sfmman2000

I took a visit to the Boardwalk this past Sunday (6/3/2012) to go on a behind-the-scenes tour of the Boardwalk, as well as ride the new Crazy Surf. The new Crazy Surf looks like a winner! The ride seats 18 across, with individual lapbars. The lapbars are free to open and close as you enter your seat. Once everyone is seated, the operator instructs riders to raise their hands up. With the lapbars in the down position, they inch towards your stomach in a smooth, hydraulic fashion. There are pinch points near the mechanism, so it is important that everyone keeps their hands up as the lapbars tighten. The ride begins normally enough, in a very similar way to the old Crazy Surf. The motion is surprisingly smoother than the old Crazy Surf. About halfway through the cycle, the carriage pauses at the top and tilts forward 20 degrees (according to KMG). At the same time, the water jet begin to raise up. Just as the carriage begins to descend, the jets lower so riders don't get wet. This process repeats a few times, with the carriage tilting forward and back to vertical while stationary at the top. I think the ride is a great addition to the park. The tilting, water jets, lapbars only, and comfortable seats give the ride a major edge over the old Crazy Surf. Even though the tilt is not that much, it would catch anyone off guard who is unaware the ride is able to move in such a way. The water jets give a great effect of nearly getting wet. Hopefully in the heat of the summer, the ride will turn into a water ride, with the water fountains staying high enough to get the riders wet. Join me below for some pictures of my day. Crazy Surf is now open! Fun and safety sign. Note: "You may get wet." Ride plaque Best shot of the panel I could get. Note: There is a keyhole for "high water fountain" usage, which to me means that the ride has a mode to get riders wet! Behind the ride Here is what the ride looks like not tilted. And... ...here is the ride at a full tilt of 20 degrees A view from Sky Glider showing the new Tater Twists stand. I tried one -- it's like a giant Pringle! One of two new wooden walkways built on the beach. These new sections were an excellent idea. During busy times, these seating areas should help alleviate the traffic jams associated with the walking area between Merry-Go-Round and Giant Dipper. Note the tasteful benches, lampposts, and hanging flower pots. Here is the other recently built wooden seating area. Apparently, the CA Coastal Commission was happy to approve the additions, with the caveat that no goods be sold on them. So don't expect any new food/merch. Today was family fun and tour day for friends and family of Boardwalk employees. They gave "under-the-Boardwalk" tours. First stop, under Neptune's Kingdom to the Tech Services area. They employed a talking robot to explain to us what exactly tech services does at the Boardwalk. (hint: anything and everything tech-related) The talking robot in action Next stop, Seaside Co. executive offices Really awesome restored arcade machine Another restored arcade machine A floating Merry-Go-Round horse Next, into the basement under the east end of the Boardwalk (starts below Cliffhanger and ends at Rock and Roll) Really awesome retro poster! Cave Train's second train, in storage The back of the train, showing the auto-announcement buttons and E-Stop Coming Spring 1992...leaving Fall 2012 A piece of the old Haunted Castle sign A sign from the old Remote-a-Boats, which used to sit between Double Shot and Pirate Ship "Wipeout - Coming Spring 1993." A retro sign from Boardwalk's old Chance Wipeout. The ride once occupied Fireball's current location. "Typhoon - Coming Summer 1991." This Fabbri Kamikaze occupied Sea Swings spot a few years ago. The Great Auto Race once occupied nearly the entire lower (East) area of the Boardwalk. Looking East, past the different maintenance shops Finally, a view of the Giant Dipper from one of the Boardwalk's outdoor break rooms.

So... how long has the Boardwalk marketing department been lurking this thread? But in all seriousness, welcome to TPR!

This video shows how the water fountains work:

^ Wow, that would be a pretty sweet facelift. Although, I could see the Boardwalk not even considering it because it's not nearly as family friendly as Ghost Blasters in its current form.

Why do you think a Top Scan would never happen? The park used to have Typhoon, which was quite intense. Also, Fireball is pretty high up there on the intensity scale towards the end of the cycle. Realistically, I think we'll see an Octotron within a few years, because it's already been installed down in Belmont Park. I rode the Octotron, and personally, I wasn't that impressed. It was a fun ride, but not very re-rideable. I don't think I would want it in my home park. It's kind of a novelty.

I would love to see a Zipper, but would hate to see Rock-O-Plane go. I'll take them both, please! I think the Boardwalk has a general policy of, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it (and don't change it)." Most of the rides they replace have some form of maintenance issues or are ending their useful life. Other rides are moved for expansion or rotation purposes. For example: Typhoon - It was the only manually operating ride on the Boardwalk, and most of our operators SUCKED at running it. If you hit the buttons at the wrong time, the ride would blow a $100+ fuse (which happened more than a few times a year). Granted, the ride wasn't very hard to operate, but the people who had trouble operating it probably couldn't drive a car very well either. Wave Jammer - According to past operators, it was a maintenance nightmare. Chaos - Moved to sister park, Belmont Park (San Diego). Hurricane - Was only ever supposed to be a 10-year ride. Should have been replaced a long time ago, but other projects got in the way. Old Haunted Castle - Severe maintenance and electrical issues. Unlike most parks, the Boardwalk can't just clear space and plop in a new ride, they have to strategically decide which ride to take out to replace with the new ride. And the decision has to make financial and business sense. For example, is Logger's really, really old? Yes. But does it still make a lot of money? Well, yes. So will it ever be replaced? No.

Over the years, the park has been putting in more and more family friendly rides, and Rock and Roll is a perfect example of that. Wave Jammer had a minimum height requirement of 48", and Rock and Roll's is only 42" w/ chaperone. Same thing when they removed Typhoon (48") and put in Sea Swings (42" w/ chaperone). I see what they're doing, and I know why they're doing it -- but I don't like it!!

The park has a habit lately of putting in a lot of portable carnival rides. I think they like having the relative ease of packing up a ride a replacing it with another. The park has a habit of taking out a ride and putting one in just like it (e.g. Freefall-->Freefall; Wave Jammer-->Rock and Roll). This idea is good in theory. If guests like the old ride, they will surely like the "new and improved" ride even more. But the problem is that the new ride is hard to market because it's so similar to the old one. What can they say about they new Crazy Surf? "The same Crazy Surf you know and love, but now with lapbars only, tilting seats, and water effects!" I think the park would bring in a lot more business if they had a brand-new, never-before-seen-at-the-Boardwalk ride to market. I do know they have a few of those rides in the works set to open in the coming years, and those rides could honestly not come soon enough. The park has been sorely lacking new thrill rides since Fireball opened in 2003.

New KMG hotness has arrived at the Boardwalk! Check out pictures from the Boardwalk's Facebook page to see the ride being lifted over Logger's Revenge and into the old Crazy Surf's location.

^ Yeah, since the point of the ride seems to be acceleration, I would guess that they would "pulse" the cycle as shown in that section of the video, switching between the slow relaxing speed and full speed. The thing I'm curious about is how many G's this ride pulls...

Screamscape linked to a video of XLR8 testing: I've never seen anything like it!

^ I've looked all over the city and Coastal Commission websites for any reference to a new ride, but have turned up nothing. Maybe someone else will have better luck finding something.

My vote is on a Maurer SC 2000. The ride is very close in size and height to Hurricane. Anyone have any ideas on what the new ride will be called? All we have to do is think of a weather-related name that hasn't been used yet! That rules out: Crazy Surf, Cyclone, Hurricane, Riptide, Tornado, Tsunami, Typhoon, Video Storm, Whirlwind, Wipeout (Chance), WipeOut (Huss) I suppose they could call it the "new" Hurricane... but I hope they pick something more original. Possible names: *Windstorm (which would be ironic) *Blizzard *Storm Surge *Tidal Wave *Maelstrom

^ That would be interesting. Pandemonium is 177 feet wide, and the Hurricane deck is only 170 feet wide, so unless they made some sort of major modification to the deck, I don't see that happening. Rumor has it that back in the early 2000s when Hurricane was originally supposed to be replaced, the park ran into a similar size issue when trying to fit a wild mouse ride, with the deck being just a few feet too short for the ride. The plan was scrapped.

^ Something like that would be a great ride for the Boardwalk. A tiny launched coaster is a good way to have a fast, thrilling ride in a small footprint.

Any new ride that will get in the way of the Santa Cruz skyline as seen from the end of the wharf will likely never be approved again. Doubleshot took 10 years to become approved. When the Boardwalk presented the plan in the mid-90s, I believe the plan was to build a 180 foot Spaceshot. I can only imagine the number of birds that would have collided with the tower, had it been built If the park, with some of it's soon-to-be free space, built an El Loco on Boardwalk (ground) level, the coaster would reach a height of about 100 feet. I think that is more reasonable than 130 feet, especially since they currently have Hurricane which sits at exactly the same height. Maybe then, they could put some other kind of flat ride on the Hurricane deck.

^ I think a Maurer SC 2000 is a good bet. Although, the Boardwalk would have to do some rearranging to fit it on the Hurricane deck. The depth of an SC 2000 is 75 feet (http://www.maurer-rides.com/files/amusement/pdf/PI_SC2000_Lagoon.pdf). Hurricane's depth is only 55 feet, according to Google Maps Distance Measurement Tool. If they put in an SC 2000 on the Hurricane deck, it would intrude on the current location of the kiddie rides, and not leave a whole lot of free space up there. edit: If the park went for an El Loco, the ride would be about 30 feet higher than Hurriance at 130 feet hight. I doubt a ride that tall would ever be approved. Depth-wise, an El Loco is only 45 feet (http://www.engineeringexcitement.com/rides/coasters/el-loco#tabs-2) deep (super narrow!), so it would easily fit on the deck.

^ The chances of that happening are next to nothing (unfortunately). Getting a structure like that through the bureaucracy and likely opposition of the Coastal Commission and the people of Santa Cruz would be near impossible. Not to mention the noise a B&M makes. Even with sand-filled supports, I think the noise level would still be too high. Also, the Boardwalk has not been known to buy expensive "theme-park quality" rides. I'm nearly certain that the replacement ride will be a spinning wild mouse. I should be able to gather more information about it soon. The good thing about a mouse, is that the noise and height level likely won't be issues, and the coaster shouldn't have much trouble getting approved. Interestingly, the availability of Hurricane will be in September 2012, so the park definitely wants to run the ride through the Summer season. After the season is over, the old operations building is scheduled for demolition, so it sounds like they are trying to get Hurricane out of there at just about the same time. For the Summer 2013-14 season, the park will very likely see multiple new flat rides in the new open area created by demolition of the old buildings. On another note, the teacups are still for sale: http://www.italintl.com/detail_page.php?record_id=1026

I dug up a picture of SFOG's Viper, a Schwarzkopf shuttle loop. Courtesy of flee the cities on Flickr. Click picture and head to Flickr for notes about each button. I especially like the "Raise Counterweight" button!

Yes, please share!

I really like the color-coded layout of the B&M control boards. Great idea.

^I never thought that a powered roller coaster would be manually controlled -- awesome! In what way is it hard to master? You can't just keep it on full speed the whole circuit?

I discovered some great pictures of Top Thrill Dragster's control board. Pictures are property of: http://www.caranddriver.com/features/just-how-quick-are-roller-coasters --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Main control board shots. I believe LAUNCH BOOST ENABLE is used in early morning test runs to send empty trains out at a faster speed (140 mph+) for a better chance of clearing the tower. This position is responsible for launching the train. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- See archived version of Cedar Point's On Point blog for more pictures and explanation of how TTD works. Part 1: http://goo.gl/6k6uz Part 2: http://goo.gl/6jKxK

Here's a few control board pictures I've collected and found over the years. More to come. This is the control board belonging to Giant Dipper at Belmont Park. It is based on technology from the 1970s, with manually-controlled brakes, and has no PLC (ride computer). Although the picture is blurry, the six black buttons on the bottom-right control the skid brakes. There are three brake sections. As the train of riders comes into the station, the operator opens the spring-loaded brakes by holding/pulsing the buttons sequentially until the train is lined up correctly. When the train is ready to dispatch, the operator sounds the warning bell (big black button) and holds brake section #6, which releases the brakes so the train can roll out of the station. The ride does have a simple block system with limit switches, so if there are two trains on the track they will not be allowed to occupy the same block. There is no mid-course brake run. I believe block 1 begins at the loading area (brake area #6) and ends near the top of the lift hill. Block 2 is the entire ride portion up until the first brake area (#1). Picture from: http://www.sandiegomagazine.com/San-Diego-Magazine/October-2011/The-Art-of-Coastal-Coaster-Maintenance/ Control board of Octotron, Belmont Park Control board of Maliboomer, California Adventure (defunct). To operate, the operator locks and checks restraints, and then presses the green weigh button, which lifts the carriage on hydraulic posts to weigh the riders, which tells the system how much air to fill the tank with. Shortly after, the air tank will fill with air and the ride will begin the launch cycle. In automatic mode, all the operator has to do is press the weight button, and the system will cycle through the program automatically. In manual mode, each button must be pressed in sequence. If the down button needs to be pressed, it should be done so during the weigh cycle, for least consequence. The ride program will then promptly halt and return to the ground. If down is pressed during fill cycle, the carriage will descend, but the rider's restraints will be kept locked until all air is out of the shot tank. If the ride is already in the launch cycle and the down button is pressed, the carriage will descend very, very slowly (much slower than normal). For that reason, I can't think of any good reason to use the down button during the launch cycle. Control board of Control Freak, Belmont Park Control panel of Sky Tower, Six Flags Magic Mountain

I agree -- if "pops" of air are what you're after, you'll get them by sitting towards the front of the train. As well as insane laterals that slam you against the side of the car on the not-very-well-banked fan turns. But -- if you are looking for the "stomach-in-your-throat" feeling of getting pulled down the drops, the back cars provide that much more than the front.