Mitch Hawker 2011 Wood Coaster Poll!

[David H]

^I also really can't remember it [balder] accurately. Maybe I'll have to go back and watch the video to refresh my memory. All I remember is floating out of my seat pretty much the whole time.

 

Sounds like you remember it perfectly! That's Balder in a nutshell!

[molemaster43]

1. Boulder Dash-Lake Compounce

2. Thunderhead-Dollywood

3. Thunderbolt-Kennywood

4. Raven-Holiday World

5. Cyclone-Six Flags New England

[The49er]

Dang, you can't do it from a mobile device

[robbalvey]

^ You really won't be at a computer between now and January 20th?

[sfgamguy]

Sent mine in, Only been on 11 woodies though and 2 have been torn down....

 

1. Viper, SFGam

2. American Eagle, SFGam

3. Cyclops, Mt. Olympus

4. Blue Streak, CP

[Lamoure]

I'm a poll-newbie and the online-poll helped me very well !! That's a great great great addition !!

 

I hope Coaster Express (Parque Warner) will go to hell as the wooooorst wodden coaster ever

[cal1br3tto]

I must confess I am liking all this early distaste for the Coney Island Cyclone. Admittedly, I rank it fairly highly based on the good aspects, but in some ways it is easily the most terrible coaster I have ever ridden.

 

My bottom rankings aren't generally there for roughness, but for being boring. I can tolerate roughness in an interesting ride, but not a ride that's boring.

I could've written that myself. I don't generally downgrade rides based on roughness. Most of my low rankings are for rides that did little or nothing for me.

[ImmelMatt]

My first Mitch Hawker poll!

 

I told myself I wouldn't do one of these until I had ridden 50 coasters in my lifetime and this year was the year.

 

1. My Favorite Steel (Intimidator 305)

2. American Eagle, SFGam (albeit there's a lot of nostalgia behind that one)

3. Outlaw, Adventureland

...

14. Hurler, King's Dominion

 

I gotta get on more woodies...

[adamico2]

I am a huge fan of the Excel version! Here's my top 10 (and worst):

 

1. Ravine Flyer II

2. Voyage

3. Beast

4. Raven

5. Cornball Express

6. Legend

7. Thunderbolt (Kennywood)

7.5. Favorite Steel (MF)

8. Viper

9. Lightning Racer (tracks are tied)

10. Wildcat (Hershey)

 

33. Mean Streak

 

The wonderful state of Indiana, which I had the pleasure of visiting twice this year, has bumped my favorite steel all the way down to my eighth slot. As for the "rough coaster" conversation, I would have to agree that I do not rank coasters low for being rough, but it turns out that, often times, boring coasters do tend to be rough (Mean Streak; Predator; Psyclone, RIP). However, I do find myself calling good, rough coasters extremely aggressive, instead of using the "R-word."

[Andrewoplis]

Here's my top ten, I've added A LOT to it since the road trip I did over the summer -

 

1.El Toro- SFGAdv

2.Favorite Steel-(Maverick-CP)

3.Hades-Mt. O

4.Viper-SFGAm

5.Apocalypse-SFMM

6.Hellcat-TF

7.Renegade-VF

7.Cyclops-Mt. O

8.Giant Dipper-SCBB

9.Highroller-VF

10.Outlaw-AL

[Skycoastin Steve]

I'm waiting a few days to fill this out until I've had a chance to ride Gwazi with the new trains, which I should probably get around to doing before the end of the year. Odds are, it won't make much of a difference, but I like to be thorough with these things.

[texcoaster]

Lots of shakeups in my list this year due to some new additions (EL TORO and PROWLER OMFG), some coasters that were running much better this time around than on previous rides (Legend), and a few other factors such as my tastes in what I like in a wood coaster changing a bit as I've gotten older.

 

1. The Voyage

2. El Toro

3. Fave Steel (Expedition GeForce)

4. Mega Zeph

5. Screechin' Eagle

6. Boulder Dash

7. Prowler

8. Boardwalk Bullet

9. Legend

10. Shivering Timbers

11. Raven

12. Thunderhead

13. Tonnerre de Zeus

14. Phoenix

15. Montaña Rusa

........................

107. Predator

108. Grizzly (Grt America)

109. Son of Beast

[chadster]

Ok, the generator is full of win.

[David H]

I must confess I am liking all this early distaste for the Coney Island Cyclone. Admittedly, I rank it fairly highly based on the good aspects, but in some ways it is easily the most terrible coaster I have ever ridden.

 

My bottom rankings aren't generally there for roughness, but for being boring. I can tolerate roughness in an interesting ride, but not a ride that's boring.

I could've written that myself. I don't generally downgrade rides based on roughness. Most of my low rankings are for rides that did little or nothing for me.

 

Honestly, the Coney Cyclone is a GREAT coaster. But it needs constant maintenance, which is doesn't alway get. And it will always be a rough and tumble ride, even at its best, but that's what it's designed to be. And a lot of people don't like rough and tumble coasters. But it's what I love in a great coaster. But the roughness can vary from very worth it because it's also so very GOOD rough to barely rideable rough. I don't think I've ever ridden it without it moving up or down in my rankings by at least 5 points from year to year! This year, for instance, it moves down a relative 9 spots (not counting new coasters added since last year). It's been everywhere from top 5 to 20-ish in my rankings over the years.

 

As for downgrading rides due to the poor maintenance kind of roughness, I definitely do, but not nearly as much as many folks do. I can certainly tolerate more roughness than most in an otherwise good coaster. But poor maintenance will affect my enjoyment of a coaster, sometimes only slightly and sometimes more so. There are probably 50+ rides on my list that would rank 10-30 spots higher if they got better maintenance. But none that would go from top 40 to the very bottom of my rankings. In fact, there's nothing actually in my bottom 20 woodies that I'd consider terribly rough. The bottom 20 are mainly boring coasters and kiddie coasters.

 

Speaking of roughness, all the hate for Coaster Express makes me feel less bad about it not being open during my visit in 2009! Still, it would have been nice to judge for myself, even if my spine is grateful for the break it got! (Or should I say the potential break it didn't get?)

[cal1br3tto]

^I found the airtime to be unusually good, although the ride seemed quite slow. But I've also ridden airtime machines that are very smooth, or painful but not rough. It's funny because rides people say are smooth often hurt me because I fly around in the car and knock into things (Phoenix, Yankee Cannonball), but there are rides that hurt other people when they fly into the lap bar, but don't bother me at all (Coaster at Playland).

 

Personally, I am not a fan of rough rides. I can speak well of them, but I've never felt that wooden coasters are inherently rough, or need to be in order to be enjoyable. But I don't feel they need to be smooth either.

 

As for the maintenance issue, it's mostly a concern for me if the roughness is a symptom of other problems that make a coaster less fun. It's just not an aspect I spend much time pondering.

[robbalvey]

It's funny because rides people say are smooth often hurt me because I fly around in the car and knock into things

You're kind of the anomaly when it comes to coaster enthusiasts because you're "little."

[BaMiTsPaT]

My list turned out interestingly:

1. El Toro (SFGAdv)

2. Favorite Steel (Bizarro SFNE)

3. Boulder Dash

4. Lightning Racer

5. " "

6.Ghost Rider

7. Comet (TGE)

8. Great White (MP)

9. Colossus (SFMM)

10. Cyclone (SFNE)

[odene497]

I seriously feel like it was about two months ago I was doing this. I'll have to get mine together within the next couple of days.

[traincrossin]

Thanks to the wonderful North East trip, I went on quite a few wooden coasters this summer! Congratulations Boulder Dash, you are now my #1. Wildcat, you are dead to me.

 

1. Boulder Dash (Lake Compounce)

2. El Toro (SFGAdv)

3. My Favorite Steel (Bizarro SFNE)

4. The Voyage (Holiday World)

5. Evel Knievel (Six Flags St Louis)

 

11. Wooden Warrior (Quassy) <- Surprise hit of the year!

 

30. Mean Streak (Cedar Point)

31. Wildcat (Lake Compounce)

[accelerate]

Haven't submitted it yet, and don't know if I will, either.

 

1. The Beast (PKI)

2. Racer (PKI)

3. Blue Streak

4. SOB

5. Mean Streak

 

I didn't find SOB to be boring, but it knocked the wind out of me and hurt my back so much that I could barely walk the rest of the day. Did I mention that I was only ten at this point in time?

[coastercrzyjames]

Submitted the poll, this has been on my mind since I found out about it at lunch today .

 

1.) El Toro-- SFGAdv

2.) Phoenix-- Knoebels

3.) Favorite Steel Coaster

4.) Prowler-- Worlds of Fun

5.) Thunderhead-- Dollywood

6.) Renegade-- Valleyfair

7.) Apocalypse-- SFMM

8.) Voyage-- Holiday World

9.) New Mexico Rattler-- Cliffs

10.) Lightning Racer-- Hershey

 

 

60.) Twister II- Elitch

61.) Hurler- Carowinds

62.) Rolling Thunder

63.) Mean Streak

64.) Grizzly-- GCA

[therooboy]

1 My Favorite Steel

2 El Toro Great Adventure

3 Boulder Dash Lake Compounce

4 Tonnerre de Zeus Parc Asterix

5 Colossos Heide Park

 

66 Son of Beast Kings Island

[televisedconfession]

I seriously feel like it was about two months ago I was doing this. I'll have to get mine together within the next couple of days.

 

I thought the same thing. Man this year flew by!

[dammie16@vt.edu]

Done!

 

Top coaster was still Thunderhead with Ravine II a close second.

 

Biggest changes this year was moving Ravine II ahead of favorite steel (MF) and Mean Streak out of last place which now goes to Grizzly.

[rollin_n_coastin]

Done my first one. That was fun.

 

1) Boulder Dash

2) Balder

3) El Toro

4) Phoenix

5) Ravine Flyer II

 

The Rest of Group 1 in no particular order

My Favorite Steel

The Voyage

Cornball Express

Prowler

Thunderbolt

Hades

Rutschebanen

Cyclone (Astroland)