thrillgeek Posted March 31, 2008 Share Posted March 31, 2008 What made you guy's all addicted to coasters/theme parks? For me I was deathly afraid of all rides let alone coasters when I was little. Then my parents took me to Disneyland when I was about 7. I screamed and kicked while in line but they forced me to ride every one. Ever sence that faithful trip I've been addicted and still thank my parents for making me ride the rides. Because of me we've been on many theme park vacations to so-cal and Florida. What about you guy's and gals? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roland303 Posted March 31, 2008 Share Posted March 31, 2008 Well.... I went to Worlds of Fun in Kansas City when I was young (5 or 6) and was frightened/enthralled by these huge machines. My first memory is riding the Zambezi Zinger, a spiral lift coaster that is unfortunately somewhat rare these days. It was scary as sh** to me and the tunnel was pretty friggin' low (some rumors abound that people lost their hands on it) and I was hooked. Even the smell of blacktop smells good to me, as it brings back those memories of going to Worlds of Fun on summer weekends with family and friends... . Â Another memorable trip was to the defunct Boardwalk and Baseball in Orlando, Fl when I was 15. Like a carnival on steroids, it was pretty fun with tons of carny games and a pretty fun woodie. Â So now I get excited at the prospect of going to amusement parks or whatevers. My wife is not nearly as enthused, as she associates it with kids or some such thing, but when our little girl gets older, daddy will gladly take her to any park she wants! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saxman47 Posted March 31, 2008 Share Posted March 31, 2008 I always kinda liked coasters, but I never really knew anything about them and rarely thought about them when I wasn't at a theme park. This changed when I visited Six Flags Magic Mountain in the summer of 2005, mostly in part due to X. My one ride on this totally blew me away. When I got home from my vacation I wanted to know everything about it, how it worked, who built it, if there were any more, etc. I had never seen or even imagined anything like that and even when waiting in line I really didn't know what I was getting myself into. I thought you just sat on the outside.....I had no idea you went up backwards, dropped face first, and spun 360 degrees throughout the ride. I was definitely a "dumb GP" Â anyway, after researching X I began to learn about arrow, intamin, b&m, etc. and I've been hooked ever since. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLIPDUDE Posted March 31, 2008 Share Posted March 31, 2008 I was born liking them. Â We had a small amusement park in front of our house when I was a baby and I would constantly watch a carousel of some sort from the balcony and keep saying "Cousella go up and down." even though I'm pretty sure I was too small to ride anything there. Â I also had a toy carousel which I loved playing with, and I rode my first rollercoaster when I was three, which was a Dragon Wagon on a skyscraper's terrace. Â When I was 13 years old I already had over 80 credits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SFjunkie2010 Posted March 31, 2008 Share Posted March 31, 2008 I used to be terrified of anything tall until about 3 years ago when my friend forced me to ride SROS SFNE. Ever since that I've loved them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebl Posted March 31, 2008 Share Posted March 31, 2008 For me, amusement parks always meant "fun." Disneyland got me hooked, then Magic Mountain opened when I hit age 12. Â The rest is history. Â Eric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Top Thrill Dragster Posted March 31, 2008 Share Posted March 31, 2008 I got hooked after riding Drachen Fire at BGE. After that I had to have every book, VHS or recorded every TV special that came on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpengeist04 Posted March 31, 2008 Share Posted March 31, 2008 My aunt got me hooked on amusement parks when I was 7 or 8, with my first visit to Great Adventure. ...My love for coasters shortly followed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cedarpointfangirl Posted March 31, 2008 Share Posted March 31, 2008 I was hooked back in the mid 80's. My homepark was KD at the time. I lived in Ashland and I was only about 7-8 miles from the park. I think my Mom had a big thing to do with me really getting hooked. She and I would go and ride like crazy. I can remember when the King Kobra was there we would get on and off like a million times. She was just like a kid, we'd run like crazy to get back on. I remember when they put Shockwave in back in 1986, I was so nervous, I paced around by that thing for about an hour before I got on. I loved it, after that is when my addiction really began. The summers my mom would drop us off and we would spend the day. Man those memories are some of the best. Thats why KD holds a very special place in my heart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
no_brain_er Posted March 31, 2008 Share Posted March 31, 2008 I believe it was when I went to Family Kingdom in Myrtle Beach for the first time. I was like 4, and it was the coolest thing ever. I was actually too scared to go on any of the "big rides" until I was maybe 8 or 9. Then I rode Great American Scream Machine at SFOG, and I was hooked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfotkid Posted April 1, 2008 Share Posted April 1, 2008 My sister forced me on Titan, thena year later I had 40 credits... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cycamps Posted April 1, 2008 Share Posted April 1, 2008 My friend invited my to SFGAm a few years back. After riding the coasters, I had a sudden fascination, and here I am today! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lapseofreason Posted April 1, 2008 Share Posted April 1, 2008 I've always loved amusement parks. When I was four my aunt and uncle took me on a mini road trip which included the Cleveland Zoo, Conneaut Lake, and Cedar Point. Unfortunately all I remember from this trip is throwing up twice. Â Also, my family didn't have a lot of money growing up, so when we could manage trips to Geauga Lake it was pretty much the most awesome thing on the planet. I rode my first coaster at an end-of-the year field trip in 5th grade; my mom was chaperoning and I remember dragging her on Corkscrew twice. (Actually, I rode the 2nd time while she waited at the exit...lol). Â I don't know why I rode it... I just felt like I really wanted to. I guess I was born to love coasters. After that the rest was history... I worked my way up to riding everything I could, and still do now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thrillgeek Posted April 1, 2008 Author Share Posted April 1, 2008 I got hooked after riding Drachen Fire at BGE. After that I had to have every book, VHS or recorded every TV special that came on. Â I used to tape the coaster shows every time they came on tv as well. I'm sad I haven't seen any for a while Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterguy4 Posted April 1, 2008 Share Posted April 1, 2008 Believe it or not, RCT2. Also the Tatsu construction updates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xcastn0shad0wx Posted April 1, 2008 Share Posted April 1, 2008 Well I remember being in 5th grade and in that class we read these little four page world news type things and in it, it had a piece about millennium force and how it was going to be the tallest coaster in the world and how it was taller than the statue of liberty. (and I think somewhere I may still have this paper) then that next day I went home and told my dad that I wanted to ride this and he had agreed. (Before this point all I had ridden coaster wise was BGT and the raven at HW. That same year my older sister took me to Kings Island.) But just to show how stupid of a non coaster enthusiast I was when we got to Cedar Point before we rode MF I was angered that it didn’t have any inversions in it. Then I rode it and that didn’t matter---I fell in love. That next year I learned of ThePointOL.com and got hooked to the forums and kind of watched them build Wicked Twister and I wasn’t too impressed and didn’t go that year. The next year I read through all the rumors on TTD and was then truly addicted to the forums and became a true rollercoaster enthusiast. The rest is history. lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spaceace12 Posted April 1, 2008 Share Posted April 1, 2008 The Voyage. Â I remember them announcing it, I rode the online simulation 100's of times, then it took 3 visits to actually ride a coaster, but after that third visit. it hasn't stopped. My first coaster was legend, but its photo hut thing was not open. So here is my first onride photo from the voyage, second coaster ride ever!!! I am in the back, the bigger built person, perhaps a little festivally plump. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doom1001 Posted April 1, 2008 Share Posted April 1, 2008 I've always liked them since I was little,but what led me from normal coaster fan to the addiction I have now I could trace back to the moment I stepped off my first ride on Montu back in 1996.Pretty much after that it's all been about taping any kind of amusement related show and watching them over and over and making as many park trips as I can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dino Posted April 1, 2008 Share Posted April 1, 2008 Wow. Everyone else seems to have been into coasters since they were young. I was always too afraid to go on them. I didn't get on one till I was 18 (california screamin' which I rode mainly, just because I felt I was too old to still be afraid). After that I loved them, and got interested in the way they were made and worked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoseMarie Posted April 2, 2008 Share Posted April 2, 2008 I got into coasters when I was 10 or so and my sister dragged me along onto that Pepsi Ripsaw coaster at the Mall of America. From that moment I've been an unrepentant thrill junkie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
downunder Posted April 2, 2008 Share Posted April 2, 2008 I heard it was a great way to get hot girls, and enthusiast events were chockfull of undiscerning playboy bunny types. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dleo Posted April 2, 2008 Share Posted April 2, 2008 This is an interesting question. I think that I have always had some sort of innate like of rollercoasters. When I really think of it I remember being obsessed with the film Rollercoaster when it came out (a film about derailing trains no less). I checked and that was 1977... so I was 7 years old. I remember drawing my own rollercoasters on paper during childhood and even animating them to a certain extent by cutting slits in the paper so I could make the trains follow small parts of the track. I did speeches on amusement parks back in grade school and at the time thought that I might become a rollercoaster designer (didn't realize at that age the engineering aspect of it). I rode my first coaster when I was 11 when Canada's Wonderland opened. I kind of wained for a bit during the teen/university years but I have always considered a REAL vacation as including coasters. I guess my interest got re-ignited with the invent of the Invert. So coasters have almost always been a part of my life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCody Posted April 2, 2008 Share Posted April 2, 2008 *Snerk!* Â For me, it was sheer terror. As a kid, I was petrified around coasters for some reason-- my family would go to SFGAm and I'd refuse to go on anything. But that fear created the obsession. When I finally did start riding coasters around the age of 11 or 12, the release was so overpowering that I became hooked. And now I'm just a straight-up adrenaline junkie. Â I'm not sure why I'm so fascinated by the structures themselves, though. I could just look at coasters for hours. It's weird, because it's not like I'm an architecture buff or anything. I just find coasters beautiful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllenA07 Posted April 2, 2008 Share Posted April 2, 2008 ^ I can relate to that, I don't currently live near any major parks, but I enjoy just looking at the design of the structures. They are really impressive looking! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpcman Posted April 2, 2008 Share Posted April 2, 2008 I'm really not sure what got me into roller coasters. I'm pretty sure that it all goes back to my parents who ride them. We live about 40 minutes from Hershey and it all started there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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