How You Became an Enthusiast

[MSLSM]

On this topic you just put what made you a coaster enthusiast.

 

 

I used to be short, so I never rode many coasters before 2002. I rode Typhoon at SV and the coasters at carnivals, but nothing major. In 2002, I was finally tall enough to ride any coaster I wanted to. I rode American Eagle which was my first woodie and major coaster. 2003 was a bad year since I just went to SV since I would have an operation later that year. In 2004 I went to CP, but was unable to ride MF, TTD, MXL200, etc. 2005 has been a big year since I rode my first invert, hyper, and launched coaster. I guess I have not been a true enthusiast until this year.

Edited November 7, 2005 by MSLSM

[dandaman]

I think the year 2000 "officially" kicked off coaster riding for me. My first major coaster was Rock n' Roller Coaster at MGM (my family [and me]are a bunch of Disney fanatics).

 

I loved Rn'RC, but it wasn't until 2002 that I really started to get into coaster riding. I had heard people talking about Cedar Point around 2001, and I only remembered that I'd gone once.

 

I decided to search one day, for these roller coasters everyone was talking about. I had stumbled across the official Cedar Point website (which had Quicktime videos, perfect for my at-the-time dial-up). For some reason, I was amazed that such videos could be taken (keep in mind this was three years ago)!

 

I had come across the Wicked Twister construction camera, too, and I ended up following it until the following May. During that off-season, I wanted to go to a different park besides Disney World soooooo much!

 

Well, we saw some ads for the old Sea World in Aurora, Ohio, being converted to Six Flags Worlds of Adventure. I convinced my family that they'd love it (my family hates rides like all get-out, but my sister loves animals).

 

I remember it like it was yesterday (pardon my cheesiness): I got in the park, and was immediately astounded by these machines, all seeming to bring riders to their impending doom!

 

These rides look a lot bigger in person..., I remember thinking. So my biggest coaster after that summer was...Raging Wolf Bobs.

 

The next summer, I finally got my coveted trip to America's Roller Coast... I then remember thinking, HOLYCRAPTHESETHINGSAREHUGE! I was instantly hooked on the Point... I had made it all the way up to Raptor!

 

Going back there next summer was my ultimate goal, and lo and behold, I got my chance...twice! Once with my championship soccer team, and again (the next Saturday, no less) with my cousins. In those two weekends, I had gone from 137 feet (Raptor) to 310 feet (take a wild guess)!

 

You haven't been able to keep me off of those scream machines ever since.

[FlippyTrick09]

I'm no real sure when I became an enthusiast, but I think I have an Idea. I went to DW when I was about 6 or 8 and I rode Space Mountain. It was my first roller coaster and I didn't know what to expect. Well during the ride I remeber like going into a helix or something and I was like O MY GOD! because I've never riddin a roller coaster before. When I got off I was like HOLLY CRAP THAT IS THE BEST THING IN THE WORLD!!!! The rest off the Week I went to every park DW had and road every single coaster. I couldn't get enough of them. I lved the thrill of going very fast and menuvering around themeing and stuff. When I left to go back home roller coasters were the only thing I could think of. Night and Day the thoughts of them came zooming around my head. Before that I wanted to be a Train COnducter but after SPace Mountain I was like PSHH! Now I want to be a Roller COaster Designer. Give B&M a run for their money ., but I think thats when I came an enthusiast.

 

 

 

 

<---- WOOHOO 20th POST! lol

[Joe21498]

I would have to say I became an enthusiast between 2002 and 2003. I began to love coasters in 1997 when I first rode the Raptor. It was my junior year in high school on a class trip. We waited for the ride for around an hour. I remember my friends made me get in line and when I sat down in the seat I said, "At least i'll ride one ride today." I was scared until we droped in. Since that moment I have always loved riding coasters.

 

To this day I believe Raptor has the best drop in of a B&M invert. The last row in the far right seat is unmatched.

 

I became a enthusiast watching the construction of TTD. I was addicted to knowing everything about the ride and how it was going to work. After riding it a few times I came to find out it wasn't all that awesome but it did turn me into a enthusiast.

 

This 2005 season has been my craziest year as a coaster enthusiast. Me and my friends went on a 6 day trip visiting 9 theme parks in over 2400 miles of travel. It was awesome. This season I've been to 20 different theme parks and on over 100 new coasters, bringing the total to 196.

 

Now I'm addicted to the industry and the people that make it what it is.

Edited November 8, 2005 by Joe21498

[ShannonSomerville]

Well,I first started reading about coasters in the mid-to-late 1990's,actually,I didn't really got going til 1997,when Alpengeist came on the scene. Then,I went to my first coaster event in 2000,at PKD. Take care SES :o

[Hercules]

A little bit of that has to do with my screenname. But a lot has to do with a great ride on Storm Runner on 9/11 last year after an amazing day with my girlfriend at the park. That is all I have to say.

[J man]

I was going to go to Castles n Coasters with my cousins, but my mom said I couldn't go unless I rode the big roller coaster there called Desert Storm. I said I would go on it but really I didn't want to. My cousins pretty much had to drag me on it. The first time I had my eyes closed the entire time. The second time I had my eyes open but when we got to the loops I closed my eyes. It was weird thought because I had my eyes closed I didn't know when we really out of the loops so I kept opening my eyes when we were upside down. By the third time I was addicted. That's my story.

[coasterguy618]

There was already a topic on this in the board ask the alveys.

[What Now]

I think it was a combination of Roller Coaster Tycoon and the internet that did me in.

[momo1tx]

Last year, in 2004, my family went to BGW for my sister's birthday. I remember not wanting to go, just so I could sleep longer. When we pulled up to the park, and my first thought was, "There is no way I'm riding that". After riding Big Bad Wolf and Loch Ness Monster the first day, a huge step for me, we came back in the evening of day two after being at Water Country USA. By now my parents had given up on trying to get me on Apollo's Chariot, but I managed to get myself on it. I thought it had inversions, silly me, I didn't know anything. But after riding, I loved it, and became hooked on roller coasters. Oh yeah, and I rode Alpeingeist that night also.

[ebl]

My mom let go of my stroller on a steep sidewalk one day---and I liked it!

 

Eric

[AznShortBoi8021]

My brother bought RCT1 from the bargain bin at some store and I played it. I loved roller coasters ever since. Sometimes I wish I could ride my own insane creations. I also lived on a giant hill and I would ride a bike down it really fast.

[TwistedTrack]

i remember i was always amazed by coasters but i think it really started when i saw The Incredible Hulk and its extreme B&M smoothness. I think before that it started when i went to Disney World, Orlando.

[DATman]

Twas a bright sunny day at BGW, I was 4, and went on BBW in the front. If you can't figure out what happens next, well...

[andrea]

up until a few years ago i was afraid of coasters because of my fear of hights but then one day at my home park i told myself that i cant live my life being afraid of everthing so i got on a woodie and had a pretty good time eccept for being at the top of the lift hill but i also told myself that it wont kill me so i rode it again and again each year and now i love coasters it's the feeling of going up and down and around and every wich way through the air without me dying and me just having a great time so thats how i came to be an enthusiest

[Scaparri]

Well, I started to get really into coasters in 1996 after a trip to the now defunt Opryland. This was only fueled more the following year by a couple of library books and a trip to PKI and SFKK. I would say 1998 was when I started to hit enthusiasm. I really started to gain a knowledge of the subject and was asking my parents to take me to parks far away. I was able to talk them into taking me to SFStL to ride Mr. Freeze. It was a done deal after that.

[c0sterfreek]

Well, i was sacred shitless of them till about 2 1/2 years ago. I had all the roller coaster games yet i was still scared of them. One day i decided to go on Vortex (PGA) and got off loving it. Since then i have became a roller coaster freak 8)

[SuperGreek1562]

I started back in 2000 when i first rode Superman Ride of Steel at SFNE. As soon as i got off i just wanted to go on again and again and again. Every since then i've loved them!

[doom1001]

This is an easy one for me, I remember the exact moment.The first step I took when I got off Montu at Busch Gardens Tampa I knew I was hooked.I had been to BGT before but Python or Scorpion or BTMR and Space mountain at Disney just didn't do what Montu did.I still think Montu is right up there in my all-time favorite coasters.

[DATman]

Wow, I had no idea that I got hooked before a lot of people...It's cool that people get hooked by coasters, and we are a great community to be in

[USRoadTripper]

I became an enthusiast on July 11th, 1999 I'd always been scared of coasters, but was always willing to ride the ones at Opryland and Disney (but only the ones at Opryland and Disney!) Then I rode Rock N Roller Coaster on my 20th birthday, before it was even officially open to the public. I just remember thinking that I absolutely LOVED the experience, and that I had no reason to be afraid of them.

The following summer I got a pass for Universal, and one day I just walked in and told myself I was not going to be sacred of anything in the park, and I rode everything.

Didn't take my first trip just for the sake of riding coasters until I went to New England in July of 2004 to visit SFNE, Canobie and Lake Compounce.

And this year, after being absolutely petrified to ride Top Thrill Dragster, then riding it and loving it, I don't think I will ever be scared of another coaster again.

 

-Julie

[rollermonkey]

^OT: Whoah! Julie, that's quite the phallic Avatar you've got there!

 

On Topic:

 

I'm one of those "I was afraid of rollercoasters" guys. When I was growing up, I went on some kiddie coasters at York's, Benson's, Canobie Lake and Salisbury Beach, but nobody could get me on the Yankee Cannonball. My family would be pulling on my legs, and I'd be whiteknuckling the railing in the queue. (I guess it would've hurt if they ever broke my grip!) I even went to BGW in '84, but I was terrified to go on the coasters.

 

Later, after I'd joined the Navy, I was on a date with this beautiful Guatemalan girl, and she wanted to ride the Giant Dipper at Belmont Park. I was petrified, but I rode it, and I was pretty much hooked, but I wouldn't say I was quite an enthusiast just yet.

 

I started going to the SoCal parks, Disneyland, when Indy was the latest thing; Knott's, before and after the installation of Windjammer; (Yeah, I liked it d'y wanna fightaboutit?) and of course, 6FMM, back before Goliath went in. I met some ACE'rs at 6FMM, and thought they were freaks! :?

 

I went to a Navy school in Florida and went to BGT, WDWMK and EPCOT. I rode my first coaster outside the US, in Singapore, in 1996. I recycled the SoCal parks and started hitting places like Pharoah's Kingdom, Santa's Village, Marshall Scotty's, and the Las Vegas coasters.

 

I went to the 6F parks in NJ and MA while on leave, but I wasn't a true enthusiast yet!

When I transferred to MN in '97, as happened to so many others, I got on the internet, discovered RCDB, and started playing RCT.

I was done!

I started planning trips around coasters instead of coasters around trips, the true sign of a coaster junkie.

 

Dementia truly arrived with my trips in '01: 9 European parks in 11 days by train, without hotels; and 22 parks (108 coasters) in 11 days in PA, NY, MD, VA, OH and ONT.

 

I chose orders to Japan mostly to hit the coasters here! I'm an ACE'r myself now! (Although I only need one plate at the buffet!) I check Screamscape, RCDB, RCT and of course TPR several times each day!

 

Chris B

418 and counting,

[robbeal]

Yep, i'm another 'I was afraid of them until recently' people. I never rode a coaster until 2001, when I decided to go on a college trip to Disneyland Paris. I couldn't understand why i'd always been scared, so I just rode everything, and loved it. Didn't really become an enthusiast then though, I saved that until early last year, when I stumbled across a few sites loooking for info (here & Coasterforce mainly).

[Cameron]

In 1998 some friends of mine (who live 10 minutes from Six Flags Great America) bought me a season pass so I could go with them during the summer. I had no intention of going, since I was pretty much scared poop-less of coasters. However one day, at their place, they all decided to go and I couldn't think of a reasonable enough excuse to get out of it. I couldn't admit to being scared, since the kids (5 and 10) were so excited and I didn't want to look like a retard.

 

So I went ..

 

First ride was American Eagle, and while it was almost "brown trousers time" I did survive - I even liked it. Next up was Demon .. and after that I was having a great time.

 

The following year I dragged them down to Stark Raven Mad, and Coaster Mania at Cedar Point .. and have since dragged them to several other parks/states. They've all outgrown it by now, but I'm still going.

 

I don't think I consider myself a true enthusiast though .. I don't run around the parks with a notebook counting rides, and seats. I haven't even ridden the kiddy coaster at my home park (Six Flags Great America). I do like the rides, and the parks, but I'm certainly no fanatic .. (pausing to turn the page on my wood coaster calendar to November).. Plus, I actively dislike buffets..

 

Cameron.

[KrakenKing]

My Story! Yay!

 

At age 5 I saw Scorpion over the trees at Busch Gardens (Opening year of Kumba, too) and told my dad I wanted to ride it. I wasn't tall enough to get on it but my dad put me on his feet and magically, I was tall enough. We rode the front row but I had no idea what was going on or even what a coaster was.

 

A few years later we went back, I rode Python in the back row (Big mistake)... the airtime in the back row scared the everliving *OMF* out of me... didn't ride a coaster again until '98 (Three years later).

 

We went back to BGT, I rode Python again and was still not thrilled about the airtime. My friend and I went on Congo River Rapids while my brother stayed off. After we got off we found out that my dad bribed my brother to ride Kumba for $50 (He rode it by himself)... after this I was jealous, I wanted to ride too, so I rode Kumba (2nd row), it was also the first ride/coaster I ever put my hands up on (After the MCBR is when I put them up).

 

The next year we went to CP ('99), I rode everything except MXL200, Mantis, and Mean Streak because Iwas to scared... the airtime on Gemini didn't do me good either. The final coaster I rode of the trip was Raptor, hand my hands up from the bottom of the first drop to the end of the ride. This is when I got into coasters.

 

In 2000, we went to IoA, I rode Hulk in the front row (First coaster I ever sat in front for besides Draggin' Iron) and Dueling Dragons and fell inlove with coasters ever since these rides.