BeemerBoy

On this day 25 years ago the world lost a true musical, and humanitarian hero.....Bob Marley. So for those of you out there familiar with his work, won't you join me in saluting this great man with a toast of Red Stripe (or potentially something else...(sorry, I'm sure you know what I mean. I just can't condone it. )? "Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds." www.bobmarley.com

That's the first time I've busted out laughing at something in quite a while. Nice pics.....both of you.

Scaparri, I love your zest for Indy cars...I really do. Sadly, I gotta agree with most of the others on this one. This race used to be relevent, now it's just another race with too much hype. I quit watching the day the CART/IRL split thing happened, and haven't tuned in since. Other sports can recover from scandals or lockouts, etc. Unfortunately, open wheel racing is not one of them. I admit, I did tune in to watch Patrick last year to see if it was just media hype, or if she was the real deal on some level. Personally, I think she really can race! I hope that the "Hollywood factor" doesn't detract from her honest talent on the track though. That issue aside, I just can't justify calling this race a great American spectacle anymore. In fact, sadly,spectacle may be just what it has become. I remember watching each and every lap of this race as a kid. I even visited on vacation once and took the tour of the facility with the lap around the track, and all that jazz. Times have changed though. I've always really been a Nascar guy first and foremost, and that is where my attention lies whenever I'm gonna watch a race now. Am I wrong in assuming that the only true remaining fans of Indy racing reside in Indiana, or does it just seem that way. That's not a knock on you, just an observation, I guess. I'd love to see the event back the way it was, and I'd even jump at the chance to see it live, but I just can't bring myself to respect the event the way I once did.

^ And luckily God then spared your life. Sorry, couldn't resist. I can honestly say that I went in with an open mind, but was seriously let down. I will say that the launch sequence was pretty good, but the rest seemed like only a slight improvement from "Mission to Mars"...and at least you got to return from Mars on that ride..if I remember correctly. I know I'm a bit harsh on this thing, but honestly I just think Disney could've spent $100,000,000 a better way. But, to each his own, right? Good luck. Hope you enjoy it.

^ And hopefully she won't forget her own lyrics one day after she signs her contract. Good for the rock star though....now he doesn't have to suffer that horrible branding he would've had to live with.

Just one of the many yachts I've worked on in the past. Anyone wanna take a guess who it belongs to?

And Kinzel approved this?

Did I miss the point of this thread, then? I don't seem to see any name calling there, just a simple rant statement. Perhaps someone's feeling guilty about something? I think the mods and I will be discussing this matter later. I believe the pm's I saved will prove my case. Oh, and one more thing. If you're gonna attempt a flame war, please get your facts straight before going public with things. You're not quite the innocent angel you're trying to make yourself out to be. Those of us who were unfortunate enough to see the original version of your BGT PTR can surely attest to that. That is all from me. Sorry for the inconvenience folks. Nothing to see here....rant on.

^ Wait. Is there any coaster in the world that doesn't curve at some point? Maybe it's just really late, and I'm pretty tired, but I can't think of any.

"Decision at Midnight" - The Toasters .....just for you, Niiicolaaah.

^ First of all, that avatar is classic!! Second, glad you caught a great show. I wondered if they were a good live band or not. I'm starting to warm up to them lately.

U, L, T..... They can put the whole alphabet in there if they'd like, as long as it's opened by Memorial Day! (I know, fat chance, right?)

^ I'll pray for you.

Hang on, let me go get a beer and some popcorn. I wanna be around when a CP fanboy steel cage match breaks out. Oh, and keep it on the qt and hush hush, but someone just called me anonymously and said that Dick Kinzel was personally training the Yeti's little brother to work the platform on opening day. From there on, they're gonna leave it up to the Loch Ness Monster to make sure things run smoother than the previous Intamin installations. Makes sense, right? Afterall, it is a water coaster, huh?

Jane Says (live) - Jane's Addiction

^ I'll see your rant, and raise you this: 13 year olds who think they're 30.....

Soren, great pics.....now I'm homesick Anyway, sad to see you missed the Dania Beach Hurricane on the way back. Did you guys actually stop in, or just pass it and not notice any trains running? It usually runs all the time from what I can remember. If you passed by earlier in the day, and especially a weekday, you'd be lucky to see it running at all, but that's only because everbody's at school or work, and there's no one there to ride. And, yes, as Eric mentioned, this definitely is the best woodie south of Dollywood IMHO. Packed with airtime and unlimited rides all for the low low price of ten bucks. As far as your burn goes, you should actually hope it starts peeling soon....that would be a very good sign for all you skin care enthusiasts out there. Glad you guys enjoyed SoBe. -Scott "the resident Dania Beach Hurricane fanboy" B.

I've got a question for those of you more familiar with the park, and more specifically the ride they removed. I'm curious, are they keeping the entire queue building and/or line intact? And if so, is this because they plan for the new ride to follow the same load/unload path the old ride used?

^ I'm not sure what LC's, or any other wave swinger's top speed is, but I'm pretty sure it's safe to say that Kick Boodie trumps it. I'm working on possibly getting some video from an old friend of mine. If I do, I'll definitely post it in here for you to see. Just to note for a better frame of reference....in the second pic, it's only about 30 seconds into the ride, and it's another 15 or so before you kick your partner the first time. If there's anybody left by the fourth level, those seats would be well out of the pics, and way above the speakers on the "station" center part....if you can imagine that.

^ Wow, that's insane. I guess they'll just have to up the stakes and run only one train to hit the 10 hour mark maybe?

Well, I've been drawn into the drama which is Cedar Point '07. We've got little birdies chirping secrets, kids ready to denounce the name of their favorite park, and a mysterious tarp-covered track lurking in the distance. So, I'll go ahead and take a stab at it. After looking back over all the "facts" that have been presented, I'll go with the ball coaster theory...and here's why: 1) Elissa suggested another Intamin prototype. While I don't follow this stuff as closely as some of you do, I would tend to believe Elissa on this one. 2) The word prototype is defined as: An original model after which other similiar things are paterned. Am I correct in assuming there's currently no other ball coasters in the world? If not, then this would be the first. 3) Ole Dickie boy and CP like to be the first at whatever they do. It doesn't necessarily need to be the best of whatever it is.....just the first. Ex: Magnum=1st hyper, MF=first giga, TTD=first strata, etc. etc. 4) Judging by the RCDB pics, if it were to be an Aqutrax, that type of coaster seems to work better when highly themed.....and I just don't see CP going all out in the theming department. See examples below. 5) CP has dropped hints such as "put two and two together" and "we're heading in a different direction"....that would seem to match up somewhat with the pic below in several ways. Of course, if they are indeed going with another low capacity ride, personally I'd rather see the wing walker with the effect similiar to Sheikra. The "spray cone brakes" are patented and wouldn't even be necessary. I just think the design of the wing walker lends itself better to the effect of traveling over water like Sheikra does. Your feet would swoop down over the water rather than having a floorboard beneath you. But heh, whatever. In the end, I'm probably wrong no matter what I think it might be. But if it is either of the two types mentioned, then I guess CP is also trying to go for the first 8 hour wait in the world too. Who knows, maybe the B&M track hasn't shown up yet, and this is really gonna be a true dueling coaster..... B&M vs. Intamin. They can give up the name "Maverick" and go with "Clash of the Titans." Anyway, big thanks to Johnnyupsidedown, Beber, and RCDB for the pics.

^ What you see in the second pic is a good indication of how far the empty chairs remained from each other. When you first sat down and got chained in, you had to literally move yourselves together. As far as the speed goes, that's hard to say. Just imagine those chairs almost literally sideways. Hopefully that can give you a decent idea of the speed this thing carried. Thinking back on it, I will say this.....it became VERY difficult to even hang on, much less kick your partner at 4th level!! This thing really did make a wave swinger look like a walk in the park. What's great is that when the owner realized he had a pair of riders who were good, he'd challenge them by pushing the limits of what that thing could do. Typically, there'd only be one pair left connected by the end of the fourth level......and that's out of about 7-8 pairs (hard to tell how many from the limited pics I got left).

You know, as far as I can remember this thing when still in operation, I know that it did have a perfectly clean safety record. That's just another reason I'm wondering if there's a chance it could possibly still be around somewhere.

The history of my search began on Sun May 07, 2006 with the following post: This thread is about one of those diamonds in the rough. It's about a ride that has taken on "legendary" status amongst those who were lucky enough to have experienced it back in the day. For starters, unfortunately, most of you out there in TPR land may not have ever seen or heard of this thing. Secondly, I recently discovered the pictures that have been buried in a box full of memories since 1986. And finally, I was still in the process of researching to see if it even still exists, and if so, its current whereabouts. Sadly, after hours of searching just about every source I could, I have come up empty. In a nutshell, this was a traveling carnival flat ride which regularly made the rounds in South Florida in the 80's, and if memory serves me correctly, possibly into the early 90's. I was young then, and obviously not up on the history of the ride itself. I highly doubt it ever traveled outside the state due to the fact it would have to be licensed. The ride itself was situated on a small trailer-type thing, hauled by a private motorcoach, and I believe owned by a family of three who proudly took the ride everywhere. For years I have wondered how this ride was built....possibly as a one-off by a single person? It's actually a very simple creation that just works. Take the concept of your typical wave swinger and then make it interactive. The result? What I personally consider to be the greatest ride ever created....KICK BOODIE!!! There she is in all her glory. Sadly, my mother was a horrible photographer, and couldn't even get her two sons in the picture. Anyway, as you can see, it's a very simple looking ride. Here's how it operated. As you can see in the pics, you rode with a partner..the kicker and kickee, if you will. As the owner/operator started the ride, you would be connected as shown in the pics. There were generally about 3-4 different levels at which it would swing. The first level would obviously be the novice one. At this point the ride operator would get on the pa system and yell....KIIIIIICK BOODIEEEEEEEE!!, at which the kicker would promptly boot the kickee as hard as possible. Now the interactive part really begins. Naturally, the object would be to reconnect while swinging. This was easy at the first level, and could be done by two blindfolded monkeys. As you may have figured, each level becomes progressively tougher to reconnect. There were no rules as to how you reconnected either. By the third level, those who were good enough to still be together would be trying desperately to grab onto anything possible! It was amazing. You'd see people reconnecting by a simple shoestring....and that's no exaggeration either. It was brilliant in design as you could see even by those two pics. Despite not having a full load, the chairs were still spaced out perfectly, as not to cause congestion by the other riders. Also, if you weren't unable to reconnect, you were doomed to swing alone and be laughed at by everyone waiting and watching. Here's the great and terrifying part at the same time. All of this was happening pretty fast. If you can imagine a wave swinger in action, try to imagine the force it would take to put those chairs almost parallel to the ground. AND, if you look real close, the restraints were as minimal as you can get. Yep, that's just one single chain over the rider's lap, thread through a hole in the seat's grating, and clipped off as shown below (sorry, the only two pics I have). The simple chain restraint meant you had almost complete range of motion in order to reach out and connect by hand, leg, wristwatch, shoelace, whatever. If you're sitting in a chair with no armrests right now, lean over as far as you can in every direction while keeping your waist in one spot. Now imagine doing that while flying almost parallel to the ground, AND trying to grab a hold of your kicker. I swear, out of all the rides I've been on to this day, nothing comes close to how fun this thing was. One thing I've noticed is how Flyers and Kick Boodie are pretty similar in design. As you could see, they seem to be connected in a very similiar fashion, with the flyers obviously carrying a bit more weight. With all that said, I'm basically wondering if anyone out there has any knowledge of this incredible ride? I have tried numerous outlets in an attempt to see if it's even still around, with little to no success. There's no doubt that back in the day, wherever this bad boy went, it was the highlight of the carnival. I know of many instances where places would even trim back trees in an attempt to lure these folks to their carnival. On the same note, I've had many friends who wouldn't even go to their friend's carnival if KICK BOODIE wasn't there! UPDATES: - On Saturday, May 9th, 2009 (Page 3), we started to hear from some folks with some memories of the ride. - Then on Thursday, July 30th, 2009, we learned of its apparent demise, as it was reported to have been seen rotting away in a Kentucky field. - Finally, on September 12, 2010, TPR member "RedB" posted two links (page 9) which listed the ride "for sale." I immediately contacted the owners, and have been in touch ever since in a determined effort to see Kick Boodie operate again. While it took a little while to uncover and finally receive footage of this great ride, the wait was certainly well worth it. My deepest appreciation goes out to RedB for that great find, to all the new members who have posted their fond memories in this thread, and finally to the incredible owners of Kick Boodie. They are two of the most gracious and dedicated people I've ever met. Their enthusiasm for the ride is very inspiring, and I'm so happy to have finally reconnected with them after more than two decades! Here's a description of what you'll see in the following video: NOTE: For starters, all footage was transferred from old VHS tapes to DVD, edited, and then uploaded to TPR. As you might imagine, unfortunately some quality was compromised along the way. However, to my knowledge, it is currently the only existing footage of the ride on the internet. I hope you enjoy it, and it gives you an idea of the awesomeness! - The footage starts out showing the first level of interaction. It was always like the "starter," or "novice" level to get new riders accustomed to the ride. You'll notice as the video progresses that the owner/operator would occasionally slow the ride down after the first level to reconnect the "meatballs" that failed miserably. You should also be able to notice how the speed and height of the swings increases at different levels. - Footage from inside the operator's booth starts at 4:24. - At 6:51 you can see the owners demonstrate their skills on the ride with no other riders present. They make it look effortless. Something to notice though is perfect spacing of the swings. Even with empty seats, you were never in danger of really slamming into an open swing in front or behind you. - POV begins at 12:05. Disregard the two kids in front of the camera. They were young and disconnected early. Thus, they had to swing alone the whole ride. [coastertube]http://www.themeparkreview.com/coastertube/play.php?vid=KickBoodie_Edited_Video_xvv3[/coastertube]

^ Yeah, you beat me to it, xdisney. $11!!!!! Joe, are you sure T2 didn't box that brain around too much?