How did you become an enthusiest

Well, I wouldn't call myself a full-blown enthusiast yet, but here's how I got where I am in liking coasters...

It started last year on my church's youth group trip to SFGAm. My group headed for Raging Bull first thing. I was talked into it in part when someone told me that it was a very smooth ride. After RB, the group (including me) rode Viper. After Viper, my legs ached too much to ride any other coasters.

Then, just a few days ago, I took a trip to Cedar Point. With rides on Millennium Force (first thing we rode!), Magnum XL-200, Gemini, Blue Streak, Cedar Creek Mine Ride, Iron Dragon, and Wildcat, that day made me sure that I definitely like roller coasters! I am now looking forward to a SFGAm trip later this summer, where I plan to ride just about every coaster there!

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"What am I doing?"
"OoooohwhAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

I got hooked thanks to RCT actually. I was playing it with my firends from out of state on thanks giving of 2000. Than I started with my real coaster "obsession" by looking up pics of the old Elitch's because I was always interested in it.

I've never considered myself a coaster enthusiast, but rather a Cedar Point enthusiast. It's easy to see how it happened - my grandfather worked at the Cedar Point Lighthouse for a time, my dad has been visiting since the 30's and I grew up 10 minutes from the park.

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Virtual Midway
http://www.virtualmidway.com

Drachen Fire 1992 marked the beginning for me

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Fear The two Apollo’s Chariot,which boasts nine drops,totaling 825-feet!and Alpengeist,the world’s tallest at(195-feet!),fastest at(67 mph!)and most twisted inverted roller coaster.

I rode Batman: TR at Sfgavd and from then on i loved coasters and was hooked. I never really became an enthusiast til about late 1999-2000 season. That's because that 2000 season offered us Ohioans:

Millennium Force, Batman: Knight Flight, Superman: Ultimate Escape, The Villain, (RoadRunner Express, lol), and Son of Beast.

After that I came to Coasterbuzz and was on a lot. But then we got a new computer and my old account was screwed up anyway so I started a new account not too long ago.

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Top 5:
5) S:ros Sfdl 4) Raptor 3) Apollos Chariot 2) Magnum 1) Millennium Force

*** This post was edited by coastingohio on 7/1/2002. ***

Ok, I will set the scenario...As a kid, I always saw commercials for Kings Dominion and Busch Gardens (those interlocking loops looked amazing then and still do). Well, with the exception of a trip to KD as an infant, I didn't get to an amusement park until I was 10. The year, 1983...the location Riverside Park in Agawam, MA (now SFNE). At the time, they had 3 coasters (at least there were only 3 that I can remember. Being the adventurous kid that I was, I wanted to ride the scariest looking one first. So I convinced my dad to take me on The Black Widow (a now defunct coaster which was a gravity driven forward/backwark looping coaster). We went through the loop forward and I thought "Hey, that wasn't too bad...but uh oh, we still had to go backwards" I was scared to death to go backwards, but I had no choice. Well, we went backwards and I loved it...the entire experience was a huge thrill. At that point, I knew that I could go on just about any coaster and I never feared another coaster again. That was when I got into coasters, but it wasn't until a trip in 1986 to Busch Gardens Williamsburg. The ride was BBW. After I got on that ride, I knew that I just experienced the thrill of a lifetime and I wanted to go to many parks to experience as many coaster thrills as possible. Unfortunately, at that point in time, there was no internet, no RCT...just books (and even those were extremely difficult for a 13 yr old to find) and trips to parks. I spent most of my youth trying to convince my parents to take me various amusement parks. As me and my brother got older (my brother is two years older than me and is also a coaster enthusiast) and he learned to drive, we took as many trips as possible to HP, KD, and BGW.

Happy Coastering!

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"Have fun stormin' the castle!"

Well i always enjoyed coasters from my first one at Chipawa lake in good ol' ohio. I've been going to CP/geuaga/chippawa ever since the early 60's. About 6-8 yrs ago I was watching tv ( being the complete couch potato ) and caught a Roller Coaster special on cable . I was absolutely amazed ! There were others just like me with REALLY enjoyed rollercoasters like me. I watched and they had " ACE " members on there. I looked up ace on the net and joined them. Now I have a job as a salesperson and met some fellow enthusiests at work. We have a T1 line here and I have to access the internet, this is how we found the Buzz , Refreshinglook , ect. This is how I became a enthusiest. For all those who wanted to know but were afraid to ask. ( lol)

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You really need to get some more BRAN in your diet

When I was 4 years old my dad took me on Rolling Thunder and I thought it was the greatest thing since Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the same day I rode the Whizzer and ever since I have been trying to find out as much about coasters as I could enjoying every minute of every coaster.

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Tuesday's Gone With The Wind.
Elijah Rock.
Is it written in the stars?
La Vie Boheme!!!

I always loved amusmentparks,rollercoasters since I was very young, It all started with a Disney singalong VHS tape called Disneyland fun ,and a group of kids are running freely around Disneyland with the charaters and riding the minetrain coaster they have,and the rocketships going trou the sky and the haunted mashion etc,I use to watch that video till I feel asleep,then my brother smashed it when I was like 6,then I found it again in blockbuster when I was 8,and watched it, I still have it too, and then I started going to amusmentparks,but was scared to ride the rides, well certan ones,but then one day I got on and I was hooked ever since then, but it wasent that easy becuase I was always nervouse for about 2 years after that becuase I would go ,on and ask myself why I was on ,but after that drop it was all figured out,in my mind that riding rollercoaster will become a part of me, then I started seeing rollercoaster shows on Tv ,and many coaster enthusiest would talk about them,and exsplain why they called themselves that,and I said thats me im a coaster enthusiest! ,and so here I stand about 10yrs later, being the same person,yet never getting too nervouse of a coaster ride.I think riding rollercoasters,and seeing difrent parks around the country and soon to be world, was somthing i was alwaysw ment to do becuase without them I dont know what would give me that same high of a coaster,or the feeling of seeing the undiscovered lands of an amusmentpark.

After riding my first coaster, Jack Rabbit at Kennywood, I went home and was searching through AOL's amusement park database under then travel section. I was looking at either Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk or Belmont Park's website(I don't remember exactly which one) and read a paragraph explaining the American Coaster Enthusiasts. It peaked my interest and luckily they had the website listed. I went to the site, printed out a membership form, sent it in and here I am.

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mmm, roller coaster
(Homer Simpson)

There was this add in the personals that I answered...

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"drop rides, not bombs."

Gemini at CP, not much of a coaster but it hit the right switch

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Kennywood, Celebrating 75 Years of Racing Sperm ;)

I rode my first coaster in the end of the 2000 season. I rode Villain at SFWoA (SFO at the time) in the front seat and loved it. It wasn't until the next season that I became an enthusiast. Me and my two already enthusiast friends went to SFWoA on opening day in 2001. They kinda brainwashed me into an enthusiast and when I went to ACE's coastercon with them I decided to become a member and have been a major coaster freak ever since.

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chris said:
There was this add in the personals that I answered...

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Let's see here: "Wanted, a man who goes slowly at first, loves to go down, is fast when I need to go fast, slows down at just the right times, has powerful moves, changes in direction. Must be able to handle quick changes in force and speed, and loves "the good wood". Please reply by putting both hands up, and SCREAMING!

lol @ gator!

Actually, how I got hooked into this goes more like this: I spent my childhood years split between Pittsburgh and Chicago. While living in Pittsburgh, my family would make at least 3 trips a year to Kennywood (school picninc, work picnics, and at least one family outing), as we kind of had a family connection to the park. It turns out that my grandfather worked at the park when he was a kid selling newspapers, and he and my grandmother always felt a certain something for the place. They still do, as they still make a trip at least once a year just to walk around. The affinity got passed along to my dad and my aunt, and then to me.

While living in Chicago in the late 70s/early 80s, we visited Marriot's Great America and Old Chicago frequently, but never felt the same connection as we did to Kennywood. I guess we had been spoiled by Kennywood, and never knew it.

We moved back to Pittsburgh, and continued going to Kennywood often with a Cedar Point trip thrown in the mix. A year later we found ourselves back in Chicago, but my parents never really felt the urge to hit Great America as they were soured on the place. We went to King's Island a couple times, and as I hit my high school years our park visits came to a hault.

A few years ago, I started working at a law firm that held their company picnic at SFGAm (was I ever surprised at the changes), and got together a group of friends. I hadn't been on a coaster in some time, but we had a blast. After that trip, the annual company picnic became a yearly event, with a few other trips thrown in here and there. At this time, I also began to pay attention to coaster specials when I got the chance.

Two years ago, my freind Dennis and I went to Great America and started talking about Cedar Point and King's Island. Growing up in Indianapolis, Dennis had been to KI many times, and was curious to go back. He also was curious about Cedar Point, so we decided we were going to make a trip to Cedar Point that fall. I started doing research for the trip (which we still haven't made - if you think this is a long story, wait until you hear those :) ), and stumbled across GTTP and CoasterBuzz.

Last spring we finally made it back to PKI, and the rest is history. My family and friends and I have had some great experiences over the last two years, and I'm looking forward to many more.

*** This post was edited by chris on 7/1/2002. ***

1st grade class won a trip from KGO to Paramount Great Great America. I was the only one in the class tall enough to rideDemon and was bet to go on. Rode it 8 times that day and made all my friends jealous. I'd have to say my obsession came when I started taking all these buisness trips with my dad. I always wanted to know what coasters I was coming too. I began to become gain a global knowledge by studying parks all over the world and was asked to join RCT Station because of the knowledge I had. My name came from Rebino and G-Man(the guys explaining X on the Travel Channel that you called ghetto) that I got name Vertex. I currently work on RCT Station, Coasternet, and SFMWOnline underm three different names. My love for coasters began when I got to ride the same train with Natalie Cole (three seats in back) on Space Mountain. It ends up that Natalie Cole is a coaster lover as well. Her favorite coaster was the Zephyr at Pontchartrain Beach.

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Lake Compounce-So Fresh and So Clean Clean

I got RCT and liked building coasters but I was still scared to ride very tall coasters and coasters that go upside down until Some of My friends pushed me on Mr. Freeze and ever since I have been hooked. (hence my coasterbuzz name)

Three years ago I was terrified of coasters. Then I went to SFGAm for the second time that summer and was pushed onto Raging Bull. I loved it! Then I started looking for pictures and came across CB. At first I said "This site sucks. All people do is talk to eachother. Now I come at least 3 times a day. ;)

I originally just went to CP growing up, and fell in love with coasters, but I also became kind of a CP snob. It wasn't until I realized after researching stuff on-line, that there really were truly outstanding rides outside of CP, and I started looking at each coaster individually instead of grouping it with the park.

Sites like this also prompted me to research rides, mechanics of coasters and more, and made me want to travel to ride more and more of the good coasters out there. Since then, I've tried to get on everything I can. Not doing so bad....up to 66 coasters and growing fast.

Jman

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Jman
Webmaster: Gravibulb Coasters - Home of Professional Quality Coaster Photos
http://balder.prohosting.com/gravbulb/coasters/

I started working at Valleyfair since I was 15years old. I have been returning every summer. When I made my first trip out to Cedar Point when I was 16years old, that's when I started to realy love coasters. Then I joined CBClub now thinking of joining ACE at the end of this season for next year. One of my hobbies is I love to travel out to amusement parks every summer. I have been to pretty much every park on the east side. I will probably be working at Valleyfair for many years to come. B&M is coming to Valleyfair ;).

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Valleyfair Security 2002! 8Years working at Valleyfair :)! What does LOL stand for?, lol...