Angry_Gumball

A Boomerango is far different than a Tornado. I personally love the Boomerango and am extremely happy my home park has one of these. Basically, the Boomerango is almost like a half pipe...I mean quarter pipe. When you come back down the wall, you go up and over a small hump and it is very possible to catch air on this...atleast on the Boomerango at CGA. The Tornado Wave looks to be slightly different, being just a big bank in the middle of the slide.

After playing some of the new Tomb Raider, I decided to take a trip back to the late 90s, digging up my copy of TR2. Of course I'm just messing around and no session of TR2 is complete without locking the butler into the freezer...good times, good times...

All of this gold porn has made me decide to share a couple 'enhanced' photos I took during the hardhat tour early this month. The "Golden Blessing" And a shot of Gold Striker's drop from inside the park, across from the reflection pond.

Another pseudo HDR/Single Raw HDR that I was messing with - Gold Striker at CGA (Taken during the hardhat tour early this month).

I wouldn't necessarily say it was the longest but it most certainly felt the slowest. A week ago, SFDK had its opening day and to kick off the season they were offering double rides on major coasters all day. All would have been good but...the weather was just so perfect that everybody and their brother were out at the park. We waited 80 minutes in line, though we can technically split it into 40 minutes since it was double rides. The line just felt painfully slow, and it was definitely a blessing when some riders only wanted to ride once. The other was the even slower line to get my season pass done, which took 90 minutes to get through. For those familiar with SFDK, the lines all day for pass processing began at the multi colored giraffe statue heading toward Medusa. Waits from that point were between 2-3 hours (ouch). When I had got in line, the line's end was by the stairs leading up to the dolphin stadium. By that time our feet were killing us and we had the option of getting a stamp on our voucher to come back on next visit but decided to get it out of the way as my next visit to DK won't happen until probably after our run to SFMM next month.

^^ Yea, the whole nearly standing up vertical felt very awkward. I almost felt like I was standing in a shower stall, leaning against the wall. I felt like for a split second when that trap door opened, I felt nothing around me until the slide's curve kicked in, followed by tons of water spraying in my face. All I can see is a blur of black and blue whizzing by. ^The downfall about Pro Slide's version is that it is essentially just a glorified downward spiral. Still very fun but it's not even an inclined loop. In the end it is just very fast and forceful. This is Pro Slide's version, at one of my local water parks, Raging Waters in San Jose...Bombs Away!

I'm really liking the lift pov shot seeing the entry into the tunnel (or if I want to keep the McD's thing going, the rather twisty/curvy French fry). Trying to figure out why there are catwalks along roof edges and if its temporary (perhaps for roofing materials when they work on that).

I've only done Pro Slide's version in which your story sums up my thoughts. The anticipation of the capsule's trap door flopping open definitely gets the better of you, and you're down before you realize what just happened. Waiting in what line there was (everyone was too chicken) and hearing the kerchunk honestly got me quite nervous. But I'd totally do it again!

I've known that, eversince the day Gold Striker was announced and they announced the 49er first ride auction. We're just having a little fun...that's all...

Guilty of that...to add onto that, you know you're a nerd when your park's observation tower is down and you still have a craving to see the aerial view of the coaster being built anyway. In turn, you shell out the $18 to ride the Sky Coaster adjacent to the construction site just to catch a quick view of it (and live with it in memories only) before it's time to pull the ripcord.

I'm just going to take a shot in the dark at this and guess that perhaps running it on a more mild program puts less stress on the ride in the long run, thus keeping maintenance costs down, as well as maybe downtime. I also think it depends on what the given flat ride's demographic is. Let's put CGA's Tiki Twirl and KI's Surf Dog. Tiki Twirl's classified as a "Thrill Ride" while Surf Dog is a "Kid's Ride." I'm not sure how much different they actually run but the seating arrangements being different. In the end they're the same ride essentially but a kid may be less frightened riding Surf Dog instead of Tiki Twirl. Wipeout at Santa Cruz and Peanuts Pirates at CGA are another example of an identical ride (Break Dance Type 4/Rodeo, Huss). The one at SCBB runs a bit quicker and to me, feels like it's demographic is the mild thrill seeker. Peanut's Pirates lives in the middle of 2 kids areas in CGA and runs a little mellower cycle...(though I've gotten some pretty intense rides on it by leaning left/right to enhance the spin or trigger one). Or we can assume that maybe it's an America thing and that people would sue over a ride being too intense for them/they got off sick and walked into a light post/tripped over their own 2 left feat when walking off dizzy.

^^ Unfortunately now, I'll be thinking of Big Macs and McDoubles when riding. Looks Ronald McDonald is about to strike gold(en arches)! Not only can he serve as the mascot but he can also serve his purpose in Halloween Haunt's Gauntlet!

I know that the winner has already been chosen for the BoC but I figured I'd share my 2 cents anyway. After watching the full animated POV of Iron Rattler, I was just sitting there in awe...thinking to myself "Outlaw what???" Don't get me wrong. Outlaw Run looks amazing too (sideways airtime hill...that looks bizarre!) but there just seemed to be something that IR had that gave it a little more punch. In the end I should ride both of these and I can give a real opinion instead of ones based off of an animation and one based off of a POV TPR shot.

While I love the typical amusement park, there's many times I feel it's important to escape reality...as in not seeing office buildings and such when you're in a place that was meant to create a fantasy. In this sense I'd have to say Theme Parks. What I like in amusement parks, when executed right are themed areas. This would technically still be a theme park, right? Sure it wouldn't be on the scale of Disney, but keeping with specific themes in areas...or sticking with 1 major theme. This is something I wish SFDK stuck with...I like how a lot of their rides are animal-themed, African-themed, or jungle-themed. But when other things start getting mixed in, it just feels weird. I also wish that though it was basic, CGA stuck with their original themed areas (County Fair, Yukon Territory, Orlean's Place, Hometown Square...). Sure they weren't extravagant but it definitely added polish to a more traditional amusement park. In the end, I can say I like both as I most frequently visit amusement parks yet I like to forget that I'm in the middle of a business district/residential/where ever else the park may be located... (I need to visit Disney more frequently...will be going next month, but my last visit was in 1998...*ducks/hides in shame*).

My first steel coaster of 2013 (yes I'm separating wood from steel) was Superman Ultimate Flight at SFDK, 8:30 in the morning. Nothing like still being half asleep, waking up to ejector airtime while riding one of your favorite coasters

^ Sounds like one of those intense moments in gaming. I may have to try that after just for kicks as I too hate being on the receiving end of the blue shell of death. I remember one time letting my aunt play Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz (Wii launch title), being her first time ever. I was on a slightly more challenging level when she tries. Sure enough her monkey goes out of control, off an edge, ricochets a few times ultimately zooming through the goal below. The monkey ball was basically bouncing like a pinball caught in a set of those round 'Jet Bumpers' until it whizzed out. We were both standing there in awe as that will never be replicated again. So yea, that's my most memorable 'sigh of relief' moment in gaming I've also had moments in my Pokemon adventures where I was on my last Pokemon and used 'Fly' at the right moment as my opponent decided to use self destruct. Good way to fend off a monster you are weak against

Awesome update, glad to see some Undertow Porn The zip line looks fun yet looks pretty tame, like its dragging along.

Honestly, if I were visiting CP for the first time, I would probably cough up the cash and do the whole Fast Lane thing. I like getting the most out of my visits...'getting the most' meaning getting on lots of rides and re-rides. I'd recommend anyone who wants to avoid FL or FL+ to perhaps visit the park on an 'off' day that's less likely to be crowded...kind of like what I'm going to do with Knotts in just a few weeks. Lines will be shorter on a weekday than if I went on a Saturday. On the flipside, I don't even bat an eye at my local park as...well, as Robb mentioned, being a season passholder/local that visits many times through the year. I tend to pick the quieter days/Sundays when I visit CGA and being as I've done everything numerous times, it wouldn't really be much of value. We'll see what happens though when Gold Striker opens, I'm sure temptation *may* get the better of me just so I can ride it all day And while I've never used any virtual queuing system, Cedar Fair's system seems the most appealing to me. Just a simple wristband, unlimited usage, no having to constantly watch the clock (Personally I hate constantly checking time when I'm out to have fun). From a non FL user, from what I've seen, the queue seems to go pretty smooth. Unlike having someone going in and swiping your row several times right at the platform, everyone seems to merge smoothly before the airgates.

I don't know why, earlier I visioned the conference room as several MF cars surrounding the table. Sure this is all fantasizing but fun to think of these crazy ideas. Or perhaps, the lone MF car as the 'thinking couch' when one wants to brainstorm a new concept I would not mind playing some Mario Kart or F-Zero on a large screen while buckled into a MF car..or just kick back and watch a bunch of POVs on the different GCI coasters

I was kind of wondering/thinking the same. I know keeping hydrated down at SFMM is a must. I didn't get a good look at their cups to see if they are just generic Six Flags branded cups or if they have park specific branding. However the $15 price scared me off (Paid $8 for my CGA refill cup back in 2008, park has been fine letting me use it well beyond the 2008 season ) Maybe I'll just resort to asking for water in the paper cups since its probably free.

I've been dabbling in HDR photography and stumbled upon the 'pseudo HDR' technique from a singe RAW image (Also been shooting RAW as of lately). My work is by no means professional or anything but I'm liking what I've pulled off so far. I call this one the "Golden Blessing" as there was this strange refraction ring around the sun when I took the hardhat tour at CGA. I wanted to get the coaster but wanted to also capture the ring and sunlight. Glad I decided to look into the technique (and continue to learn it). I call it Golden Blessing due to Prowler being known as the Holy Coaster...and since Gold Striker is a GCI at another CF park, we were joking that perhaps it's getting blessed by Prowler The other one consisted of Medusa at SFDK (no fancy title for this...just experimentation/goofing around). Kind of trippy! I had used a circular polarizer as well to help bring out the sky and did the single raw pseudo HDR technique to give the sky a deeper pop, bring out the wispy clouds while preserving the nice colors in the foreground. Another one in which I wanted the sky/wispy clouds to appear yet retain a decent exposure on the foreground and background coasters... Yup, I'm having too much fun with this. I'm anxious to try out true HDR tomorrow and next weekend out at the park (using the 3 exposures/bracketed exposure settings).

Yes! Ok so I showed the photo of GS's train to my supervisor as I couldn't resist excitement today. I ask him "Doesn't this look comfy?" He responds "Yea, looks like a couch!" Yes I would not mind having one of these in my room (if it were big enough) as my gaming/tv chair...

That is just nuts...I can vision my body just bouncing around like a rag doll as it navigates the rather curvy and twisty course. Yup, another bucket list ride!

That's what I kind of figured, either bearing related or packing material to protect components. *Goes to look up MF trains*

Reminds me back in 2006 when we could reach in and pet the dolphins...I heard the following April: "do not stick your fingers in the dolphin's blowhole." That day we found it to be the funniest thing ever.