Hello all at TPR!
I am yet another one of these "lurkers", spending nearly half a decade following this amazing website and soaking up information about theme parks, roller coasters, coaster companies' reputations among enthusiasts, which coasters are good and which coasters are death machines...well, everything I could possibly take in! Now I think the time has come for me to truly step into the TPR crowd and introduce myself.
(Palms start sweating)
My name is Simeon A., 18 from the Silicon Valley, but you can just call me Simeon (an archaeic "Simon", as back in Jeff Johnson's times there was always an E between the M and the O!). Being a resident of the Silicon Valley, my four home parks are: SCBB, CGA, SFDK, and Gilroy Gardens. I am already well into my time of being a complete coaster nut like many of you, what's not to like about them? As long as it isn't painful, I'd give any one a ride! Now it's time to list my favorites...
Favorite Park: Europa Park. Do I really, truly need to explain how AMAZING this place is?! Just look in the park index and find it for more details, it is one of the top ranked parks on the entire list!
Favorite Woodie: Giant Dipper North (SCBB). One of the smoothest, most well maintained woodies on the planet. You get to TAKE THE TUNNEL as soon as the train dispatches, which is awesome in and of itself. In California, where airtime is rather sparse, the back seat of this "smaller coaster that packs a BIG punch" is an absolute butt slammer when it is running fast enough! If you closed your eyes on a particularly good ride and never knew who made this woodie, you'd swear you're on one of CCI's masterpieces.
Favorite Steelie: Blue Fire (EP). What does this beauty do? EVERYTHING!!! It has amazing theming, just like the rest of EP. It has some of the most comfortable trains of any coaster, complemented by an impossibly smooth ride. It's got a fairly intense launch whose forces are sustained for the entire straightaway. It is graceful and floaty at some points, and intense at others. There are some really nice head choppers along the way, too. It has extreme ejector air in a place you'd never expect: The heart line roll. It is insane no matter where you sit. On the right side, you get totally ejected, and on the left, you get thrown out in a strange way I can't describe. An awesome ride at an AWESOME park courtesy of the guys at Mack!
Now for some important numbers...
Wood: 3
Steel: 23
Water: 1
Total: 27
Parks to visit this summer: SCBB tomorrow! (I'll be doing a small off ride photo TR to post to the SCBB discussion thread)
CGA
Raging Waters SJ
Vacation to Europe in July: (offride photo TRs here as well)
Europa Park (to ride Wodan of course, with the missing credits being Poseidon, Eurosat, Matterhorn Blitz, and Pegasus)
Erlebnispark Strasswalchen (now Fantasiana), I must prepare for the crazy PAX they call Europe's Cyclops...
Wiener Prater
A little more of me: I am also a video game nut, playing games of all genres and times. I am particularly fond of Pokemon, especially the 5th generation with Black and White. My favorite pokemon is Reshiram, whose signature move is called Blue Flare...quite ironic since my favorite coaster is Blue Fire. Oh well, that is still an awesome coincidence. Other games I play include RCT3, where I conjure up random airtime machines by the day that I think California is missing.
Anyways, that's me! I am thrilled to have finally joined the awesomeness that is TPR!
~Simeon
