Best Roller Coaster "Moments"

[Randomman295]

Have you ever been on a roller coaster and came across a point in the ride that completely blew you away (and maybe you didn't even expect it too)? I've heard many enthusiasts call these their "Favorite Coaster Moments", and most notably, TheCoasterCritic has somewhat coined this term. I hadn't ever seen a thread like this on TPR, so I want to ask you guys:

What have been your favorite coaster moments?

 

I'll start:

Terminator Salvation: The Ride's Catapult-like First Drop

Sitting in the backseat of this ride gives you some wicked airtime on the first drop, and riding this thing at night adds to it. This was the highlight of my last trip to SFMM.

 

X2's Backflip Floater Hill

I'm certain that if anybody else includes X2 on their top moments list, they may go straight for the main drop, and blaze straight over my favorite part of the ride: The floater hill that rotates the seats backwards while the track is upside down, meaning you do a euphoric backflip and get a sensation unachievable on nearly any other coaster.

 

Magnum XL-200's Ridiculously Long Floater Hill

If you know what I look for in a coaster, you know that I love sustained floater airtime. I have yet to go on a hill with as much airtime as this one, clocking in at nearly 3.5 seconds of sustained weightlessness, not to mention it has a great view of Lake Eire while you're at it.

 

Riddler's Revenge's Unexpected Stengel Dive

It's a Stengel Dive on a Standup. What more should I say? There's a really interesting and forceful movement the train does at this part that feels great in a standing position. Think of it as sideways airtime.

 

Silver Bullet's Overbank

An unexpected but welcome addition to the line of elements available on a B&M, Silver Bullet's overbank feels like an inversion, but with a super smooth execution and a bit of airtime on the way back down.

 

Post yours here!

I've heard that popular ones include Voyage's triple down, Skyrush's final ejector hill, X-Flight's in-line roll, and several others.

[gerstlaueringvar]

Every moment in Green Lantern at SFMM.

 

Backwards and the final prat when the rail switches of Revenge of Mummy

 

2nd half of Space Mountain(My favorite Vekoma)

 

Every airtime hill of Intamin's Mega-Lites

[Jhcbiinoc]

SFMM

 

-Every minute of X2, but especially that first drop and Raven Turn

-Pretzel loop on Tatsu-they saved the best part of the ride for last

-Zero G Roll on Scream

 

Knott's

 

-Overbank and Zero G on Silver Bullet

-Xcelerator's launch out of the station

-(At one time before it got rough and trimmed) the second half of GhostRider

 

SFOG:

 

-Drop over the lake and the overbank turn on Goliath

-S:UF Pretzel Loop

 

Dollywood:

 

-Wild Eagle view from the first drop and the Zero-G Roll where the world seems to rotate

-Thunderhead between the top of the lift and the brakes

 

Those are just the ones that stand out to me at the moment...my personal favorites. As I get to more parks this year will expand on it!

[AusCoasterFan]

1. The first drop on X2: That moment when the seats spin over and you plunge head first into the 66 metre drop was one of the greatest moments of my life!

 

2. Desperado's 69 metre drop: This was my first hypercoaster, and by far the biggest coaster I'd been on at the time. That first drop felt like it was going forever. A great moment.

 

3. Xcelerator's launch: The gut-wrenching feeling of the intense 0-132km/h in 2.3 seconds was an awesome experience

 

4. Tatsu's pretzel loop: The plunge downwards and the intense g-force as the train pulled back up into the air was a strange and wonderful sensation.

 

5. Tower of Terror's speed: Something from Australia! the top speed of 160km/h was simply unbelievable

[Parallax]

SFGAdv:

El Toro's first drop

El Toro's Rolling Thunder crossover airtime hill

Kingda Ka launch

Nitro's Hammerhead

 

IOA:

Incredible Hulk start to finish

Dueling Dragons Fire Immelmann helix thing before the loop

 

Carowinds:

Afterburn loop-immelmann-zero g-batwing-airtime

 

There are many more, just don't have the time to remember them all, haha.

[australianalex]

Camelback hill on Speed: No Limits - some of the strongest sustained airtime I've ever experienced.

First drop on Blackpool's Revolution - back seat has some ejector airtime. Seriously underrated ride.

Thirteen's freefall - Yes it's a gimmick, and the rest of the ride is crap, but the freefall drop is a pretty insane experience and stands out in my mind.

[rcjp]

Nitro's first drop (first time I experienced some airtime with lapbar restraints only)

Kingda ka's launch - I knew it was going to be intense but still didn't exactly know what to expect

Dragon khan's zero-g-roll - I surprised as I thought that, because it is so fast and short I wouldn't be able to feel any weightlessness. It turned out to provide actual zero G and the fact that it is taken at a rather high speed makes it even greater.

[coastercrazy 9]

Say what you want about Kingda Ka, but that launch is pretty breathtaking. Also, the first few times you ride El Toro, you are not at all expecting the speed of the lift. But no SFGAdv fanboys list would be complete without these:

-The First Drop on El Toro

-Nitro's first dive in a seat to the far left of the train

-The view from the Kingda Ka top hat

-The second wingover on B:TR, on all versions (especially the SFOG model)

-The ridiculous airtime WTF hill on El Toro, that goes over Rolling Thunder

-Bizarro's zero-G roll, and Corkscrews

 

Other Parks:

-Incredible Hulks Launch

-Every part of Skyrush

-Stormrunner, Launch and Flying Snake Dive

-Lightning Racers "Side Time"

-Goliaths helix at SFOG

-Mindbenders airtime going into the ditch

 

And on the side, non coaster related, there is Log Jammer's drop, where the boat actually lifts off the water. Even the boat gets airtime.

[Aceattack52]

One of the best I could think of is the over banked turn on the Ga Scorcher. It's at just the right point in the ride and ties in perfectly with the corkscrew and turn into the break run. It's shown in the middle of the picture, toward the left. (Near the corkscrew)

[Coaster Cow]

The three best, in relative order for me:

 

3. First drop on X2. Haters gonna hate, but having the seats rotate for the first time to leave you face first towards the ground was bats#%t crazy.

 

2. Maverick's Stengel DIve. Really great placement at the end of the ride, definitely made the ride a top 10 for me with that one element alone.

 

1. Hypersonic XLC's launch. Yeah, 0-81 mph in 1.8 seconds is impressive, but look how little track it does it in.

[XYZ]

These are the 4 parks that I am very familiar with, so I'm going to post the best roller coaster moments with these parks:

 

Knott's:

-Xcelerator's launch and top hat

-Montezooma's loop

 

SFMM:

-Apocalypse's first drop and first airtime hill

-Batman's Zero-G roll

-Colossus, back seat, first drop

-Revolution's loop

-Riddler's Revenge, middle seats, loops & dive loops (some nice hang time)

-Tatsu's pretzel loop

-X2's first drop

 

CGA:

-Flight Deck's loop, corkscrew, helix over water

-Vortex's loop

 

SFDK:

-Medusa's Zero-G roll

-V2's back spike

[Randomman295]

^^This guy knows what I mean.

 

Try to include pictures of said moment if possible.

[SingleRiderCam]

KBF:

Xcelerator's launch.

Montezooma's Revenge's front tower

Silver Bullet's final helix

Every drop on GhostRider in the back (even trimmed)

 

SFMM:

Every flip on X2 (especially the first drop)

Tatsu's pretzel loop

Goliath's first drop & airtime hill

Apocalypse (the whole ride)

 

IOA:

Incredible Hulk's launch to the zero-g roll

The final corkscrew on Dragon Challenge (Fireball)

 

BGT:

Kumba start to end

Both vertical drops on Sheikra (back seat)

Montu's immelman inversion

 

Other:

The twisty airtime hill on Manta (SWSD)

The final drop on Space Mountain (MK)

 

(sorry if I don't have any pictures)

[IronWolfman]

Aftershock's First Drop, intense plummeting

Iron Wolf's Inversions, hang time on the loop and a crazy twist or "snap" in the corkscrew. Amazing

Timber Terror's double up, airtime galore!! Same with the drop after the turnaround

American Eagle's first drop, just keeps on going and going and getting steeper while it's at it.

[CPmillenia94]

SOO MANY In no particular order-

 

- Hulks beginning sequence

- Volcano's Beginning sequence and large high speed turn

- Intimidator 305's 3rd low to the ground hill where you get thrown to the right and dive back to the left and get crazy airtime, and the two following transitions

- Mr. Freeze top hat

- Flight of Fears launch into the dark tunnel with the blinding camera flash

- Kraken's turn after the cobra and turn in the tunnel before the corkscrew

- Nitro's diving drops and hammerhead

- Cyclone's (sfne) drop into the structure next to the first drop

- Titan's giant airtime hill

- Hypersonic's launch sequence (BEEP, BEEP, BEEP (hissing) "face forward, keep your head against the headrest, your arms must be down, prepare for launch" (waiting) (hissing stops) Light turns gr-- WOOOOSHH!!!! (crazy airtime))

- Apollos chariots random turning hill

- Alpengeist's cobra roll

- Goliath (sfne) tower drops

- Storm runners stengel dive

- Great bears sequence of turns and corkscrew over the river

- Kinda Ka/ TTD launch (still gets after 10+ rides during ert)

- Uninverting loop on H:RRR

- First drop on Sheikra (and griffon)

- Boulder dash's huge drop midride and triple up

- Lightning racers low to the ground sequence

- Hydra's jojo roll

- Cobra roll on DD: Ice

[JuanSe_Colombia]

Hulk: Launch into zero g roll.

Kumba: Dive loop. It was my 1st dive loop.

Tatsu: Pretzel loop SO intense! I love it.

X2: All of it, mostly 1st drop.

Deja Vu: Whe it comes back again tot he 1st tower and leaves you hanging.

[BenFreeze]

-Mr. Freeze's launch & top hat

-The "dive" into any pretzel loop

-Hulk's launch

-Patriot's drop & zero-g roll

-Prowler's airtime hills after the turn-around

-X-Flight's in-line twist

-The spike of any impulse coaster

-American Eagle's airtime hills after the first drop

[OrthoMan]

-2nd and 3rd drops on Shockwave at SFOT

-Flying Snake Dive on Stormrunner

-Raven's "5th drop"

-Crazy drop on Runaway Mountain at SFOT

 

And somewhere during the 2nd half of the Flight of Fear coasters, there is a wicked drop where the train suddenly transitions from a hard left bank to a hard right. By far my favorite moment on those rides, especially in the back seat!

[Swornenemy]

Superman ultimate flight at sfdk. Sitting in first row and getting massive air when you come to the top. Airtime only seems to happen in the front row as I had zero airtime in the back.

Right about here.

[coasterbill]

I don't mean to be unoriginal, but the best moment on any coaster I've ridden is El Toro's OMFG ejector drop over Rolling Thunder. El Toro goes into some floater hills after the turnaround and lures people into a false sense of security and that drop (and the ridiculously fast transitions that follow) come out of nowhere. It's the best finish to any coaster I've ridden.

[thrillseeker4552]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Monty's back tower. I love having several seconds of zero-g in the back row. Not to mention, you go from 0Gs to 4Gs in a blink of an eye due to the tight radius on the way down. Love it!

[Randomman295]

^I actually am too. I loved that too, but honestly, it's not really on my list of "top moments".

 

^^Stop rubbing it in my face that I haven't ridden El Toro.

[caffeine_demon]

Bizarro at sfne in the rain, and trapper slider at fort fun, also in the rain!!

 

Woooooooooooooooooooo!

[simon8899]

Olympia Looping: High-speed banked turn between 1st and 2nd loop

Goliath/SFMM: Greyout in the 720 helix

Expedition GeForce: First drop ejector air at first drop

Nessie: Loud Schwarzkopf breaks inside a pitch black tunnel with strobelights

Blue Fire: Ejector air in the last rollover

[Randomman295]

Bizarro at sfne in the rain, and trapper slider at fort fun, also in the rain!!

 

Woooooooooooooooooooo!

...Considering you just mentioned two entire rides, I wouldn't call those "moments". Maybe Bizarro's triple camelback into the brake run during rain would be your "moment", but if you want to say something like this, I would advise creating a new thread.

 

Suggested name: "Best Rides at Night/In the Rain"