Embarrassed of parks...

[tarheel1231]

I am embarrassed about this hobby sometimes. Every time I look up Fury 325 on a webcam at school, people say "what's wrong with you? Why do you keep up looking coasters at Carowinds? LOLOLOLOLOL!"'

 

Middle School is a terrible, terrible place.

[gerstlaueringvar]

Not at all, this is what makes us special. I'm so glad that I'm not into video games, cars etc that are "normal" hobbies, here being a roller coaster enthusiast is a really rare thing and people actually put me into the "cool kid" group. So I'm very proud to say I'm an enthusiast, but not in a "screaming at everyone's face" way.

[rcjp]

^Agree. I'm also into other things such as cars but not as much as this and it's definitely something different from most people.

[willh51]

Don't even worry about it. When I was studying for the bar exam I had the live cams from Verbolten and Cedar Point on my computer screen to keep me sane.

[Geauga Dog]

I used to be the same way. When I was a teen I really took a lot of interest in this hobby and would read about all the newest rides each year. I cut back on my enthusiasm as I realized how bored those I talked to would look. Now I wait for them to bring up the topic.

[dippindotsguy8]

I don't care that much, but it is true in my experience that a lot of people look down on me for it. It's perfectly acceptable to be insanely obsessed with sports, but tell them I'm a coaster enthusiast and they think I'm a loser haha. At least out here in SoCal, there's tons of people at my school obsessed with Disneyland.

 

 

I often wonder how the industry would look if amusement parks had the following sports has.

[Sharon29060]

I'm not embarrassed of it, but it's not something I would constantly bring up in a conversation with GP, unless I'm in a park. My family and a few friends know that I'm a coaster enthusiast. My family thinks it's kind of a cool hobby and find it interesting, and sometimes will ask me questions regarding roller coasters. Most of my friends don't know about it because I'm afraid they might think it's weird, but they do know I go to SFGAm a lot.

 

I remember a few months ago, I went to SFGAm with a few friends who had never been there before. I was like their "tour guide" and often asked me questions about different rides. They were very impressed by my knowledge and had a great time too! I was very happy I had convinced them to go on Goliath as they were a little intimidated by it and the fact that it goes upside down, but at the end they loved it!

 

Again I'm very proud to be a coaster enthusiast, but how nerdy I am depends on who I'm talking to. With my family and a few friends I'll be more nerdy, but with my GP friends I don't nearly talk as much about it as I don't want to bore them talking about something they might not be interested in.

[Firechaser]

I am embarrassed about this hobby sometimes. Every time I look up Fury 325 on a webcam at school, people say "what's wrong with you? Why do you keep up looking coasters at Carowinds? LOLOLOLOLOL!"'

 

Middle School is a terrible, terrible place.

I know exactly how you feel but at least where I'm in the Advanced Class most people have a certain hobby.

[prozach626]

YES. I'm right there with you, OP. I call my enthusiasm for roller coasters my closet hobby. I'm not your typical enthusiast. I'm a cop for a living, I play a ton of Ice Hockey, and I love fast cars. I'm not a fitness model by any means, but I obsess over fitness and well being and I exercise at least 5-6 days a week.

 

Some of the things I will never see eye to eye on with most other enthusiasts:

*Disney doesn't do anything for me. Until I'm in the unfortunate situation of having a small child, I'll never go back to any Disney park.

*You will never find me at a park show. EVER.

*I like a nice atmosphere, but overloaded geeky themeing does nothing for me.

*You will never catch me wearing theme park shirts or hats, but I do buy the occasional coffee cup or shot glass.

*I enjoy corporate parks with mediocre themeing, specifically Cedar Fair parks.

*And my pet peeve: Even 'good' park food is bad food to me. Not only is it unhealthy, but it's mostly frozen junk loaded with junk carbs. If I'm going to eat like crap, I'm not going to blow my load on park food when I can (and do) leave the park and get chicken wings and beer for the same price as frozen chicken strips and french fries.

 

I've gotten a little flack for my roller coaster hobby, especially from the guys I work with, but for the most part people think it's pretty cool. I have a rule where I never bring up coastering myself. People find out when they ask me where I'm going on my next trip or when a friend will mention it to someone. That usually saves me from being labelled. If people ask about coasters I'll give them information, but most people don't give a crap who makes what coaster or any of the technicalities.

 

I sometimes think it would be cool to get together with a group of guys, have a few beers, and talk coasters. My concern is that I'll be really annoyed if someone gets overly geeked up about the subject. I have a low tolerance for fanboys.

 

As for sharing things with my wife... She will go to the park and have a mostly good time, but her tolerance is low. She tries to care because I care, but mostly she doesn't give a crap about technicalities. I feel like when I show her pictures online, like the toping of Fury325, it only makes her less attracted to me, lol. She's in a similar boat where she loves magic/fantasy type books, movies, and shows (harry potter, lord of the rings, etc), but she doesn't fit the stereotype at all. At least we both have outlier hobbies.

[Sharman19]

I have a wallpaper of Leviathan and Fury 325 and my friends think it's Millennium Force, and I get embarrassed of trying to correct them.

[GwaziBSRider1]

I'm definitely not embarrassed to be a coaster enthusiast. It's what defines me. I've never gotten any crap about being a coaster enthusiast in all of the 21 years I've been one. Personally, I don't understand how it is an embarrassing hobby.

[gerstlaueringvar]

My friends and family know how much I love roller coasters and we talk about coasters within a reasonable amount.

 

What really annoys me is that some people, mostly those who mean nothing to me, think I'm only wasting money and time on meaningless things without actually search for what's important. To those people, I just throw a huge amount of technical terms to shut them up. I managed to impress a lot of GP in this way.

[prozach626]

I often wonder how the industry would look if amusement parks had the following sports has.

 

It would probably be full of ESPN frat boy douchers. No thanks.

 

To those people, I just throw a huge amount of technical terms to shut them up. I managed to impress a lot of GP in this way.

 

Are you sure they're not just making fun of you?

[BugEyed]

Being embarrassed by something that is healthy, legal and that gives you pleasure is a waste of perfectly good positive emotions.

[BintamiM]

I sometimes feel that way, But I am not afraid to show it and not afraid to correct my friends and family about some erroneous GP facts lol. I do turn it down a notch and everyone for the most part is okay with it. I actually can get annoy easily by other enthusiasts like me who just plainly take it too far. (i e loudly and intentionally correct someone to simply embarrassed them, etc)

[gerstlaueringvar]

To those people, I just throw a huge amount of technical terms to shut them up. I managed to impress a lot of GP in this way.

 

Are you sure they're not just making fun of you?

People here don't get why there are a lot to learn about this industry because they think it's simple and I'm wasting my time, by telling them something like that, they will get it.

 

I haven't seen anyone making fun of me intentionally, that's probably an advantage of living in a country where amusement industry isn't as developed.

[rcdude]

I honestly don't know why anyone would be afraid of being labeled a coaster enthusiast. All it really means is that you enjoy visiting amusement/theme parks and follow new projects the same way a sports fan would go to games and follow their favorite team. Sure, you might get some queer looks if you're caught credit whoring, but I can easily think of at least a dozen things it would be worse to be labeled.

 

As for me, I don't hide my hobby at all, but I don't go out of the way to show it either. My family and friends mostly know and almost all react positively, often asking me for advice if visiting the So Cal parks or other major parks I've visited. When I visit a park, I often (though not always) wear a TPR shirt, but most people don't even seem to notice (on the off chance that they do, more often than not I get asked how much I'm getting paid to review the park).

[boldikus]

I'm not embarrassed at all, I'm sure some people think I'm a big geek but everyone has their interests, hobbies, and things they get really into that most people don't care for. I fly my enthusiast flag high for anyone that will let me ramble on about my obsession. Most family and friends are quick to forward me articles/links about rides since they know I'm into it. (I can't tell you how many messages I got once the polercoaster was officially announced!) That said, its frustrating talking to GP folks I know who think they are knowledgeable/correct about stats and whatnot and you know they are wrong.

 

On the flip side of that, I'm lucky to have grown up in a family of casual riders who are not into it like me but we spent most summers in Wildwood/@ Moreys', and they will do most rides, and are somewhat interested when I start to blab about technical stuff. In addition, one of my good lifelong friends and also my bro-in-law are mildly interested in following new construction, etc and like to go to parks pretty regularly with me so I have them to talk to and send stuff back and forth about. My employer also appreciates coasters and rides so he's always asking me about parks I go to and rides I've done (and doesn't mind me taking off if he knows this is what I'm doing, which is great!).

[Totopez]

And thank God for the Internet! What would we do, if we couldn't find meeting places like TPR or ECC? We would have been scattered all over the world, like young mutants before Professor Xavier came to us to explain why we were different.

The chance of meeting other people just like us, be able to go on trips together and share all the knowledge and geekyness available has really improved my quality of life, and most likely yours as well. In the early nineties when I developed my passion for coasters and parks, I suspected there might be others, but didn't know how to find them.

 

My wife just shakes her head, but allows me to plan theme park visits on all vacations, as long as there is pool/beach life, nice food and shopping to be done. Luckily for me, we have discovered that Orlando holds all this...

 

But my trips wouldn't have been half as good without the help provided here. Thank you all!

[SFOGdude25]

Nope. Not embarrassed in the slightest.

Pretty much all my friends and family (especially) highly respect me for my huge passion for theme parks. All they see is a guy with a really cool and unique passion. Everyone has their niche. Ours just happens to be the amusement industry. However, I'm not so cocky about theme parks that I shove my love down people's throats. I usually only bring it up in conversation if someone else does first, or asks me what my biggest passions are.

 

One thing that I intentionally stopped doing years ago is correct false statistics blurted out by someone else talking about a favorite ride of theirs. I found that it was really rude and made me look like a know-it-all jerk. That's the only thing that ever embarrassed me about this hobby before.

[ajfelice]

One thing that I intentionally stopped doing years ago is correct false statistics blurted out by someone else talking about a favorite ride of theirs. I found that it was really rude and made me look like a know-it-all jerk. That's the only thing that ever embarrassed me about this hobby before.

 

Perfectly Stated. Numbers are cool and fascinating when it comes to attractions, but correcting someone without prompting when they are just there to have a good time takes away from the true "fun" of the passion. 99% of us are guilty of this to some degree at some point in our hobby/passion, and thankfully most realize sooner rather than later how unnecessary it is to correct silly details said by others who do not take the time and effort to learn about attractions. We all laugh and chuckle inside when something outlandish is said, but is that minor numerical/factual error going to ruin the ride or industry? I sure hope not, or we are all in trouble.

[coasterbill]

I sometimes think it would be cool to get together with a group of guys, have a few beers, and talk coasters. My concern is that I'll be really annoyed if someone gets overly geeked up about the subject. I have a low tolerance for fanboys.

 

I share this sentiment. I enjoy meeting some coaster people every once in awhile and did just this year at Six Flags New England and Great Adventure and had a great time because we got lucky and hung out with some cool people but there are also a lot of people involved with this hobby that annoy the crap out of me (the fanboys you mentioned) and I would assume you'd run into the same thing.

 

When enthusiasts do thing like refer to everyone else as the "GP" like they're above them because they're not seasoned coaster dorks or correct people on coaster related things (and this happens constantly... I mean constantly) it's almost cringe-worthy for me. The hobby is supposed to be fun but people take it way too seriously and completely miss the entire point of it. To add to this there is a major sense of entitlement in this community where people feel like the parks owe them new rides, exclusive perks or access to information the parks don't feel like releasing. This site in general is better than most with this but it still happens.

 

While I don't go out of my way to hide the fact that I'm a coaster enthusiast I don't really bring it up unless other people do and even then I don't focus on the subject too much.

[Tomes1225]

I used to be super embarrassed of my amusement park and RCT3 obsessions, but I've learned to get over that. My friends all think it's actually really cool now and all bug me to go to SFOG with them. Plus my college roommate is a Disney Parks nerd so I actually have someone who understands a good amount to discuss with.

 

I've come to realize everyone has some weird little obsession so no one really cares when they discover yours.

[VF15]

I've become a bit less embarrassed about being a coaster enthusiast since my last post in this thread. I've more open about because I've come to realize that most people won't really care about what I'm interested as long as I don't annoy them about it.While isn't something I tell people about all the time, I don't really have a problem with people knowing about my interest in coasters and parks. I'm usually the go-to guy for park information among my family and close friends, and I'm now okay with wearing coaster t-shirts in public (though mostly just in the parks).

[thrillseeker4552]

When it comes to this hobby, I basically "don't speak unless spoken to." If somebody starts talking about coasters to me, I may join in for fun. But I'm definitely not the type to correct someone on their statistics or talk someone's ear off about it. The funny part is, I find the stuff some enthusiasts say WAY more cringeworthy than anything the GP may say.