Thrills in just that park. Raptor, the B&M invert. Mean Streak, their massive wood coaster, and of course Magnum XL-200, the first roller coaster to break the 200 foot height barrier, which was widely considered to be the best coaster on the planet at that time. Plus, the newest ride at the park back then was Mantis, the B&M stand-up. I had seen pictures of that ride online and loved the color scheme. That night, we pulled into the hotel right at the beginning of the Cedar Point causeway. I don’t think my brother and I slept.
The next morning was picture perfect weather, and we drove across the Cedar Point causeway and saw that skyline for the first time. Oh man! There’s Raptor, and Mean Streak, and Mantis, and Magnum, and of course Power Tower dominated the view as the highest object there at the time. There is no park anywhere that can build anticipation like Cedar Point.
We walked into the park and the coasters were running test trains. For some reason, we walked past Raptor. Maybe it wasn’t running yet. But Mantis was. I got to hear the iconic B&M roar for the first time since riding Kumba two years ago. Mantis was sending test trains through the course, and I stood in amazement looking up at the massive yellow and orange loops. Time to ride! I loved Mantis! Probably because it most closely reminded me of my beloved Kumba more than any other ride in the park. Next we did Mean Streak, which was pretty alright, then Magnum. Having Desperado and Steel Phantom under my belt, I was no longer scared of these hyper coasters. And wow, did Magnum deliver. That’s a serious airtime machine! I liked it, but I was still a B&M fanboy. Then came Raptor, my first B&M invert. The hype was all worth it. It was smooth and intense. Maybe more intense than Kumba. But I was still stuck on Kumba as my #1. There was something about the zero-G roll on Kumba that Raptor could not duplicate. All told, we rode each of those top four roller coasters four times. This was a weekday after Labor day so crowds were light. We rode every other ride in the park once. What a day! What a rush. I couldn’t want to get home and put my Cedar Point review up on my website!
So that winter, like any 90’s coaster kid, I was religiously following ThrillRide.com from the iMacs in my school’s computer lab, and our Gateway 2000 at home. At the time, this website was the go-to place for ride reviews which were well written with great photos of every must-do attraction out there. More important than the ride reviews, however, was their Wild Rumors & Random notes section. This was where everybody went for their coaster news and rumors. Screamscape was also popular at the time, but I always loved the way ThrillRide presented their information, with Bob Coker’s incredible talent for conversational writing that made you feel like you were right there with him. Anyway, the turn of the millennium was shaping up to be the best year ever for new roller coasters and theme parks, and then it happened!
My beloved Riverside Park was going to become Six Flags New England, along with Geauga Lake becoming Six Flags Ohio, and Reino Aventura becoming Six Flags Mexico. Six Flags New England would be opening three new roller coasters. Superman: Ride of Steel, an Intamin hyper coaster, Flashback, a relocated Vekoma boomerang, and Poison Ivy’s Twisted Train, a Zierer family coaster. The Hellevator S&S turbo drop would add two combo towers which would launch riders up as well as down and be rebranded as Scream, a triple tower complex. I was pumped! New coasters coming to New England. But there was just one thing. Six Flags Ohio was adding Batman: Knight Flight. A B&M floorless sit down looping coaster. Something similar to Kumba! And while I thought Superman looked good, I wanted that!
Who is Intamin anyway? I knew they built Demon Drop, which I had ridden at Cedar Point, and that crazy 400’ tall vertical coaster Superman: The Escape at Six Flags Magic Mountain. The articles I was reading online showed Superman: Ride of Steel at Six Flags Darien Lake which had been built the year before. Wow, those trains look tiny. Stadium seating? That looks cool. But it’s probably gonna be like Magnum at Cedar Point. Which was fine. But I wanted me a zero-G roll! Like Kumba!
So the day after I finished my junior year, shiny new driver’s license in hand, my friend and I headed out for my first visit to Six Flags New England. I was going to check out all the new rides, and document the transformation on my website. I just wish we got that B&M.
Upon arriving at the park, Superman towered over everything. Wow, what used to be a short oval stock car race track was now DC SuperHero Adventures land, and the theming was beautiful! The bummer? Superman was not yet open. Oh well. Mind Eraser here we come. We were in the queue for Mind Eraser, and Superman starts running test trains. Maybe they’re going to open it!
We stepped into the brand new immaculately landscaped queue. The iconic John Williams Superman theme was on loop on the sound system. It was incredible for building anticipation. The first trains carrying guests ascended the 208 foot lift hill, then roared overhead in that infectious spaghetti bowl. They sounded different from any steel coaster train I had ever heard. It wasn’t that cool whoosh sound of an Arrow or Vekoma, and it definitely wasn’t the B&M roar. It sounded almost like a wooden coaster. Kinda rattly. After about a 30 minute wait, we finally boarded those sleek new Intamin trains. The exact same style that still operate on Millennium Force and the two other Supermen in the US today. Super open. Minimal restraint. This will be fun. I liked Magnum. It’s basically the same size. Basically the same thing. Wish we got a B&M.
5,400 feet of track, 2 minutes and 35 seconds later, we had experienced a 225 foot first drop into a tunnel, and eight ejector airtime moments. I was shocked. What had just happened? The ride was so forceful. And the airtime? Other worldly. I had never experienced airtime so powerful and sustained. Magnum had nothing on this ride. I never thought a hyper coaster could be this good. I mean, those transitions in the spaghetti bowl where you get airtime while turning was something completely new! I was hooked. This was the first time since Kumba that a roller coaster had completely blown my mind. It exceeded every expectation I in such a phenomenal way, that I was speechless. New England had, for the first time, a true powerhouse roller coaster in Superman. And I was beyond happy to have it at my home park.
The rest of the park got some great improvements as well. The look and feel was dramatically upgraded with better landscaping and theming throughout. The Cyclone, the park’s larger wood coaster got new PTC trains to replace the fiberglass unpadded Morgans. That year, the ride ran the best it ever did because it had the padded trains and they had not yet reprofiled the first drop. Unfortunately, those heavier trains ultimately led to the ride’s undoing as they wore out the trackwork much more quickly, and the ride would become almost unbearably rough in the coming years. Flashback, the Vekoma Boomerang was an upgrade compared to the Arrow shuttle loop it replaced. In the end, I was happy with what Six Flags New England has become. Maybe someday, we would get a B&M, although I certainly still loved me that big red Intamin.
I would spend the next four years in college in Connecticut. I still maintained my website, and actually bought a .com for it and moved it over from the free hosting platform I originally used. I had a part time job so I could afford web hosting, albeit a pretty small amount of data. But my site wasn’t that big a deal and didn’t get too much traffic. Park visits would become less frequent, and I would stay in New England pretty much exclusively during this time, with one fortunate exception.
I found myself back in Orlando for family vacation over winter break that year, I got to visit another newly opened park: Universal’s Islands of Adventure. My brother had gotten to visit the park the year before, and all I heard from him was how great the Incredible Hulk was. He didn’t know going in that it was launched up the lift so that really took him by surprise. I was beyond psyched to get back on some new B&M’s. I hadn’t been on one since Cedar Point a couple of years ago, and Islands had two, well really three, of the best in the Incredible Hulk and Dueling Dragons.
Walking into that park, the quality of theming and detail was mind blowing. You are immersed in every single land, and Universal continues to lead the way in that area to this day. We rode Dragons first. That original queue was breathtaking. So long, so spooky, and air conditioned! I went back and forth on which I preferred. The fan favorite was always Fire, but by the end I preferred Ice because it had my holy grail element, the zero-G roll. Those near misses were some of the best moments on any roller coaster because of how unique they were.
The Incredible Hulk was my first true launched coaster up to that point, and that sensation of acceleration was something I really enjoyed. Somehow that zero-G roll after the launch didn’t have that magic of Kumba’s, but the ride was still fun, and I loved riding some new B&M’s. At this point, any roller coaster ride for me was such a treat because I would only go to a park once, or maybe twice in a given year. By this time I was really starting to hone in on what my taste was in rides. Superman was my #1 by a mile! The airtime blew my mind! And I was still stuck on Kumba, which was my strong #2. It was in my mind a perfect looping coaster. A powerful layout with the most perfect zero-G roll that was buttery smooth. I so badly wanted a B&M at Six Flags New England, and that winter, I got it.
Rumors started circulating online that a new roller coaster was coming to Six Flags New England for the 2002 season. And it was later confirmed that in fact a compact B&M floorless would be the park’s next addition. I was psyched! I had to cover this on my website. A B&M in New England! Right next to Superman. This was going to be epic. A phenomenal 1-2 punch for the newly Flagged park. I don’t remember how I got connected with him, but I ended up finding another enthusiast who lived close to the park who would drive by and send me photos of the construction during the course of the process. I would post those updates to Theme Park New England as they came in, and I would notify ThrillRide and Screamscape about those updates, and they would link to my page. During the process of construction of what would become Batman: The Dark Knight, my little website was the go-to place on the internet for news on the new roller coaster. Traffic on my site ballooned, and I was swiping my card more than I would have liked to keep it online. I was a freshman in college at this point, but I was so excited to be part of keeping the enthusiast community informed on an upcoming roller coaster, especially my dream B&M. I had to keep it going.
As opening day for Batman approached, I was trying to figure out how to get up to Six Flags to ride the new coaster. I mean, I had been faithfully covering its construction throughout the winter, and I needed to put photos and a review up on my website. I didn’t have a car, and none of my friends were into roller coasters enough to want to drive the two hours up to the park and pay for admission. Then I got my answer in the dining hall’s daily newsletter. A group of students were putting a trip to Six Flags New England together. We would carpool up to the park and visit on opening day! I couldn’t e-mail them quickly enough. I was going to ride Batman: The Dark Knight on its first day opening to the public! This was real coaster journalist stuff.
A week later, I was off. New digital camera in hand, it was time to experience New England’s first B&M.
So about the ride itself. I had watched it grow via the pictures sent by my new correspondent. It had a super steep lift hill, and a sharp twisting first drop. The color scheme was unique with purple track and blue rails. It was the most compact B&M I had ever seen. The height was 117 feet with five inversions over 2600 feet of track. There was a vertical loop, followed closely by a dive loop, a swooping turn through the center of the first loop, then that zero-G roll, followed by two interlocking corkscrews. Short ride. No midcourse break. But I was psyched for it. What could be a better complement to Superman than a tight floorless with all of B&M’s best elements?
Entering the park, I booked it to Batman. There it is! A B&M at my home park. Yeah it’s not huge, but watching those four row trains snake gracefully through the layout was something I had only seen at parks far from home. Gone was the B&M roar which at this point was reduced because the boxy spine of the track was being filled with sand to minimize noise. This was one of the first first B&M’s with this treatment. The landscaping was pristine, and the shiny new paint glistened in the morning sun.
I settled into B&M’s comfortable, padded seat, and lowered the shoulder harness. The floor dropped away and I was off, climbing quietly up the lift hill which did not have the loud clacking of the older rides. I was whipped down the first drop, into the vertical loop, dive loop, and then that magical zero-G roll. It hit as hard as Kumba’s! And it was at my home park. Two interlocking corkscrews followed and I was back in the station. This was great! It was perfect. Was it the best B&M out there? No, but it rounded out the line-up at Six Flags New England at the time. The park had a world-class hyper, and a solid B&M looper to balance things out. I put the reviews up on my website, and I was content, except that there was another roller coaster in New England that I still had not ridden. Even though it opened the same year as Superman.
In 2000, Lake Compounce opened Boulder Dash, the highly praised CCI wooden terrain coaster that was built into the side of a mountain. It flew under my radar at the time because of all the hype surrounding Superman, and later, Batman. In the fall of 2002, the same year I did my first rides of Batman, I did my first solo park visit. I was craving the rush of a new roller coaster. And hey, my website was about New England parks, and there was this glaring omission in Lake Compounce. It was a fall Saturday morning, and I packed up my digital camera and headed for the park.
Lake Compounce is America’s oldest continually operating amusement park. It was owned by the Kennywood Corporation at the time, and their passion for quality was immediately apparent. The park is small, but stunningly beautiful. The lift hill of the Wildcat wood coaster is perfectly placed above a bell tower with a lone carousel horse at its peak that is visible when entering the park. To the right upon from the gate is Zoomerang. To this date, the most enjoyable Vekoma Boomerang I have ridden.
Around to the back of the park is Boulder Dash. And this is a beautiful ride. The first half of its wood track is mostly hidden from view because it follows the mountainous terrain up and down a hillside that is covered with trees. The second half of the ride is located right next to the pathway that runs along the lake with bunny hills and a trick track placed almost within reach.
I waited in line and rode in the back for my first ride. WOW! This ride literally flies through the forest. It has a strong combination of laterals and airtime on the trip out. So much is thrown at you so quickly that you barely have time to process it. Then it turns hard to the left at and you are thrown to the right in a nearly unbanked turnaround. The return trip to the station is pure airtime. One pop after another. The final drop before the brakes puts a smile on your face for the ride’s photo. Boulder Dash is an absolute joy. Airtime, laterals, stellar visuals, and an out-of-control feel combine for an unforgettable experience. I rode multiple times, and actually thought the best rides were in the front. The PTC trains with well-padded benches and ratcheting lap bars offer supreme comfort. My last ride was after dark, and a night ride on Boulder Dash is next level! This was a world class roller coaster, and my new number one wood. And hey, look at what a stacked line-up New England now has.
It took a few years, but as more enthusiasts made their way to New England, our one-two punch of Superman and Boulder Dash put our formerly sleepy region on the map. For several years in the mid 2000’s, Superman was widely regarded as the best steel coaster on the planet, and Boulder Dash was the best wood.
I would graduate from college in 2005, and go on to start my career in the maritime industry. I was wholly focused on my new profession, and roller coasters very much fell to the back burner. I went years between theme park visits without realizing it. My coaster riding flame was still there, and smoldering, not quite extinguished.
Join me for the next episode when I document the few trips that I did make during those gap years, which would ultimately put me back on the path to where I am today. That’s next time on Coaster Redux.