Where did the rush go?

[skaunit]

Alright I have a question for my fellow roller coaster freaks.

 

I searched and couldn't find a topic like this....

 

I remember back when I was in middle/high school, that I got a good rush almost every time I rode a "big" roller coaster... only on that first drop though. My home park is California's Great America, so I'm mostly referring to Top Gun, Demon, Vortex, Grizzly, etc.

 

As I got older, It started to be only on the first ride of the day, so I tried to make the first ride of the day the biggest drop.

 

Now, the past few times I have been to SFMM [which has the biggest coasters near me], especially my most recent trip for WCB [omg awesome time, SOOOO going next year], I didn't get that feeling at all the whole day, not even on Superman, which has what like 5 or 6 seconds of weightlessness?

 

So, my question is:

Do you think that this is because we become numb to that sort of thing over time and going on so many roller coasters? Or do some of you still get that pit-of-stomach rush? Am I in the minority or the majority? I would make a poll, but I don't really know how to describe it any better and im sure some people are going to be confused.

 

I still get blood rushes from g-forces... one of my favorite experiences ever is on the back row of Tatsu going through that head first loop, man that is awesome, even better than the helix on Golaith. Though the first time I ever rode Goliath [before the brake run was so drastic] I blacked out at the end of that helix, first time EVER blacking out on a ride, even though it was just a split second.

 

So anyway, thoughts? Opinions? Understand what I'm getting at? Any way to get that feeling again [lol]?

[matteocrepaldi]

I had the same problem. Last year when I was in Madrid in November I didn't get that feeling as you said. I rode Superman Acero many times but the only feeling I got was being pulled out of the seat but nothing to my stomach.

 

So I waited 5 months, I went on Katun in Mirabilandia and I had that great feeling again.

 

So for me it was helpful to stay away from coaster for a while.

[FLIPDUDE]

Well, we're called andrenaline junkies for a reason. Andrenaline is much like drugs(thankfully, I am not speaking from experience, though). Once you've done something for a while you need something a little bigger and better to get the same kick. I used to get that rush from regular rides, then when those got broing I got them only on big rides, then after I rode Kingda Ka everything got boring so I went skydiving, and that made everything else boring, but THEN my seatbelt came undone halfway through riding cornballe xpress and I got the same crazy rush, thinking I was actually at risk(though it later turns out I wasn't).

 

Nowdays the rides that give me that rush are crazy flat rides that are usually an upcharge like skycoasters or SCAD towers.

 

 

And I think that stomache-in-your-mouth feeling is partially just experiencing weightlessenss for the first times and your body still doesn't get what that feeling is.

[paintballer]

Try closing your eyes and changing the angle of you head, does it every-time for me! Try even twisting your body around on non OTSR rides.

[skaunit]

I was about to ask what you meant by non OTSR, then I realized that's Over The Shoulder Restraints.

 

I never thought about closing my eyes, I'll def. have to try that out...

 

I'm headed to SFGAdv in 2 weeks and I am def. looking forward to Kingda Ka.

 

I think flipdude hit the nail on the head though, its the Adrenalin Junkie that's causing it.

 

It's cool though, because I can still thoroughly enjoy a coaster with good airtime, or good g forces, or X2 [because there's really nothing like it and its so damn much fun, its funny because it doesn't really have good g-forces, but i guess it has good airtime]

 

Next time I'm on Goliath or Superman at SFMM i'll give the close eyes and twist method a try.

[Teacups Make Me Sick]

You wont get that feeling from Kingda Ka...but you will feel your stomach in your mouth (so to speak) on El Toro.

 

 

From thenakedscientists.com

Why does your stomach get left behind when an aeroplane drops? Emile from Dubai

 

 

Aeroplanes suddenly drop and you feel weightless. You are almost becoming weightless, normally your stomach is being held up by your body, but if your body is falling at the same rate as your stomach wants to fall under gravity all of a sudden the supporting tissues can relax, pulling your guts upwards.

 

Your guts and your viscera are quite heavy. They’re also hanging inside you so your stomach hangs down below your diaphragm and it’s connected to your guts. Everything is pretty much mobile. If you do an operation on a patient it’s always amazing to think that when we used to open people up for appendicitis or something you can see the guts writhing around themselves. It’s not dramatically fast like a snake pit or something but you can actually see them moving. Everything is mobile, it’s gotta be like that to enable things to move. The guts have to be able to stretch to take in things and shrink again when things move through them. Because it’s all not fixed inside you if you go over a bump when the car or aeroplane drops on the other side of the bump your body is a bit left behind for a little while. There’s enormous number of stretch receptors and vibrations sensors in your guts. That’s why people talk about having a gut feeling for something. It’s very true. A lot of the frequencies that we get from the world around us, the low frequency vibrations are felt in your abdomen and you think you’re sensing them from your abdomen but enormous amounts of that information comes from your gut. It’s a gut feeling, quite literally. Because those stretch receptors get excited when your guts literally fly up in the air with your body moving down around them. As a result it does feel like you have a sort of sinking feeling.

 

The other reason you get a sinking feeling is because you might get a bit frightened. When an aeroplane suddenly drops you can have that moment of terror, ‘Oh my god, is the aeroplane gonna drop out of the sky?’ What happens then is you get a little surge of adrenaline. Your sympathetic nerve system kicks-in in a very big way. That’s the part of the nerve system that gears you up if you’re going to run away or have a big fight with someone. That produces lots of adrenaline and adrenaline powerfully switches off your guts because the one thing you don’t want to be doing when you’re trying to run away is wasting your blood supply feeding your guts. You want your blood going to your muscles and your lungs every other part of your body when you need to run away of fight. So you turn off your guts and that turn-ff signal gives you that sinking feeling or the butterflies you get in your stomach so it could be possible a combination of the two effects, I reckon.

 

May 2008

[larrygator]

Of course we get desensitized to it as we get more acclimated. It happens with all your senses in different situations in life (taste of food, background noise, bad odors).

 

That's why even though I don't love the ride, I always try to ride S:UF at SFGAdv when I'm there if there is no line. The unique feel of the B&M Flyer Pretzel always throws me for a loop (no pun intended) and brings back that thrilling feeling where my body asks, "What the hell is going on?"

[CreditCrazy]

I actually do still get a nice rush on roller coasters, especially launch coasters. Even rides like Montezooma's Revenge and Pony Express give me a small rush, and I remember getting small stomach drops on rides like Grizzly, Giant Dipper (SCBB), etc. The twisting your head thing seems to work on log rides or water coasters and make it more thrilling, but I don't know about roller coasters. It is probably true that I don't get as much of a rush I did riding these coasters for the first time, or when I started them, but I do definately get a small rush.

[Hercules]

I still get a nervous kind of rush when I ride a large ride for the first time. There is just something about the unknown that kind of gets to me. Even though I have been on a lot of coasters, and other types of rides, and even though I know some layouts by heart or have seen a POV of the ride, there is nothing like actually getting onto the ride for real. But then after that, I tend to lose that rush kind of feeling. I tend to get bored with rides very easily as I get accustomed to them, unless it is a very good ride that I can have fun on. As Larry said, everyone gets desensitized when you do something a lot.

 

The only ride that I have been on multiple times that I still get scared of is Kingda Ka.

 

There are still a few rides that I have fun on when I get on them even though I have been on the many times, including:

 

- Steel Force

- Talon

- Superman: Ride of Steel (which I guess will be Bizzaro soon)

- Nitro

- El Toro

 

Just to name a few. I still attend the parks in my area every year because there is at least one rides that I'm not bored with, and can still get a little rush on, or just have fun riding. If I got bored with everything, there wouldn't be a point in making this a hobby of mine. The day I get completely numb will be the day I stop spending money on season passes, and take up base jumping.

[sam06pr]

I get what you are saying. When I went to BGE I did not feel that awesome rush feeling on Aplie or on Apollos. But for some reason I did on BBW and Nessie...Griffon was in between. Maybe is older rides that get me rushed? I dunno

 

I also noticed I have been getting weak...When I rode The Backlot Stunt coaster at KD I almost blacked out, and when I rode Kingda Ka, I thought I was going to die. My head felt like it wanted to explode. Maybe cause I was at the back. But having happen this in one trip really got me concern. I mean I am only 20....

I also got on Kraken a few weeks ago and I felt so dizzy afterward, not sure what happened....

[KrakenKing]

Dehydration maybe?

 

Try drinking more Water, Sam, and see if that helps. Nice seeing you at Sea World by the way! Hope you got to see Manta test.

 

 

 

Back on topic:

I hardly get that feeling anymore. The last time I got it was doing a SCAD tower, but with Coasters... hmm, I think The Voyage was the last true "Stomach in mouth" feeling for me on a coaster, almost Millennium Force.

 

It's been a while since I've ridden a coaster though, so maybe that feeling will be back now.

[TheHulk]

I've had a similar thing happen to me when I was over at BGT. I rode Sheikra a few times during the day, then went back at night. On that night ride, I noticed that I didn't get that feeling on the drops. (Believe I rode Montu and Kumba before this as well) Then about a year ago, I went to Disney and went on Space Mountain. There were those feelings agin. My suggestion, just give it a rest for awhile, and hopefully, you'll get that feeling once more.

[FeelTheFORCE]

I haven't gotten that feeling for years. I only get it on drop towers anymore, and even that's usually a hit or miss, and doesn't happen all the time.

[Josh Linn]

I have the same problem. Back when I started riding coasters, I got a rush on every ride I went on. Hell, I thought Iron Dragon was amazing after I got off. Now, it's only a select few that get me that feeling. El Toro, Dragster, Kingda Ka, Millennium Force, and Storm Runner are the only ones I can think of that do. I'll always come off the ride pumped and excited as can be for those, but the others are just normal now. It sucks, really.

[Guest]

I know what you mean by not getting that Rush feeling anymore. I rode MF and felt nothing on the drop. Hands Up Eyes Open and no gut wrenching feeling at all. El Toro will always give you that feeling though because your not used to dropping 76 degrees on a wooden coaster!

 

Whenever you ride Nitro at Gadv look to your left and watch Kingda Ka as you drop down the hill. ZOMFG! I didn't know where my stomach was.

Always close your eyes on any drop because it makes the ride more intense.

[Kennyweird]

Yeah, as you ride more coasters, your body becomes used to free fall, forces, etc.

 

If you want to maximize your thrills whenever you visit an amusement park, try the smaller coasters first, then work your way up, that way each coaster seems more thrilling than the last.

[ghost007jas]

What I've noticed is that since I have so completely rationalized away any possible fears of riding any attraction that I just don't get that rush anymore.

 

My solution was to "let go" of my coaster enthusiastness and just kind of.. enjoy the ride. Don't think about it, don't "brace yourself" for turns, etc. I've noticed that the less I think about the ride, the more I enjoy it.

[Satchboogie3]

Are we defining "rush" as the "butterflies in your stomach" feeling, or just a release of adrenaline?

 

For me, I never get that "butterflies" in the stomach feeling at theme parks (although, I still sometimes do get it before going to a poker session if I'm on a bad downswing...). However, I still often get the adrenaline rush.

 

The big rides (El Toro, Nitro, Superman: Ride of Steel, etc etc) will always give me the adrenaline rush and get me very exciting. New rides/roller coasters always get my blood pumping as well, but as for the "butterflies", those are long gone in theme parks. Anyways, I don't really care for the "butterflies", its all about the adrenaline for me.

 

I guess, though, it does suck a little that a lot of us no longer get adrenaline on normal/small coasters.

[Myst3Exile]

I've only ridden maybe 15 roller coasters since I began my addiction to them 6 years ago (It took me 3 years to even get on one ) This means that I get a REALLY intense stomach in mouth feeling on EVERYTHING. I nearly had a heart attack on the fire dragon airtime hill over in IOA and so far I haven't heard of anyone else experiencing even a slight amount of airtime there. I don't know what rides with lots of air would be like but I'll be in California in a couple of months so I'll see then. I almost feel bad for you guys since it's such an awesome feeling but at the same time I totally envy all of you since I would sell my soul to get to Cedar Point. (Not quite)

[netdvn]

I haven't been on enough coasters to lose the butterflies in the stomach feeling and I only get it on drops.

 

In areas with high g-forces, I feel something press up against my body.

 

In inversions, I don't feel anything.

[JFrombaugh]

Well I'm creeping up on 100 coasters now and I still get that tingle-in-stomach feeling on most launches, drops, and airtime hills. Titan gave me about 3 seconds of tingles on the first drop, and these also affected my stomach a lot as I recall: ToT, Boardwalk Bullet, Ghostrider, SKC, Tatsu's pretzel, and TTD's launch.

 

Joseph "Hoping coasters will still be fun after I become immune to the feelings" Frombaugh

[TheHulk]

Actually just thought of this. Whenever visiting IOA, I always ride Dueling Dragons multiple times. After so many times, I really don't get that feeling anymore. (Except for the air time when the Fire dragon is going over Ice in its zero g roll. That always gets me...in a good way. Lol)

[coasterdude5]

I still get that feeling in my stomach on some big drops and most launches. I think alot of it has to do with your pre-ride anticipation. For me I usually would get nervous before really big rides and I think that would add to the feeling. That doesn't happen as often anymore. I don't think I ride them often enough to have "gotten used to them".

[Angry_Gumball]

I'll still get those 'tickles' coming down the first drop on the Demon, only when sitting on the back seat. On Flight Deck/Top Gun, I actually don't experience it on the first drop, but do feel a nice stomach in the mouth feeling going through the loop following the drop. Drop Tower/Zone never fails to deliver that tingle...in fact, it gives tingles so much that my body tends to 'freeze' into a position and unable to move until deceleration, which is why I'd fear bringing a camera on such a ride.

[ElToroExtreme]

On the ground by the Mindbender @ SFOG:P