WestCoasterKing

What is the worst theme ever for a roller coaster? I'm not referring to sub-par and cheesy theming. This is about what the ride itself is themed to. Whether or not the actual ride itself sucks or is amazing is beside the point. And coasters that simply have a name and no real theme to them don't count. My vote goes to Coast Rider at Knott's Berry Farm. This little wild mouse coaster is themed to the concept of driving along the winding California coast. What the hell? Lame. Dumb. Stupid.

Coast Rider. One, the theme is driving the windy California coast. What the hell? Lame. Two, it rhymes with GhostRider in the same freaking park!

/\ I remember a reading about case that happened a long time ago where a rafting ride flipped over and people were hurt. Don't remember if anyone was killed or not. But the park settled with the victims and then joined them in a lawsuit against the ride maker.

Both stores were demolished last night. I watched it all live while drinking my tea.

Knott's could and hopefully will win the lawsuit from the injury in 2014 as they had taken what appear to be reasonable known measures to protect the riders. Unfortunately, someone found out that the restraints could be rider defeated so the company can become negligent on future injuries if they don't take measures to protect against future escapes and injuries. This is more of a common law issue than specific California legal issues. Wouldn't that be on manufacturer and not the park? And what about the fact that out of the hundreds of wild mouse coasters there has never been another incident like this anywhere, that we know of. At what point is the responsibility solely put on the idiot public? No one can plan for and foresee every possible whacky scenario. Also wouldn't it better to block the opening rather than restrain the legs of riders and thereby hindering larger taller people from riding? Put little doors or something on the cars.

/\ I actually enjoyed Coast Rider, aside from all the trims. Why so many? And what's with that name? So lame. I also really liked Sierra Sidewinder. The coaster I actually think should be scrapped is Pony Express. I haven't been on a worst roller coaster in my life, and I live near Wild Waves. It's way too short for one thing. I honestly for the life of me do not know why they couldn't make it longer. It is still going pretty fast when it hits the brakes. It might have uglied up Whitewater Wilderness but they could easily have had the coaster wind over and through Bigfoot Rapids. And there is zero reason to have two trains running on that coaster, unless part of the thrill is sitting in an awkward and unflattering hunched over position for five minutes while waiting for the train in the station to go. Having two trains on such a short ride really does nothing to increase capacity. If they were to remove Pony then they could pop in a long hyper from the Boardwalk up and over the new Calico Stage and down into that space. I drew up a little rendering of just such a coaster. A steep lift hill like Intimidator 305 then a turn around the Sky Cabin to the drop. Then and out and back full of airtime ending with a helix over the lagoon. I drew it on Google Earth first with the measuring tool and it's over 4,000 feet long. The lift and turn around might only take up about 400 feet of that. Yeah I know a turn around Sky Cabin is ugly but they are strapped for space. They'll make it work. Of course that's what they should do which means it's what they aren't doing.

How do you make a screenshot of the webcam?

Nope. The dumpster is over by Skin Cabin and a big back-hoe is working the ground and dumping stuff into the dumpster. Edit 10:34pm. Look like they are demolishing the Hat Shop.

Just watched the as they turned on the work lights a few minutes ago then backed in a large shipping container and then a large truck mounted dumpster. This is making some fascinating TV watching! Knott's Network posted a photo earlier today that shows they have been removing railings from the old station. I wonder if that's what the dumpster is for. And has the new BBQ building always been inside the construction wall or is that new?

What I don't understand is this incident occurred in 2014. They only now did the changes once the family sued. In all this time no one else has gotten hurt due to the lack of shinguards. And I think that in a normal court Knott's would clearly win the case. I but you're probably not correct that California legal mumbo-jumbo is probably at fault here.

I would think that whatever is replacing Boom has been designed and planned long before they even announced Boom's closure. I'd even be willing to bet before they even demolished the old BBQ and removed Wipeout. They aren't winging this last minute. But I do agree that the delay has to do with the new ride in some way. My personal opinion is that the ride goes through the restaurant structure in some way or maybe it's all been a ruse and it's actually the new ride station and they've been constructing it under the guise of the BBQ to get a jump on things.

^^ my bad.

I think there are so many wooden coasters out that way because those were the only type back then and most of the original parks were there as well. I guess it makes sense that they would have so many woodies. Like how most newer parks have a plethora of steelies. But HW's are fairly new do I was wondering why in this modern age they kept building them. I like the answer above that Koch liked them. That's actually what I was thinking.

Why does HW have so many wooden coasters? Seems like it took them forever to finally get a steel coaster.

They still have to demolish the two shops I believe.

^ Makes sense. One of the craziest examples is Premier's Sky Rocket at Hershey.

This reminds me of something I've been wondering for a long time. Why do Intamin, Mack, Zierer and Gerstlaurer track look basically the same? Is it the steel manufacturer like how early Intamins and Giovanola looked like modern B&Ms? And why do so many of those tracks switch back and forth between the triangular spine and a flat track and even the cross ties will change throughout the ride.

I'm curious to see if they work at all tonight with the park closing at 8 pm now on the weekdays. Makes me wonder when they will work next, looking at the webcams it looks like all the support pieces are gone. I actually don't why they can't work during the day now.

A soft opening of sorts.

It popped up for me once when my phone autocorrected a bad word into the post and I didn't catch it.

Are they all named as "The Joker"? Because that would be kind of funny if they were.

Could've swore it was the same poster. I'm on my phone and the avatar is really small and they both have coasters in them. Oops. But I've still seen people do that.

What is this fluffy bunny filled with goo deal? I've seen it before.

I would have gone back and edited my initial comment to say "deleted" and or something along those lines rather than leaving it and making a new post saying "oops wrong tbread". But that's just me. I've also noticed that not a lot of people seem to use the edit feature.

It's possible but not likely. Unless they build a big parking structure Knott's needs those lots for parking in the summer.